by T. R. Lester
“It’s Lucius.” I say.
Greyson turns to run back outside and I can hear him throwing up.
“Luke?”
“I see boy. I see. I’ll send Asmodeus.”
Lucius and I have been friends since my first day in limbo. He is one of the hunters who helped me train. Then we added Greyson on to make us a triumvirate after his run in with the succubus. The seven took the three of us and fed us all their knowledge on demon hunting. What better way to catch a demon than a demon telling you how to do it? Lucius was half demon, half human who was not wanted by his human mother when he was born, so Asmodeus brought him to hell to raise him and train him. We became instant friends.
I walk out of the apartment with a heavy heart and go to check on Greyson. He’s standing at the patio stroking the feathers along Ava’s wings.
“I never thought he would die. I mean, he’s half demon.”
“Demons can die Greyson.”
“I know, but I never thought Lucius could be killed because of his link with Asmodeus. I was stupid I guess.”
I put a hand on his shoulder and squeeze.
“We have a dangerous job. Each day is not a guarantee for us Greyson. We have to live each day as though it may be our last. We’ll find who did this. Asmodeus will find who did this. And when he does, no one will be able to stop him from the destruction he will unleash on them.”
“I hope I’m around to see it.” Greyson says.
“No, I don’t think you want to see that.” I tell him.
“I thought he was in Tennessee visiting people anyway.” I say.
“Yeah, I did too. Maybe they got him there.”
“I’m coming Kastor.” I hear Asmodeus say in my head.
“Asmodeus is on his way. Get ready.” I say to Greyson.
“He scares the hell out of me. He’s creepy.” Greyson says.
“Well, he’s a powerful demon. He’s said to be the most powerful right under Luke, and the most evil.” I say.
“I believe that.”
Ava ruffled her feathers. Generally, this is a sign that a demon or ghost is near. I run a hand down her back and turn to go back into the apartment.
An aura of deep rage and anger engulfs us. Hair and skin tingle at the arcane energy crushing us. As I walk back to the doorway, I hear Grey gasp, trying to get control of his feelings.
Asmodeus is standing in the living room, rage on his face and death in his eyes.
“Asmodeus.” I say with a nod of my head.
“Who ever done this will pay. I will see to it.”
“Can you tell who it was?”
“Only that it was a demon. They seem to have a cloaking spell woven around them, so that leads me to believe they have a summoner at hand to use when they wish.” Asmodeus says.
Asmodeus waves a hand and all the blood, pentagrams and sigils disappear. He walks over and picks up Lucius, holding him like a child, he leans down and whispers, “I will find who did this to you.”
Then, he leans his head back and lets out a roar loud enough to make Ava fly away and Greyson and I cover our ears in pain.
Then, he was gone.
I took a moment to sit down, think about my friend, and cry like a baby.
Chapter 6
After discovering the body of my friend in my living room, I wasn’t interested in staying the night at home. Greyson was still looking as if he may pass out at any moment too.
“Can I stay at your place tonight?” I asked Greyson.
“Sure man. Get your shit together and let’s get out of here. It gives me the creeps.” He says.
“Yeah. I’m not sure if I can stay here again.”
I grab a couple of duffle bags and start filling them with clothes and other items I may need, like my weapons. When I’m done, I can see I’ve filled both of them with weapons and no clothing.
“Damn. Hang on and let me find another bag.” I tell Greyson.
I go to my closet to get a bag and remember the portal is in there.
“Luke? Can you shut the portal?”
“Yes boy.”
And it closes.
“Where are you going boy?”
“To stay at Grey’s house for a few days. I don’t want to stay here. I may need a portal there if it’s alright with him and if you will make me one.”
“I suppose.”
“Thank you.”
“Watch yourselves boy. Stay aware at all times.” Luke says.
“We will.”
I gather clothes and shove them in the bag and head back into the living room. Grey is standing there with a strained look on his face.
“What?” I ask.
“Let’s go. It’s creepy here.” He says.
I nod.
“Did you take the duffels out already?”
“Yes. They’re in the truck.”
I sling the last bag over my shoulder and head out the door. I stop at the patio to let Ava know where I will be. She has been to Grey’s home a few times so she will be comfortable there since he lives away from the city. His house is situated on a tranquil country road with no nosey neighbors in the region.
“I’m going to Grey’s for a few days. You can come there too.” I say to her.
She ruffles her feathers and springs into the air to take flight.
“She’ll be there before we are.” I tell Greyson.
Finally, we get into the truck and as I start to close the door, I see that damn shadow again.
“Wait.” I tell Grey.
“What the hell man?”
“I see a shadow. I’ve seen it three times. I saw it when we left earlier tonight.”
“What is it?”
“I don’t know.”
I turn in the truck seat so that my knees are pointing to the open door and my hands are hanging between my knees. I sit and look around to see if I can find the shadow again. I see movement in the Azalea bush at the end of the sidewalk past my apartment. The bush is expanding? Contracting? It looks like it’s breathing. As I continue to watch, I see two fire red eyes, about four feet from the ground, look at me.
I only know of one creature with red eyes that blaze like the pits of hell’s fire. A hell hound.
As I sit there, I see several wispy indigo tendrils start to fan out and start drifting over to the red eyes. They appear to grow longer and denser as they move to the eyes. The bush starts to expand and contract faster as if it’s having trouble breathing.
The tendrils reach the bush and the hell hound leaps out, throws its head back and gives a long howl.
The howl pushes me out of my reverie and I look around to see where the tendrils are coming from.
“Dude, what the hell is on your hands?” I hear Grey ask.
I look down at my hands and see that the tendrils that scared the hound are coming from them.
I open my mind and yell out Luke’s name.
“Boy, why are you screeching in my mind?”
“Luke, something is wrong. Something is happening to me.”
“What has happened Kas?”
“I have a blue light coming from my hands.”
“What is it doing?”
“It just scared a hell hound out of a bush and made it run off howling.”
“Is that all?”
“What the hell do you mean, is that all? Isn’t that enough?”
“Boy, get control of yourself. There is nothing wrong. Just relax and breathe.”
“I can’t relax and breathe with blue light coming from my hands.” I yell in my head.
I can feel Grey shaking my shoulders but it’s like I’m dreaming.
Suddenly, a feeling of weightlessness and falling surrounds me. A feeling of being sucked into a tiny pinprick of a hole and my flesh being torn from me pushes screams from the depths of my soul.
The sensation of fingernails biting into my shoulder keeps me only barely aware of my surroundings. I try to turn my head to look for Grey, but I can’t. Is he with me? C
an he feel this too?
Then, a black void of nothingness surrounds me and my screams silence.
Then, I feel no more.
I dream. I dream of a war. I dream of destruction and dying all round me and a rich sense of disappointment. The disappointment is so strong that it almost suffocates me. It feels like a weight is being pressed down upon my chest to stop my breath. Finally, the weight eases and I open my eyes to see a fine, white mist all around me. I look around and see a human being, or the shape of a human, standing beside a dead tree.
“Who are you?” I demand.
“I am Arakiel.” He replies.
“You are part of the Grigori?”
“Your lessons have paid off my boy.”
“Why am I here?”
“Because it’s time.”
“Time for what?”
“Time for you to know who you are.” Arakiel says.
“And just who am I?”
“You are demon kin.”
“What?”
He smiles.
“You are demon kin, my boy. You are a descendant from one of the fallen.”
“I thought the fallen were angels.”
“They were before falling.”
“Then why am I not angel kin?”
“They weren’t angels anymore after their fall. They became demons.”
“Which fallen is my sire?”
“Lucifer should tell you that. But I can tell you what you are meant for. Remember, do what has always been in your heart to do. Who you are should not change how you see things and how you always do the right thing. Do you think it was accidental that you came to be with Lucifer? The path your human parents led was one of destruction. When you were born, it was thought that they would be good parents for you to be placed with and would lead you in the right direction. However, they chose a dark path, and idiots they were, didn’t realize the consequences of their choices. It was unfortunate for us to see that they had used you as the sacrificial lamb.
Had anyone but Abaddon come when they summoned that night, you may be dead now. The number of us who know about you are few. The seven, myself, our Creator and one other know of your existence. The other who knows is your father. We have attempted to keep you hidden all these years and out of danger. It is known that the sons of God laid with the daughters of man to create the Nephilim. The rebellious Nephilim were watched and governed by us, the Grigori, until they were destroyed by the flood. After the War of Heaven, and the fallen were tossed out, they continued to lay with human females. They and Lucifer were considered to be demons after the fall, even though they once had been angels. There have been many children over the millennia who can claim parentage from a fallen. You are one of those children Kas.”
“So, the people who tried to raise me weren’t my biological parents?” I ask.
“That is correct.” Arakiel says.
“On your 30th year, you will come into influences that must be controlled and learned. This should have been recounted to you in your 20th year, but Lucifer chose not to tell you, much to my displeasure. He’s always been a pompous entity. Since he has no choice now, I’ll let him finish telling you the story of how you came to be.”
“Well, that’s just great. You guys decide to let the great deceiver raise me knowing how deceptive he is. So now, when strange shit starts happening with me, I have him to rely on to tell me the truth?”
“He can’t lie now. He is bound by all of us to tell you the truth.”
“Just remember, do what is right. Never let the goodness in your heart be overshadowed by your heritage and kin. You are destined to prevent the second war. You are destined to keep the balance between heaven and hell. There will be a second war that will be set off by one of Lucifer’s own. It will be your job to prevent it.”
“Why me? How am I supposed to thwart a major demon?”
“With your talent, and the help of your father and we chose you because you are special and we can’t directly interfere between the two realms, heaven and hell.”
Suddenly, I wake and sit straight up. I look around to see where I’m at.
With a groan, I realize that I’m in my old room, surrounded by my familiar belongings, staring into the face of the bringer of dawn, the crown prince of hell, Lucifer Morningstar.
I’m in hell, and there is no hand basket.
Chapter 7
“Are you alright boy?”
“Well, I don’t know. I just had a dream and was talking with Arakiel, one of the Grigori, who was telling me I’m angel kin and that my parents aren’t really my parents.”
Luke nods.
“That’s it? That's all you got? A nod?” I shout.
“Watch your tone boy.”
“Fuck you. Just fuck all of you. I have been lied to my whole life. I was placed with people who didn’t give a fuck if I lived or died. They even tried to use me as a sacrifice to a fucking demon. Then, I was taken from my world and brought to hell. Hell, Luke. Not Tennessee, not Florida, but hell. I started training to be your hunter at four years old. I was kept from my world for sixteen years while I trained and never allowed to associate with anyone except the seven. Oh, and Cerebus, who wants to eat me and the other little happy surprises you have placed around hell. So, don’t you tell me to watch my tone. All of you can kiss my ass.”
I know I am pushing my luck at this point, but it just spewed from my mouth, unstoppable because of the anger.
I see Luke’s eyes turn red and a mask of rage covers his face. He’s never been so angry with me that his facial expression changes, but I may be having a first-hand look at his rage now. Fuck it. What’s he going to do, kill me? Yeah, right. I’ll only end up back here with him.
“I see that you’re furious with me. But watch your step Kas. We did what we thought was the right thing to do. Along with direction from your father. He knew you were meant to be a great being. He also knew you wouldn’t fit into the natural world as you grew. He is the one who told Abaddon to take you the night your parents made the sacrifice. He knew if any other demon came, you would be killed. He isn’t allowed in heaven or hell. He’s in between, which means he resides in the mundane world, your world.”
“He’s a fallen angel. Why is he not fucking allowed in hell?”
Looking exasperated, Luke runs a hand through his hair. Luke’s form, when he isn’t being the devil, or Satan, as he’s called, is that of a human man. Over six feet tall, black hair past his shoulders, bronze color skin, black leather pants with leather boots rising to his knees and a long red tunic topped with a black leather jerkin with holes in the back to allow for his black wings to emerge from. His eyes are smoke gray until he gets angry, then they turn red. You must remember that he was the most beautiful of all the angels God created. He still has that beauty and an ugly side to go along with it. I’ve been told his otherworldly form will bring terrors to even the strongest demon. I’ve never seen it and don’t want to.
“Tell me Luke. Now.”
“Your father is Alfazon. He was in the War of Heaven with us. I offered him strength and worship if he followed me. He did. He was expelled with us. After the war, he decided to step away from me and reconnect with his…. good side… you might say. I didn’t have any ill will toward him and permitted him to do so on the stipulation he would not be allowed in hell and our Father forbade him in heaven for turning against him. He has lived in the natural world ever since. He does good things. He helps the homeless, alerts us to demon infestations, and tries to watch over you. When he found your mother, your natural mother, he fell in love with her. His love for her was as true as our Father’s love for us was. He was happy to find she was with child. Unfortunately, your birth was too much for her to bear and she died. He was lost without her. He knew he could not raise you or train you for the path you were destined for. He knew having no access to heaven or hell would limit what he could teach you. So, he pleaded with me to help him. I was the reluctant one. Hell is no place for a chil
d.”
“You got that shit right.” I say under my breath.
Luke gives me a glare, so I motion for him to go on before he smites me.
“We, the seven and I, and our Creator, decided that we needed a hunter to keep the demons from over running the mundane world and to prevent the second war that has been in the making since the flood of Noah. There has to be a balance between good and evil. You are that balance Kastor.”
“What about the, whatever the hell it was, tendrils?”
“Ahh. That is your unique essence. Energy. It can be used to reach out, to push, to draw things near, to protect you, to heal. Partly demonic, partly angelic. That is one of your talents.” Luke says.
“So, am I Nephilim?”
“No. We threw that word away with the flood. The creatures created when the angels first laid with human females were abominations. Most of them anyway. You talked with Arakiel, did you not?”
“I did.”
“Then he explained the Nephilim and Cambion to you?”
“Not really. He just said he and some others were the Grigori. They watched over the rebellious Nephilim. He said nothing of the Cambion.”
“Rebellious is a mild word for what they were. They were destruction on Earth. They were worse than demons. They terrorized, raped and pillaged. They were a scourge.”
“So what the hell am I then Luke?”
Luke sighed deeply.
“We decided that since you came from one of the fallen, we would call you Cambion, meaning half demonic, half human being. Cambions are born normally, exhibit normal human characteristics and continue to appear human. Some may tend to be unbalanced as they grow and have more demon tendencies than human ones. Over the years, you have continued to retain your human mother’s characteristics and have not displayed any of your father’s, until now. You have a conscience boy, most Cambions don’t.”
“Why haven’t you told me this already? I had a right to know where I came from.”
“Our plan was to have you grow and train so that demon hunting would be something you were adjusted to when your new talents started to appear. We needed you focused on hunting.”