“Ugh, it’s your heart that’s the machine.” Her violet eyes took on a predatory glint. “When I cut it open, Jame Asher, will I find gears and cogs and oil inside?”
She was seeing how far she could push me. There are few things I hate more than people testing my boundaries.
I moved too fast for her to react. My hand wrapped around her throat, pinning her to the bed. “Threaten me again,” I said slowly, moving my face inches from hers, “and I will burn you, and burn your portal, and burn your world, and burn every demon I find—man, woman, or child—until there is nothing of your species left but the ash stuck to the bottom of my boots.”
Her upper lip curled, and I half expected her to hiss. Instead, she stared mutinously back at me.
Several seconds passed, the two of us glaring at each other, before I released her. Warily she moved away from me, rubbing her neck.
It was my fault. I’d let her get too close, I’d lashed out.
“Go to sleep,” I growled, getting up to turn out the lights.
But the last thing I saw before the light winked out was the hurt in her wounded violet eyes.
And the last thing I felt before I fell asleep was a pang of guilt.
Lana
I woke sometime later, my gaze fixed upon the water-stained ceiling. Even in the dark I could see the discoloration, and the way it sagged. The whole place smelled like stale smoke, and in the bathroom I could hear the constant drip of a leaky faucet.
Abyssos didn’t have places like this. We had the timeworn bones of abandoned cities, and out in the wild and war-torn places, we had temporary huts and yurts. And then there was the capitol, our single surviving city state. But our buildings, none of them had this malaise that seemed to touch many human structures. I could smell the rot that was decaying this structure from the inside out.
I turned onto my side, gathering the threadbare blankets tightly around me, suppressing a shiver.
I tried to fall back asleep, I really did. I just . . . couldn’t. There were too many odd anxieties that came rushing in—my precarious situation, the hunter’s plans, another day spent trapped in a prison on wheels. My worries wouldn’t let me sleep.
Quietly, I pushed myself up.
Across from me, no longer separated by bars, Asher tossed about in bed.
He was a restless soul.
Beyond him, the first rays of dawn glowed beneath the curtain covering our window.
Careful not to wake Asher, I slipped out of bed, my movements utterly silent. I changed quietly in the bathroom, donning my gear, and then I slipped out of the room.
I took my first easy breath once I exited the building. I stretched, a yawn shaking my entire frame.
I got my first good look at the human city since we arrived. What I saw didn’t impress me. Weathered, faded signs, cracked asphalt, boarded up buildings.
I frowned. What was the point of creating a structure that you couldn’t move and wouldn’t last? It seemed a waste. But most of what these people did was a waste.
I rounded the hotel, heading to the back. The only other person out this early was a woman pushing a cart of linens.
A compulsion overtook me then, an uncomfortable craving. I could go up to this human female and force her to the ground. It wouldn’t be difficult; the natives didn’t teach most of their own to fight. I would cut her delicate skin and take all the blood I needed. Even a single human held so much of that precious liquid. There would be plenty for me and all the Infernari I’d funnel it to.
She headed inside the building, and the urge passed, evaporating away as though it had never existed to begin with.
I sagged a little. I was unused to going so long without blood.
This world was getting to my head.
I placed a hand against the motel’s dirty wall, then the other. I began crawling up, my hands seeking out what divots I could find. I climbed higher and higher until eventually my palms met the edge of the roof.
I hoisted myself up and over the lip of it. Foul, tainted puddles of water gathered in several places. No wonder our rooms had issues. The roof was rotting.
Humans and their rickety, eroding structures. I was glad all over again that I wasn’t one of them, even as I ate their food and slept in their beds and culled their blood.
I turned in a circle, surveying the land around me. The town we were in was nothing more than a strip of stores and establishments. Beyond that, the world was flat, spread out on all sides like some great sea of vegetation.
I sank down to a patch of roof that was dry and stretched out on my back, tucking my hands under my head.
High above me, great plumes of clouds rolled across the sky, the dawn casting them in shades of pinks and oranges.
Not so different from my world, I thought to myself. A pang of nostalgia hit me. I wanted to get back. I wanted to see the red, rising sun, and feel the sizzle of summer heat.
I would go back with Asher.
He would hate that. Infernari would hate that. Most of all, the primus dominus would hate that.
But the moment the hunter saved me from death, he had bound me by an unspoken oath to save him as well. That was the way of Infernari.
I owed him my life.
Taking him back to answer for his crimes was the only way. I would argue for his lifelong imprisonment, not his execution. Only then could I be forgiven as well.
Slowly, the color bled away from the clouds and the sky brightened to a faded blue. I didn’t know how long I lay there, hypnotized by the sight of the sky and the shift of the air as this strange world awoke.
And then, at some point, a noise drifted in that shouldn’t be there.
The sound of buzzing filled my ears.
I rose to my feet, my eyes trained on the horizon as my stomach tightened with unease.
My eyes widened.
No.
Impossible.
This was a horror that should have stayed in my world.
In the distance, the blue of the sky was smothered by a dark haze. A moving haze.
I dashed into the hotel room, where I found Asher pacing.
He paused when he saw me. “Where did you—?”
“We need to go, Asher. Now.”
He must’ve believed the very real panic on my face and in my voice because immediately he started grabbing our things.
“What did you see?” he asked, pulling his gun from his holster and checking the chamber.
“The bringer of blight.”
Clades Solem.
“In English” he said, re-strapping the weapon to his side.
“An Infernarus, a very powerful one. He can control the lesser creatures.” I thought it was impossible for our magic to influence the animals of this world. I couldn’t heal humans or any other earthly creature. Just the beings of my world.
It appeared Clades’ magic worked differently. That, or he brought Abyssos’s swarms with him.
I couldn’t think about that possibility.
“This is bad because . . . ?”
“A swarm is coming our way.”
We both burst out of our room, directly into the parking lot. The buzzing noise was already loud, and it had yet to reach us.
Asher squinted at the horizon. “A swarm of what?” he asked.
Slowly, slowly, the horde moved across the sun. The light above us dimmed. He wanted to know what great monstrosity rode the wind.
“I don’t know.” I had to raise my voice to be heard.
It didn’t really matter what the swarm was made up of. When there were that many of them, even a feather fly could be lethal.
I began backing up, all my instincts telling me to flee. You couldn’t fight something like this.
Asher
, meanwhile, hadn’t moved, and he stared fearlessly at what was certain death.
Savage man.
Grimly, he rotated away from the storm, his jaw hard, his eyes harder. He strode toward his car, jerking his head for me to follow.
That was all the cue I needed. I ran to the metal beast I so detested a day ago.
I slid inside, slamming the door behind me.
I swiveled to Asher just as he cranked on the engine. “Drive as fast as you can.”
The vehicle’s wheels shrieked as we skidded out of the parking lot.
I was beginning to panic. Another Infernarus was coming for Asher, this one just as lethal as Azazel.
Asher, meanwhile, was as calm as the Mead Sea.
I glanced at the side mirror. Behind us, the horizon was darkening, and the buzzing was getting louder.
One of my legs began to jiggle. “You need to go faster,” I said.
“I’m flooring it, Lana. The truck’s geared for off-roading. It’s not a freaking racecar.”
I took my eyes off the mirror to look at him. “Then we’re doomed.”
Asher shook his head grimly. “Looks like your king really wants you back.”
Through the side mirror, the sky was nearly black, and the swarm now stretched across the landscape, higher than any human building I’d seen. “The primus dominus really wants you dead,” I corrected, then added, quietly, “I’m no longer important.”
Asher’s eyes flicked to me. “I thought you Infernari were loyal.” His tone was insulting.
“We are loyal.” I didn’t bother mentioning that that loyalty was partially responsible for the countless deaths that had cut down our numbers. Infernari liked to avenge violence with more violence.
“You destroyed one of our portals,” I continued. “You’re a risk to our people.”
“So your father would sacrifice you just to kill me? That doesn’t sound very fatherly.”
“I didn’t say that he was willing to kill me.” But gods help me, it appeared he was.
The hum of the horde flooded my ears.
I closed my eyes, inhaling deeply. “Back in Abyssos, I’ve seen swarms strip Infernari’s flesh from the bone. It is not a good way to die.” The images from the war were replaying over and over behind my closed eyelids. “All that’s left afterward are their mangled bodies, nothing more than grizzled cartilage and bone.”
“Lana, this might come as a shock to you, but I don’t want to know.” Asher had to raise his voice to be heard clearly.
The first creature thunked into the car.
I flinched, my eyes snapping open. “It’s happening,” I said, my voice ominous.
Another thing pinged against the car. Again I jumped.
I made the mistake of checking the mirror again.
A wall of black rose up behind us, the sound of so many creatures thundering in my ears.
“How did your ‘bringer of death’ know where to find us?”
“We’re not completely incompetent,” I snapped.
Asher grunted, like he disagreed.
Two more thunks sounded over the noise. Then another.
It was quiet for a few seconds.
Then I heard three separate thumps in quick succession. Another pause, then a handful more.
I didn’t have to look at the rearview mirror anymore to catch sight of the swarm. The edge of it was overwhelming the car. And now I got my first good look at what this storm was made up of.
Insects.
Earthly beasts that could sting, and bite, and poison their victims. Creatures that could strip whole fields of their harvest.
In front of us, uninterrupted highway stretched out as far as the eye could see. There were no other human settlements in sight, with the exception of the occasional farmhouse off in the distance.
Nowhere to hide.
“Gods above,” I said, “we’re doomed.”
“Where’s your sense of adventure, Lana?”
I looked over at Asher like he was mad. “Infernari don’t have this sense you speak of.”
“We don’t—never mind.”
The thumps came more frequently. They were beginning to sound like terrible drumbeats, their momentum picking up.
A bug hit the front window, its body splattering. They’d completely overtaken the car, which meant the vortex of this living storm was getting closer.
Clades would be at the center of it.
More bugs followed, killing themselves on impact, their bodies exploding and obscuring what little view there was now that the swarm had enveloped us.
The ride became rockier as the vehicle drove over dozens of them. Asher flicked on the windshield wipers, and I cringed as blood and guts smeared across the glass.
The buzzing became a sound that didn’t simply surround us, it felt like it was inside my bones. Worse, the insects now pelted the outside of the car, and I could hear their wings and legs scratching along the cars innards.
And then the first one crawled its way in from gods knew where. All I know is that it flapped its way onto my lap. I brushed it off with disgust, then crushed it beneath my boot heel.
Another soon followed, buzzing inside the car, repeatedly banging into one of the windows until it flopped onto the dartboard, its wing broken, giving me the chance to get a good look at it.
I leaned forward and studied it.
Infernal had bigger insects—much bigger ones—but the biggest creatures were not necessarily the deadliest.
And these ones—
“They look lethal,” I said.
Asher began to laugh next to me.
“What?” I said, glaring at him.
“Cicadas!” he yelled, like somehow that made any sense to me.
When he saw my confused look, he elaborated. “Big, dumb bugs. They die real quick.”
It was at that precise moment when the car gave an odd lurch.
“Motherfucker!” he cursed. “I can’t see jack.”
The car began to slow.
“What are you doing?” I shouted.
“I can’t see!”
Shit. Shit, shit, shit.
He pulled the vehicle off to the side of the road—at least that’s where I think he angled the car. I could no longer see anything out the windows. The roar of the swarm was defeaning. It was all around us, and now it was breaching the car.
We were going to die unless I did something.
I bit the inside of my cheek until it bled.
Clades was an Infernarus. One of my own.
I would either stop him, or I would meet my end straight on.
The car shuddered to a stop. Before Asher could tell me otherwise, I opened the car door.
“Lana—”
I slammed the door shut behind me, cutting off his words and surely trapping dozens of insects inside with him. For his sake, I hoped he was right about them being harmless.
For his sake and for mine.
Because almost immediately, insects pelted me, the force of the impact bruising. They were a living, breathing gale. The noise of all those wing strokes was deafening out here. The abyss was screaming in my ear.
The sheer force of them knocked me back. I felt their wings against my skin, their bodies tangled in my hair.
I began moving away from the car, cringing against the feel of so many bugs battering against me.
Somewhere out here, Clades walked. I was going to find him, and I was going to convince him to end this madness.
Asher was under my protection and the Infernarus would not intercede on it.
I had to cover my mouth to speak, the insects were so dense.
“Clades!” I shouted. My own hand muffled my w
ords.
“Clades!” I yelled louder. “Clades!”
It was no use. He’d never hear.
I was getting close to the vortex, though. The denseness of all the insects was the most obvious sign. Walking was like trying to move through a wall. I made little headway.
I stopped, knowing that fighting against the swarm would be fruitless this close to its epicenter. Dropping to my knees, I closed my eyes. I had essentially no magic left. But it didn’t matter. I carried an entire universe within me, something I did not need any magic to access because it was magic itself. Now I focused on it.
Down that magical web I moved, seeking out Clades Solem. Every Infernarus had their own unique essence, and I knew exactly what each was made of. I moved past legions of other Infernari, catching bits and pieces of who they were. One that reminded me of the smell of the earth and rain, another whose soul felt like the tide rushing over you. I passed Azazel’s—his was like the breath of scorching, desert air—until finally, finally I found Clades.
I was so far in myself, I could no longer feel the pelt of hundreds of insects, nor hear the roar of their wings.
This deep within myself, nothing terrible could touch me.
I spent a moment immersing myself in the cyclone of this Infernarus’s essence. Beneath his stormy exterior, Clades’ spirit was warm sand and flapping hides and snapping hearth fire. Comforting. Familiar.
Clades, I spoke to his spirit, brother, stop this.
This was no direct connection, and I was no mind whisperer. I couldn’t be sure he had heard, as my words would resonate within the deepest, most unconscious part of him. But we Infernari were intuitive creatures. I could only hope.
I spent a moment longer with that essence of his, and then I withdrew, moving back up the connection. Up and outwards until I released the world inside myself.
I inhaled and exhaled, then opened my eyes.
The swarm still surrounded me completely, but now they parted like a stream around my body.
As I watched, the air cleared.
Blood and Sin (The Infernari Book 1) Page 13