The Rise of Babylon

by G. A. Rael

  "Enough," Hermes snapped. "Is this your plan, to sit here regaling me with tales of how you bled my witch until I get angry enough to kill you without torturing you first?”

  "Nah, that wouldn't be very practical," said Chase "I'm gonna back out of here and you're gonna let me, because you can't stand to lose her and she'll never forgive you if you kill this body. I'll tell you what. You can even have her back when I'm done. That is, if you can get to her fast enough."

  "That would be a good plan," said Hermes, his hand twitching at his side. "It's just that it hinges on me giving a damn about whether she hates me or not.”

  "Hermes, no!" Jordan cried as his hand stretched out and crackling light formed around it.

  The knife fell and Chase collapsed to his knees, convulsing and tearing at his shirt like it was made of fire. Hermes watched him in quiet satisfaction. “Vampires haven't developed an immunity to electricity yet, have they? It might not kill you, but it'll work on Luthias. I wonder if rotting away inside a dead corpse for the next few centuries is an adequate way to begin your punishment."

  Jordan stumbled over to Chase and threw herself on top of him. Reasoning with Hermes seemed like a lost cause, but she knew he wouldn't keep shocking them both. The electricity surged through her only for a second before Luthias surfaced long enough to push her away from him.

  The demon rushed forward to gather Jordan into his arms. "You idiot," he seethed, grabbing her by the shoulders. "I could have killed you."

  "I-I'm fine," she stammered. Her heart was palpitating badly, but she didn't think it had been long enough to do damage. "He pushed me away, you saw that. Luthias is fighting him."

  Hermes looked over his shoulder, his newly sharpened teeth clenched. She would have assumed he was transforming into his demonic form, if she hadn't already seen it. This was something else. "Not well enough."

  "Don't hurt him," she pleaded, taking Hermes's face in her hands so he had to look at her. "You're the one who made me fall in love with him. Don't take him away from me now. Not like this."

  Hermes's heavy breaths were coming in puffs of smoke through his nostrils, labored with rage. "If I don't kill him, that thing gets away with what it did to you. You're mine, and I won't let that happen."

  "No," she said, shaking her head. “Luthias didn't know the real Chase was awake before. He does now. He can fight this."

  A low groan escaped the man on the floor. Jordan broke away from Hermes and went to his side. The charred sleeve of his robe had peeled away from his arm and his skin was cold to the touch, like he had been soaking in an ice bath. It didn't have a blue sheen like the others, but rather a pale gray hue like he was being filmed in monochrome contrast to the strangely colorful world of the Glen. His hair was longer and his white-blue eyes were full of shame as he gazed at her. Tattered gray wings emerged from his back, twitching every now and then. His unnaturally white teeth were clenched and came to horrible points all around.

  Jordan swallowed her terror and forced herself to keep looking at him. The creature was beautiful in a macabre sort of way, which only made him harder to look at. He turned to Hermes and his entire countenance changed. Jordan realized only then that he had been looking at her with gentle pity. When he looked at Hermes, he turned into a monster. "Get her out of here and do it, you fucking coward," he seethed. Jordan didn't want to believe that otherworldly voice of pure rage could have come from her husband, but there was no other possible source. "Kill me before he gets out again."

  "Gladly," Hermes said, taking another step forward.

  Jordan threw her arms around Luthias. "Don't do this. Both of you, stop it!" she cried.

  Hermes hesitated and Chase tried to push her away again, his metallic claws digging into the flesh on her arms, but she clung desperately. "You're a coward," he repeated, taunting Hermes with enough bitterness to rival any words the vampire had spoken. "Are you really so desperate for her to love you that you'll let her die? I served you because I thought we had common ground in our mutual devotion to her wellbeing. Clearly I was mistaken."

  The demon's jaw clenched and he took another step toward them. Jordan knew Hermes would succeed in separating them easily enough, so she turned her attention back to the man she was so desperately clinging to. "I don't care who you are. Chase or Luthias, human or Fae. You're my husband, and I meant what I said in my vows. You're the only man in my entire life who's never abandoned me, and I'm not going to let today be the day you start."

  "He's still inside my head, Jordan," Luthias said, grimacing. Each word seemed painful, like he had to fight it out of someone else's grasp. "He's been there the entire time. I didn't protect you. You were the one thing in this world I had to call my own, and I failed you. You're better off with the others. Samael or Darren, it doesn't matter. I've got Chase pinned down, but it's only a matter of time before he breaks free again. He's too strong for me to hold forever."

  "Then we'll take it one day at a time," she said, her voice quivering as she stroked his golden hair away from his face, the only thing about him aside from his eyes that wasn't gray. A monochrome prince with technicolor features. "I knew he was there before and I still loved you. I know what you are now and I still want you. Nothing he did could possibly hurt me as much as you leaving me would,” she said, the last part intended as much for Hermes as for him. She recalled his cryptic words about the child, but something kept her from using that as a bargaining chip in front of Hermes. It was the kind of deep, unexplainable instinct the demon himself had always warned her to heed.

  "Well?" Hermes's voice oozed with false nonchalance. "Is her faith justified? Can you keep him down?"

  Luthias’s expression faltered with uncertainty. "He was hiding before, keeping a low profile. My guard was down. Now that I know he's there, I think I could manage it. Of course, that's a moot point since we're talking about her," he growled, shifting from calm to enraged in an instant. Jordan began to wonder if his eerily zen demeanor was an act or just a coping mechanism for the temper lurking within. She decided it was something she didn't need to figure out just then. "There is no good faith effort, there is only doing whatever it takes to keep her safe, so just fucking kill me already or I'll do it myself," he said, swiping the vampire's fallen blade off the floor.

  Jordan screamed as Luthias brought the blade to his throat, but just as her energy soared out to stop him, he froze and his hand trembled just short of his mark as if something else had stopped him before she could. His eyes hadn't changed. Even in this strange form, that was the only way she could tell the difference between Chase and Luthias.

  Jordan turned to Hermes to find his hand outstretched, an impassive look on his face. "Thing is, with the other ingredients in the recipe, I have a bit more flexibility to make substitutions. Werewolves aren't all that hard to find. Even an archangel, dwindling though their numbers may be, is easy enough to procure. But a hybrid prince? There are only so many monsters that are capable of interbreeding. I don't have time to wait another few thousand years until another one of you crops up, so you’re safe, for the time being. But don't think for a moment that I'll hesitate to kill you," he said, releasing Luthias from his psychic grasp. The hilt of the blade flew across the room and into his waiting hand. "What your shadow self said was true. Contrary to popular belief, I am the king and I'll happily kill the prince if it means protecting my queen."

  Luthias collapsed and Jordan could barely hold him up. "What did you do to him?"

  "Just a taste of his own medicine. Trust me, you don't want him conscious before we can get back home," he said, kneeling in front of them to sling Luthias over his shoulder. He stretched out his hand, offering it to Jordan. "Dust yourself off and come with me. We've got about five minutes before we're stuck in Fairyland until Ragnarok and they’re not going to be so welcoming once they realize we killed their king.”

  Jordan grudgingly took his hand and looked back at Lilian's fallen body. Lyhel was nowhere to be found, perhaps wisely. "We can'
t just leave his mother's body."

  "You don't have time," Lyhel said, appearing in the corner of Jordan's vision, walking toward them with her smooth, elegant hands folded. "I will ensure that she has a proper burial. I owe her that much.” The red lines in her blue eyes were the only sign of her recent loss of composure. Her true form was so soft and radiant. So unlike her son's. "Word of Corval's death will travel quickly. Unlike your world, murder never remains a secret in the Glen for long.”

  "But it wasn't him," Jordan protested. "You have to know, Luthias would never do this."

  "I know," Lyhel said solemnly. "But the others won't be so quick to believe it. Since Luthias was born, there has been a sizable contingent devoted to ensuring that elven blood never makes it to the throne.

  "Three minutes," said Hermes.

  "They will only use this as an excuse," Lyhel continued, giving Jordan a pointed look that rested on her stomach for a moment before darting back up to her face. "It isn't safe here, for either of you. Guard the knowledge you’ve found here carefully.“

  The double meaning was not lost on Jordan. Her heart skipped with fear and awe as she finally entertained the possibility that she really was pregnant. Her fascination lasted only for a moment before it was eclipsed by guilt and the memory of throwing herself into the path of the electric current. Even now, she couldn't bring herself to regret the decision, but it filled her with a new dread.

  "You can never come back here," Lyhel said, her cool voice wavering almost imperceptibly. She took out a sealed white envelope and placed it in Jordan's hand. "Give this to Luthias and tell him to open it only if you need immediate sanctuary, and only under the most extenuating circumstances. This is not a gift, but a last resort. Do I make myself clear?"

  "Yes," Jordan said, staring down at the envelope. "Yes, of course."

  "Take care of them," Lyhel murmured.

  Hermes glanced back at the queen and for a moment, Jordan thought she saw pity in his gaze. "I'll do what I can. Jordan, the portal is closing," he said, standing over the small black pond. Jordan had barely come to terms with the fact that she was expected to jump into it when Hermes tossed Luthias in unceremoniously.

  Before Jordan could even protest, the demon lifted her into his arms and jumped in.

  Chapter 35

  Darren

  "Move!" Samael cried, pushing Darren out of the way just as a gray-clad monster came crashing through the glass ceiling. When Darren took a closer look at the mangled wings and gray skin, he froze.

  "That's the thing I saw at the engagement party," Darren said, moving closer. “Chase?” The creature groaned and rolled over onto its side, just outside the bounds of the circle on the floor. Darren frowned, taking a step closer as it muttered something that sounded almost like ‘look out.’

  Not a moment later, Hermes—at least, Darren thought it was Hermes—came flying through the hole in the ceiling and landed on his feet where Chase had been a moment before, holding Jordan in his arms. Maybe what they said about cats always landing on their feet was true about cat demons, too.

  Darren was too relieved to see Jordan in one piece, and too furious at the fact that someone had spilled her blood, to bother with Hermes's unexpected appearance for the moment. He snatched her from the demon's arms and laid her on the table to examine her.

  "I'm fine," she said, leaning on him. Her eyes were wide and she wasn't moving much, but it seemed to be more from the shock of the fall than any injury Darren could see. The cut on her neck wasn't deep, but he snatched the handkerchief Hermes offered and held it to the wound to stop the bleeding.

  "You wanna tell us what's goin' on?" Samael snapped. "And what the hell is that thing?" he demanded, pointing to the dusty creature on the floor.

  "Let's just say Belfast has gone downhill over the years," the demon muttered, taking a few staggering steps before he collapsed next to the altar.

  So much for getting him to heal Jordan, thought Darren. He looked like he could use a doctor himself.

  Jordan strained to get away from Darren's attempts to treat her wound. “Let me go, he's hurt."

  "You're hurt," Darren snapped, pulling her back. Not that he was letting her anywhere near Hermes or that thing that had come through the portal with him.

  Samael walked over to investigate, giving the creature a wide berth at first before he crouched down beside it and nudged it with the toe of his boot. “This is definitely the thing that helped us kill Rag…”

  “It’s Chase,” Darren insisted. “I told you.”

  Sam grimaced. "He's seen better days."

  "Is he breathing?" Jordan asked, finally pushing Darren away. There was more force behind her escape than she was capable of. It looked like Samael’s gift was proceeding right on schedule.

  The angel held his hand under Chase’s nose and checked his pulse. "Yeah, he's alright. He's out of it, but I'd say he's in better shape than catboy over there."

  Jordan knelt beside Hermes, looking at once furious and concerned. He was barely conscious, and he slumped against her as soon as she moved him.

  "What happened? Where were you?" Darren asked, not too prideful to admit that the idea of anything that could screw a demon up that badly scared the living hell out of him.

  “The Glen,” Jordan murmured, looking over at Chase with a grieved expression.

  "It's gotta be a portal," Samael said, squinting into the moonlight. "That explains all the energy I felt."

  "A portal?" Great. Another thing to add to the growing list of bullshit Darren now had to believe in. At least there was probably some scientific explanation for interdimensional travel. “I know that’s Chase’s true form, but why the fuck does Hermes look like that?”

  Darren realized his mistake when Jordan looked up at him. “You knew what he was?”

  “Not exactly,” Darren said. “I knew he wasn’t human. I still don’t know what he is.”

  “And you didn’t say anything?” she hissed.

  “Like you would’ve believed me if I had?”

  She didn’t have an answer for that. “The portal is closed,” she said, looking over at Hermes. “I think he absorbed most of the effects. They both did.”

  “That explains it,” Samael said gruffly. “But it raises about a million other questions, namely, what is he?”

  “He’s Fae,” Jordan whispered. “And Elven. It’s a long story, but first, we need to get them home.”

  Darren walked over to help her get Hermes to his feet. “Not to mention you.”

  “I’m fine,” she insisted, even though she clearly wasn’t. She may not have had any serious physical injuries, but Darren knew that whatever had happened on the other side of that portal had changed her. It had changed all of them.

  "We should get a move on,” said Samael. “This much magical energy hovering in the same space is like a homing beacon.”

  "Can't you just teleport us all like you did with me?" Darren asked.

  "Not after they've been through a portal so recently," said Sam. "I'm kind of like the portable version of an interdimensional portal. We both operate on the same physics, and judging from the fact that Jordan's alive, I'd say Hermes here absorbed enough void radiation for both of them. Doing it again this soon could kill him.”

  Darren wasn’t sure that was such a bad thing, but Jordan took over before he could come up with a plan. “Darren and I will go back to Cold Creek by plane,” she declared, leaving Hermes with him before she walked over to Chase. She gently moved his hair away and pulled the chain from around his neck before slipping it over her head. “This talisman will hide us from the angels.”

  “What the hell makes you think that’ll work?” Sam demanded.

  “It worked on you, didn’t it?” she challenged. Before he could answer, she continued, “You’re going to take them both somewhere safe to recover, until you can teleport them back home. Don’t let either of them out of your sight.” Her gaze softened as she turned to Chase. “Especially not him.�
�

  Samael raised an eyebrow as he listened. “And since when do I take orders from you?”

  “Since I became the Queen of fucking Babylon,” she answered without missing a beat. Even if she was a whole foot shorter and a hundred pounds lighter than the angel, she stared him down like she was ready to go to the mat. “Hermes isn’t calling the shots anymore.” She waved her hand and a thick golden cord surrounded the unconscious demon. Another wound its way around Chase’s chest, pinning his arms.

  Darren had only rarely seen Jordan use her magic unless it was at Hermes’s prodding, but it was clear to him that she’d grown exponentially in skill between then and the night she’d attempted to bring Susan Thomas back from the dead.

  “As of now, they’re both in my custody until I know they can be trusted,” Jordan said, sounding more confident than Darren had ever heard her, even if she looked like she’d been through hell once again. “Given what happened tonight, that’s going to be a long time to come.” She folded her arms in challenge. “The question is, can I trust you with this, Sam? Because I’m done with the secrets and lies. If any of you have a problem with that, you can leave.”

  Samael watched her closely and Darren couldn’t imagine what he was thinking. Enough confusing thoughts were going through his own head. Chase and Hermes might have come through that portal with two extreme makeovers, but this was a side of Jordan he’d never seen before. It was also, incidentally, hot as hell.

  “No problems here,” Sam grunted. “I was getting tired of taking orders from a demon, anyway.”

  Jordan looked Darren’s way and he realized she was posing the same challenge to him. “You know where I stand,” he answered. “With you. Always.”

  Her gaze softened and she nodded. She looked so tired, all he wanted to do was gather her into his arms, but something told him the comfort was better saved for later.

  “You two get out of here,” said Sam. “I’ve got Chase and Hermes.”