“You know, the two of you…”
But before I could finish my thoughts, I had collapsed.
Chapter 17
When I woke up, the first thing I noticed, as I stretched my body out, was that I had a lot more space on the bed than before.
I was certainly not in Durty Nelly’s. I was in a swanky hotel room, with a bed with thick, red blankets that felt like a fat cat’s fur and religious decorations on the ceiling that reminded me of the swankiest churches in New York. I looked down at my arms and hands and saw no visible signs of battle. I was sore and stiff but had no outward sign of what had happened.
“Good morning,” Carsis said.
I sat up slowly and looked over. There was a massive, city-facing window just to my right, and lined up in chairs, Carsis, DJ and Brady sat in front of a counter with a coffee machine, all of them looking relaxed and casual. I felt relieved that peace had apparently been reached.
“You are safe here. The demons have fled Amsterdam after the defeat of Nuforsa and are looking for new orders to follow.”
“Well, I’m glad we can smoke pot and enjoy hookers in peace now,” I said as I stretched my arms up. “Can I get a cup of coffee, perhaps? And like, real coffee?”
“Of course,” DJ said, reaching for a cup behind him and holding it out. “Your brother said you liked it black. Hope he wasn’t messing with me.”
“No, he was nice this time,” I said with a wink, which Brady responded to with a smile.
As nice and relaxing as this was, I needed answers to about fifty thousand questions scuttling through my brain.
“So… what the hell happened in hell?”
Carsis looked at Brady, who gave a short nod. DJ leaned back in his chair, his right leg crossed over his left and his arms casually to the side.
“After you left, Nuforsa’s troops went and got the whole hostel group,” Carsis began. “Rounded them all up. Your brother and this guy right here tried to fight back, but the problem was the two Brits didn’t have the capability of fighting back. Once they were captured, it became a game of ‘surrender or they die.’ I believe they had hope that you or I could come and help. Well, the good news is, I did come and help. The bad news is I didn’t do a very good job, and they captured me too.”
“Wait,” I said, holding my hand up. “You two tried to fight back?”
“Yeah,” Brady said. “It’s why I’m sorry for what I said at the diner in Elam.”
“All good, mate,” DJ said. “But yeah, remember what I said about how I can control my shifting? Well, seemed like as good a time as any to use it. And I did manage to take down a few of those assholes, but when they got the Brits, there was no way.”
“Yeah, my guns and his morphing worked some, but…”
“It’s OK,” I said, sensing some shame from Brady. “The important thing is we got out of it, and we survived. So the thing with Nuforsa killing you, Brady?”
“Huh?”
“OK, so it was a trick,” I said. “When I came in, she showed her reaching into your heart Indiana Jones style and smashing it. It looked… so real. I sure thought it was real. It fueled my anger.”
I shuddered a bit and my voice wavered with emotion. I gave myself the chance to drink some of the coffee, a much-needed break from the memories of what had happened. When I finished, I still didn’t feel ready to speak again but had to push ahead.
“The thing I want to know about, though… when Nuforsa had me pinned down, the way she tortured and taunted me… it unlocked something I didn’t know I had.”
“Your demon side,” Carsis said. “I suspected it from the moment I saw you. I can usually see who is a demon and who is an angel, but it’s extremely rare that someone is a half-blood demon.”
“So that means…”
Brady sighed.
“Part of the reason I didn’t want to drag you into this, Sonya, is because of what Carsis told me. I’d suspected it for a long time, but didn’t want it to be true. Carsis?”
“Sonya, I might as well just say it. Your mother had demon blood inside her.”
That… that… what? Seriously? No. Hell no. If anyone, it should’ve been my father.
“So if she was demon,” I said slowly, making sure to articulate every word so my emotions didn’t get the best of me. “Then my father…”
“Not a demon,” Carsis said. “That is for sure. You would be a pure-blooded demon if so. I cannot help you with him, but don’t worry about him. And don’t worry about your mother. Just because she had demon blood inside her doesn’t mean that she was the same as Nuforsa or any of the rest of the bastards you encountered.”
This was a hard pill for me to swallow. I could accept that I was half-demon and had the capability to transform, but my mother… the woman who died when I was so young… a demon?
I bit my lip as I fought back the emotions of the matter. Mom… you were…
No. I would not dwell on this. She was gone. I had more questions to ask. I would not deal with such issues right now. I could face them later.
“So more relevantly for the battles ahead. How did I transform? Why did I not do it before?”
“Part of it was being in the spiritual realm,” Carsis said. “It is much easier to unlock magic there than it is here. And you needed something to unlock the demon in you. Something that gave you so much hatred, feel so much disgust, crave so much violence, that the demon had to come out of you.”
He gulped, as if in fear of what I could do. I couldn’t blame him. I feared that side in myself, remembering how bloodthirsty I’d become.
“Would it be possible… possible for me to do it on Earth?”
Carsis hesitated for a long, long time. I glanced at Brady and DJ, but neither of them said a word. All three of us were either looking at Carsis or at the ground. I’m not sure I wanted the answer—if I couldn’t control when I shifted, there was serious danger in that. I could remember wanting to kill Carsis just for him wording something poorly.
“I can’t say it’s impossible,” Carsis said. “It would certainly be much more difficult, and with the way Nuforsa likes to treat her subjects, it’s hard for me to imagine anything eliciting more hatred than her. But there’s nothing that would prevent it from happening. You saw the demons here on Earth.”
I snorted in disgust. So it would be possible. But then an idea came.
“Could I learn to control its unleashing?”
“Huh?” all three men said at once.
I had to laugh at that. Good thing, too. This debriefing was becoming more stressful than the actual mission itself.
“When I became a demon, I became shockingly powerful. Like, powerful enough that Nuforsa was no match for me whatsoever. She might have gotten one hit on me before I savagely killed her. If I could control that side of me, and if I could selectively use it…”
“Sonya, I get the idea, but I need to firmly dispel the notion for a couple of reasons,” Carsis said, his voice firm. “One, you can only become a demon if something unearths that in you. Could you do it without hatred or anger? I doubt it. Maybe, but I highly, highly, highly doubt it. Second, when you become a demon, you lose control of yourself. You become bloodthirsty. You become vengeful. You turn into the type of beast who would kill a dozen innocents to get to the one thing that gives you the most anger. So even if you could transform into a demon on command, without anger, you would immediately lose that level head.”
I didn’t argue the point back, but I knew it would stick with me for as long as the fight against Mundus continued. Something that powerful, that destructive, that potent could not just be put to the side. It would have to be pulled out in some of the future battles.
I would have to learn what even the angels of heaven thought impossible.
“However, we can help you get closer to that level of power,” Carsis said, his voice softening. “You did miss your training session, but fortunately—or perhaps unfortunately, when you look at why I’ve made this choice—I am follow
ing the five of you to wherever you go in Europe. I will need to train you, Sonya, not only to learn new magic but to become better adept at handling your magic. Every time you have used magic here in Amsterdam, it is clear that you are unrefined. And that’s fine, I would not expect you to be. But be aware that going forward, it’s going to get tougher, so you’re going to need more training.”
“I can do that,” I said, not mentioning that I would still be thinking about my demon form and how best to use that.
“Good,” Carsis said. “Do you have anything else for me? If not, I need to go and inform my staff at Durty Nelly’s that I will be away for a bit.”
I looked up, deep in thought, wondering if there was anything else I needed to know. He’d answered most of my questions about my demon form. He’d answered what had happened. He obviously hadn’t heard Mundus when we were back in hell. He would train me, which answered any magic questions.
“Did this city suffer any damages?” I asked, the words being said as the thought formed in my mind.
“Some,” he admitted. “But the news is chalking it up to a bad storm. I’m not sure if the smarter people in town suspect anything, but I can say that as the demons grow stronger, they will become bolder. And they will care less and less about keeping their presence a secret.”
“Understood,” I said. I’m sure if I thought longer, more questions would come to mind, but at that moment, I just wanted time with my brother and DJ. “That’s all I’ve got for now.”
“Excellent. I will be back here in an hour. The train for Berlin leaves at noon, right?”
“Yes,” my brother said.
Carsis didn’t say another word, leaving and shutting the door behind him gently.
“Brady, may I have a moment with DJ?” I said. “I’ll get you when I’m done.”
To my surprise, Brady didn’t resist at all. He instead headed to the door, pausing only to say that he would be in the lobby whenever I finished. He left calmly, without sarcasm, and shut the door gently. I turned to DJ and threw my legs over the bed, hugging him tightly. I think he was smart enough to know I was just showing my gratitude that he was still alive, not encouraging him to jump into the bed with me.
“I’m sorry,” I said as I remained in his arms. “I shouldn’t have left you. I left you guys vulnerable.”
“Don’t worry, you came and rescued me,” he said. “Besides, I figured you would. You owed me for the time you went into the spiritual realm after SkyLounge.”
I looked up at him with baffled eyes. What was he—
“Do you remember one creature in particular that didn’t seem demonic? That took out obstacles in your way? The one who fought the two-headed dragon long enough to let you escape?”
The black and gold dragon. Him?
“You?”
DJ nodded.
“That day, someone dragged me in—I’m not sure who, it happened without me seeing or hearing anything—and I heard the hordes of demons coming for you. We didn’t know each other well, but I liked you more than I liked demons.”
I’m glad we at least established that.
“I am sure that as time goes by, my shifting will get worse for me. But I’m also sure that I’ll know when it’s getting worse. I’ll know when I’m a greater danger than an asset to you, and I won’t let you get hurt because of me.”
“Good,” I said. “But I’m going to make sure that you don’t become a shifter. When the time is right and I’m strong enough, I’m going to figure out a way to go to hell and save all of the humans who become shifters.”
DJ smiled gratefully, and for a good three seconds, we just smiled at each other, eyes locked. If ever there was a moment that we would kiss, this was it. We had privacy, we had emotions, we had everything.
But…
I still pulled out of his arms. I don’t know why. I knew what my body wanted. Well, I did know why. I didn’t trust anyone with my past. And now my present and future carried equally heavy baggage. I sighed as I sat back down on the bed.
“It’s crazy,” I said, shaking my head. “I’ve known you three days, and already we’ve gone through more than some friends of decades have. I mean, how many people can say they’ve literally been through hell and back?”
“And how many can say that they’ve fought their own demons and won?”
“Indeed,” I said as I let his words linger. I hadn’t exactly done what he’d said. Nuforsa had unlocked too much of my past that I had tried to suppress—and, because of the force with which she’d opened it, it was likely more skeletons in my closet and more dark secrets would unearth themselves in the coming days. But as long as I had my brother, Carsis, the Brits, and DJ by my side…
“So let’s make a deal,” DJ said. “You and I, we keep doing what we were doing before your brother—justifiably, it should be said—tried to break us apart. If, at any point, I realize I’m losing control of my shifting, I’ll leave all of you. Immediately.”
I decided to no longer play it cool. I smiled as wide as my lips would go. I loved the first part of the deal. I didn’t enjoy the second. The worst part was I couldn’t find a way to argue it. I liked him, but not to the point of being suicidal and letting his dragon form bite me. I couldn’t do it, not with Mundus and other demons trying to break through.
But I was absolutely certain I would find a way to save him. I would fix DJ, whatever it took. If it meant going to the depths of hell and fighting Mundus himself, I would do it. It helped that I would get to save much of humanity with this goal.
For now, though, his offering seemed good enough.
“I’ll take you up on that,” I said.
Another semi-awkward pause ensued before DJ nodded and began walking toward the door.
“To be continued in Berlin, huh?” DJ said with a chuckle.
“You bet,” I said.
“Then I’ll see you on the train… darling.”
He dared to blow me a kiss, and I just blushed. Like I said, I was done hiding how I felt, even if I wasn’t ready to act on how I felt about him. Perhaps if this all ended, if we ended the threat of Mundus and had Yevon ensure peace in all realms, I’d let myself go with him. But for right now…
Well, I couldn’t lie to myself. There was one thing besides that end goal that could get me to fall for him more.
Time. Time to get to know him better, trust him more, and travel with him more.
And fortunately for him, he had that in spades.
Fortunately for us.
Brady came up a few minutes later and hugged me tight.
“Who would have thought that when we left Boston, we’d be going through hell, huh?”
“Just don’t make those puns endless,” I said with a laugh. “But I want to know… how come you don’t have the ability to shift into a demon?”
“I do. Carsis told me as much. But there has to be something that drives me, much as there was something that drives you. Nuforsa didn’t seem much interested in using me as anything other than bait.”
“I see,” I said, curious to see what he’d be like in demon form. “There is one question I have that I wasn’t sure of. How did you find me the first time Nuforsa captured me?”
Surprisingly, Brady seemed unsure of his answer.
“It just came to me, weirdly enough,” he said. “It felt like someone spoke to me in my head. I was just told to trust my gut once I got there, and I felt guided to where you were.”
Tyrus?
But why? Is the competition for me that great? Is the need for me to be captured that strong?
But then… why am I that important?
Such questions had plenty of time for answering, I knew. For now, I just wanted to get on the train to Berlin and relax.
“Well, I’m glad it worked out,” I said.
We placed our arms around each other, looking out the window toward Amsterdam. People milled about near Centraal Station, the sky glowed a bright blue, and tour boats floated down the canals peac
efully. It was only on the other side of the spiritual realm that hell was preparing for war, a war that would soon spill over to the human realm in full.
But Earth had us on its side. It had a mysterious Australian who could shift into a powerful dragon when on the devil’s turf. It had a Power angel who could teach us magic and guide us in our battle. It had two brothers from Manchester who would keep the group relaxed with their humorous banter. It had a CIA agent, a 23-year old man who would do anything to protect those he loved.
And it had a half-demon, badass CIA agent whose powers were only growing. I was going to learn to unleash my powers upon hell.
And I was not going to lose.
***
The story continues in “Magic Revenge.” Click here to read the sequel.
About the Author
Stephen Allan is the author of multiple sci-fi/fantasy books, starting with the highly-praised “Kastori Chronicles” series. Readers have called him “a master storyteller” with “a writing style [that] has an ease and fluidity to it which will satisfy any… fan.” When he’s not writing, he’s chasing his two Siberian Huskies around in the backyard.
You can contact Stephen at [email protected].
You can follow him on Facebook at facebook.com/StephenAllanAuthor and visit his website at stephenaallan.com.
You can also be notified of new releases by joining his mailing list. Subscribers receive character sheets for Sonya, Brady, and DJ—with more to come as the series progresses!
~~The Spirit War Chronicles~~
Magic Awakening (December 2016)
Magic Revenge (January 2017)
Magic Ascension (January 2017)
Magic Betrayal (February 2017)
Magic Destiny (March 2017)
~~The Kastori Chronicles~~
Kastori Revelations (March 2016)
Kastori Devastations (May 2016)
Kastori Tribulations (July 2016)
Magic Awakening: An Urban Fantasy Novel (The Spirit War Chronicles Book 1) Page 20