“A lot of people are searching for him, but he isn’t here. Nameless abandoned us, stole from me, and I want his head!” the man shouted, lifting his knife. Others cheered too and I backed slightly away, feeling overwhelmed with my own power. Zach was getting agitated. He should have brought backup, but we didn’t expect to be greeted by so many strangers.
“He has something that we need. We are willing to pay generously for his location,” I said, knowing that his ex-companions wanted him as much as we did. They were ready for anything.
The man nodded to the girl and a second later someone pushed me forward. Zach had his hands on his gun, but I hissed at him to take it easy. We didn’t want to anger these people. They outnumbered us and I needed to save my own abilities for later. The group on the platform weren’t the only people that wanted our blood.
We were both pushed onto the platform, facing the obese man and his two females.
“Nameless Thief is from the underworld. He doesn’t follow the rules,” sang one of the girls, smiling at Zach. “Take us there and we will help you.”
Zach laughed, like someone had just told him a very good joke. I shifted my body weight, glancing around. This wasn’t good. I didn’t think that I could protect him from any kind of external factors, from getting exposed again to demonic magic.
“The underworld?” he repeated.
“The human doesn’t believe. His mind has been poisoned with other powers. Nameless Thief isn’t on earth anymore. He made a deal with a demon, and he is hiding in Gjöll,” said someone else, appearing on the corner. I looked up, seeing another man, a much younger one, possibly in his early twenties. He had pale white skin and a very strong London accent. His clothes were untidy with dirty marks and patches. My heartbeat spiked, as I tried to concentrate on my demonic abilities. Gjöll. I had heard that name before.
Ronan had mentioned it once or twice. It was a river in the underworld that separated living from the dead. The river flowed straight to Lucifer’s quarters and rumour had it that anyone that was able to cross over was under the protection of ancient magic, not able to get prosecuted by demonic law. This was clever. I had to give it to Nameless Thief. He went to the place where no one could touch him.
“Max, we are wasting time. Nameless isn’t here,” Zach muttered, as his anger escalated. I had tampered with his mind before, used strong charms just to keep his thoughts in line. Now I didn’t think I could weaken him like that again. It was unnecessary. The bottom line was that Nameless wasn’t here and I didn’t want to step into the gates of Gjöll. It was another world, another dimension, but at the same time he had my letter.
There was a reason that he stole from Ronan, and it bothered me that I didn’t know what he intended to do with his valuable possessions.
“We know about the underworld. Nameless promised to take us there. He was searching for another route,” one of the girls said with determination, stepping forward.
“Yeah, he was working with Zara!” shouted someone else.
Zach moved before anyone could predict what would happen. I felt his anger rippling through his pores, and within seconds he had the short guy who’d shouted his sister’s name pinned to the platform wall.
“Zara! What do you know about her?” Zach snarled, lifting the guy off the floor, as if he weighed nothing. The obese guy and a few other females surrounded them holding their machetes, but Zach didn’t care anymore. Surely there were a lot of women named Zara in London, but Zach had lost it. He wasn’t thinking straight anymore.
“Zach, what the hell are you doing? Calm down,” I tried to reason, but someone else stuck a machete in front of my face, ceasing my movements.
“Tell me about Zara or I swear to God I’m going to smash your head to pieces against this wall!” Zach roared, like he was in some kind of trance, his gun suddenly pinned against the guy’s forehead.
“She’s one of us, but she was special. Nameless picked her off the streets, and he promised to take her down to the underworld,” the guy squeaked. Drops of sweat started breaking along the side of my neck. Fuck, I forgot that Zach was extremely sensitive to any extraordinary power and he hadn’t given up on finding his sister.
“Did she look like me? Dark hair, dark skin with a scar over her neck?” Zach continued, ready to blow this guy into bits. I gathered my demonic energy, hoping that the waves would calm him down, but I couldn’t control the rage that suddenly took hold of him. One of the females that stood the closest was ready to stab him, but no one dared to move. Tension filled the air, and a strange white fog began drifting out of nowhere.
“She had a scar,” breathed out the guy, completely pale, shaking like a leaf during a storm. Zach howled out his rage, letting go of him.
Then we all heard the screams, long, petrifying screams that echoed through the tunnels, then another and another. One of the girls dropped her machete on the tiles and jumped off the platform, disappearing in the darkness. The obese guy moved past me, grabbing my elbow and squeezing it painfully. Heat shot over my spine like a fire when his hands made a contact with my skin.
“Run, run away fast; otherwise they’ll steal your memories away from you,” he snarled into my ear and then let go of me. A moment later he jumped off the platform too. Others followed him, running away, disappearing as quickly as they appeared.
Zach fired out a shot towards the guy that had spoken about his sister. He luckily missed him. Seconds, maybe moments later we were all alone, but the screams somewhere in the tunnel kept going on.
“Zara. She’s alive and she was here,” Zach yelled, shaking me. I punched him, hoping maybe this way he’d get hold of himself. He went down, dropping his gun. Energies that I didn’t recognise began hitting me and I struggled to remain on my feet. Zach was on the ground, holding his nose and cursing me off.
“Get it fucking together. You nearly killed that Romanian thief. Are you out of your fucking mind?” I shouted, using the last bits of energy I still controlled to calm him down. His dark eyes were wild, and his head filled with vivid memories of his sister. Finally the screams stopped, but no one came back, the silence stretched for long moment. We were suddenly alone on the platform.
“She’s here, Maxine. Zara is somewhere in the tunnels. We need to split up and search; she needs my help,” he said, squeezing my hands, cutting circulation to my fingers. I sensed another creature near, watching us, but it wasn’t a demon. Something was wrong; my own magic was blocking my abilities, locking my muscles in place. I felt paralysed, unable to stand on my feet. I kept thinking about my mother, not the Nameless Thief. It was like he didn’t matter anymore.
“All right, all right, let’s check the tunnels and meet here in twenty minutes,” I said, losing him. Zach’s energy was slipping away and suddenly memories about my mother assaulted my mind. I had to find her, she was somewhere here, in the tunnels.
Zach was back on his feet within seconds. He picked up his gun, jumped off the platform, and was gone before I had a chance to gather myself or figure out what the hell was going on around me. I heard hissing sounds, somewhere close, and automatically thought about the flying A’rea. My cheek burned, but this couldn’t be it. This part of the world was controlled by another supernatural being that didn’t belong to any faction, a being that caused the hair on the back of my neck to rise.
I ran after Zach, finally able to move. My head was pulsing with pain, as old memories about my mother moved in front of my eyes. There were just tunnels in front of me that split in different directions. Zach’s pulse was erratic and he kept calling Zara.
Something flew over me, a dark being with gnashing teeth and claws. It landed somewhere close. I saw her before I sensed her. Her thirst for human blood alerted me that she wasn’t here on friendly terms. There was likely more than just one around, and I was afraid that Zach had already been captured and I was next. This time magic wouldn’t help me, because a Keres took full control of my mind—so she could feed on me until I was dead.
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Chapter 11
“Give us this day the daily manna, without which, in this rough desert, he backward goes, who toils most to go on.” Canto XI, lines 13-15.
I was scared, but more fed up with the fact that I was going to die in this dark underground tunnel where no one could find me. Keres were well known in the underworld, and I wasn’t surprised that one of them had chosen the old abandoned tunnels to feed on human blood in the cross worlds.
I focused on my energy, as the waves of diabolical power collided inside me, rushing through my spine. My hands were sparkling and it soon became clear that my own source of power affected the supernatural being, pumping her with sources beyond my control. The Keres circulated near me. Her feet were a couple of inches above the ground. She took a long hissing breath and a moment later she was on me, attacking me with her long, sharp fangs. I was too overwhelmed with the darkness, and my reflexes were completely off. In the blink of an eye, she tossed me down on the tracks. My body slammed painfully and some of the sharp stones dug into the skin of the back. I must have lost consciousness for a good few seconds, because when I opened my eyes, the Keres had her sharp teeth sunk in my neck. The pain stretched for what seemed like hours. It stole everything, all my strength, feeding on my demonic soul. Then a foreign magic took over, paralysing every bit of my body. The Keres began to drink quickly and greedily, like she had been starving for years. I never considered that I could fight her. Zachary was somewhere in the tunnel, probably getting drained of his human blood too. God, I had to do something, but she had me trapped inside my own head.
My vision blurred out, my pulse slowed down, and pain turned into a pleasant euphoria. Memories began floating in my head, things that I wasn’t supposed to remember, things from my past.
I was watching my young, most likely two-year-old self from a distance. I was crying my eyes out, and it looked like my mum was in the other room. My belly was rumbling, and I was standing up in my brown cot, wanting to get someone’s attention.
This wasn’t the scene that I was ready to see. I tried closing my eyes to get back to my body, but nothing happened. I was still in the room, trapped in my own memory. The Keres was using my past against me, as a distraction from the fact that she was draining the essence of life out of me.
The room was dated; there were old carpets covering the floors, dirty windows, and the teddy bear with one eye that I remembered even into this day. My tiny hands were sparkling, and I stared at my small fingers as tears fell across my face. A second later my mother entered the room, and I stopped crying. Whatever magic I was able to produce at that young age faded as soon as another human walked into the room.
My mother was a stocky woman with masses of curly dark hair and wide cheeks. My mini face brightened up instantly when my mother picked me up.
“What’s wrong, little cherub? Are we hungry?” she asked, as I wrapped my little chubby fingers around her thumb.
There was someone else in the house, a demon. I was sensing everything that my little two-year-old was, looking behind my mother’s shoulder, trying to get a glimpse of his face.
“She wants attention, food too, but she doesn’t like being on her own,” a deep, unknown voice stated coming from the hallway. The demon approached and stopped at the door, like he was reluctant to come closer. His presence calmed me down. He was tall, broad in his shoulders, and handsome. Somehow I knew that he took on the body of a human man from upstairs so my mother wouldn’t be scared.
“I’d prefer if you wouldn’t show up out of the blue. Things are complicated at the moment,” my mother said in a harsh, icy tone of voice.
I didn’t remember this, but the Keres was using it to trap me further into this delusion, showing me something that I had forgotten about, something that had been at the back of my subconscious mind.
The mini version of me reached out for the demon, hoping to be picked up, but he didn’t react. He kept staring at me with his spooky eyes. His pupils were black, and in the sunlight it reflected the burning red flames. There was something striking in his features. Underneath all that human facade, his demonic soul was somehow blazing with power, connecting with mine, like the air, water and fire.
“You missed me, didn’t you? I heard that you cried in the night, calling my name,” the demon was saying, caressing my mother’s cheek. She smiled, looking at him with affection. I wanted to step into that memory and find out if he was my father.
Mum lowered her eyes and brought me closer to her body. She shivered with excitement when he was touching her. I sensed every sparkle that rushed through her system. My mini me kept staring, forgetting about the hunger, just wanting to be touched by the enigmatic demon.
“It doesn’t matter what I want. Maxine is scaring me. Her powers are getting out of control, Morpheus. She is reading me, my thoughts and emotions,” Mum was saying, shaking her head like she couldn’t believe something like that was even possible. I bet she had seen my sparkling fingers. I didn’t even know that it was possible to develop demonic powers at such a young age.
“The child is special and she won’t be just anyone, the half-cast. You need to prepare her, because I might not always be around,” the demon said, his tone serious, waving his hand over my small head. I could have sworn that light beamed out of his hands, like he was sending his own energy through mine.
“Prepare her? How? A few weeks ago I had no idea that this other world even existed. You must stay here to protect her, because I won’t let anyone take her away from me,” Mum argued, now with tears in her eyes.
“Talk to her. She will remember that she was more than just an ordinary half demon. Her future is at stake. She might make the wrong and dangerous decision,” Morpheus muttered. “But she will learn from her mistakes, Madeleine. Eventually she will learn.”
“You don’t understand. I’m a human and I feel like I have been living in a lie this entire time. This little girl needs a father and a mother, Morpheus. We both know how special she really is.”
They kept talking between themselves, but I couldn’t hear them. The room was getting blurry, my image fading, and I was coming back to the reality of the dark abandoned tunnel. I desperately wanted to stay in the past and know what happened with my father. This was one of the closest memories from my childhood. It was strange seeing my mother like that, still healthy and loving. She was beautiful and I wished that we’d had a bit more time together.
The darkness obscured my vision, and then the pain escalated, shooting through my limbs like a speeding rocket. Sucking in a short breath, I tried to reach out for the Keres and rip her away from me. The tiny voice in my head kept whispering that I wasn’t with my mother anymore, but in the tunnel. A creature from the underworld was drinking my blood, slowly draining my demonic soul, ripping it away from the human corpse.
The dream faded away and it was just darkness, and sharp bursts of pain began popping up all over my body. Soon reality collided with delusion. I wished that I could call my mother and ask if Morpheus was my father.
The Keres was denying my lungs oxygen. The pain resurfaced, slowly turning into agonising pleasure. I heard more screams somewhere in the background, and then I realised that I couldn’t just give up, couldn’t let her kill me. Reaching out, I grabbed onto her wing and squeezed it, releasing the flames. The Keres hissed and finally pulled her fangs away from my neck.
I was dizzy from the blood loss, but I lifted my right foot and I kicked her as hard as I could, though the pain in my head nearly knocked me back down. A couple more wheezing breaths later, I was sitting on the ground, trying to gather the rest of my strength. When I looked up, her ugly mouth was covered with my blood. She looked bigger, shinier, and much scarier. Her skin was green, like it was made from latex. She had the face of a woman and was staring at me with those red gleaming eyes.
The blood began pouring out of my neck. I pressed my numb fingers to the wound, attempting to move. I was back on my feet, still pretty much unbalanced, an
d with my other hand I searched for an elixir in my back pocket.
It was a red liquid that I’d brewed very recently. I kept it on me for emergencies. The Keres was in the air already, wafting with her wings. I unscrewed the small bottle, pouring its contents into my throat. I realised that I still had the knife hidden in my boot. After that night in the palace when I nearly died, I wanted to be more prepared.
My strength came back, but I had lost a lot of blood. The Keres had paralysed me with my own memories and the elixir wouldn’t restore my full strength. The bitch was much stronger, her body now fuelled with my blood, but when she came down on me in the darkness I was ready this time.
“Have it, bitch, greed will only suck you down to hell!” I roared when she spread her wings. I had to make a fucking complaint. What the heck were the Watchers were doing, letting these creatures through the gates of the underworld down to earth? She must have been here for very long time, feeding on Nameless’s crew for as long as it was possible.
She opened her oversized jaw and moved down, attacking, still suspended in the air. As she came toward me I reached out and stabbed her right in the chest, assuming that her heart was on the same side as mine.
I felt the knife going inside her flesh. A moment later I twisted it a couple of times. She let go of a terrifying squeak, like a dying animal, and I pushed it harder. I was suddenly covered with something thick, and the Keres’s ancient body went still as her blood poured over my body. She wasn’t moving anymore by the time I pushed her off me. I jumped back on my feet, wiping the blood off my face so I could see more clearly, holding on to a gag reflex.
Doomed Cases Series Box Set Page 32