Revelation: Kastor Blackwood Series: Demon Kin

by T. R. Lester

  “So, when will you tell me more?”

  “I’ll leave that to your father. He can explain the talents better than me.”

  As I sit there in stony silence, Greyson pops into my mind.

  “Where’s Grey?” I ask Luke.

  “He’s sleeping. The pull through the portal exhausted him. He’s alright.”

  “It exhausted me too. What the hell was that?”

  “I opened a portal and pulled you through when I saw how upset you were getting. Greyson was holding onto you and he was pulled through too. If you pass through a portal without preparing that’s how it feels.”

  “I thought you didn’t want him here. Or that he couldn’t survive here.”

  “I gave him a small part of me so that he could survive. It was either that or he would have died.”

  “Well, that’s just great. Now I have to tell my best friend that he has a piece of the devil in him.”

  I said it before I thought. But when I looked at Luke, I saw a smile trying to play on the corner of his mouth.

  “Sorry.”

  He laughed and waved it off.

  “I know how I am referred to boy.”

  “So when will I meet this new father I have?”

  “As soon as you want to.”

  “I want to now.”

  “Why?”

  “Because he’s my father?” I ask sarcastically.

  Luke glares.

  “Because I want to meet him. The parents I had for four years of my life were shit Luke. They never cared or loved me. I would like to know, that at the least, I was loved by someone when I was born.”

  Luke sits in silence for a few minutes, then says, “Fine. I will send him to you. He will be glad to know that you finally know of him.”

  I nod.

  I take a few minutes to let all that has happened sink in. Someone tried to kill us by running us off the road, then we find Lucius hanging in my apartment slaughtered, then I have blue shit coming from my hands trying to grab a hell hound. And finally, getting sucked into hell by Luke only to learn that I’m not only a demon hunter, I’m also demon kin.

  “I’m not finished talking about this Luke.”

  “I suppose you aren’t boy.”

  What a fucking day.

  Chapter 8

  As I sit in my old room, I still can’t believe all that has come about. I have a headache now.

  Then, I hear a scream.

  I quickly stand and almost pass out from the sudden rush to my head. I grab the bed post to steady myself and hear the scream again.

  Heading into the hall, I follow the direction from where the scream originated. I proceed to walk down the hall and into the room Luke referred to as a guest room. Although he never had any guests to stay all night. As I walk in, I see Greyson sitting straight up in the middle of the bed with a horrified look on his face. Glancing to the end of his bed, I see a lemchamsur demon sitting there at the foot with what appears to be a toothy grin on her face. A lemchamsur demon is a lower level demon generally white with a goat’s head mounted on the torso of a woman. The feet are goat hooves and she has a goat's tail. They normally range in height from about two feet to four feet tall. Lucifer uses them as guardians and minions. They aren’t dangerous, but the over abundant sharp teeth they have can make one think they are about to be torn to shreds.

  “Marmelle, lay off the smile. You’re going to give him a heart attack.” I tell the demon.

  In a guttural, rasping voice, Marmelle lowers her head and says, “Of course Kastor Blackwood.”

  “What the hell was that and where am I?” Grey asks.

  “You’re in hell and that was a lemchamsur demon named Marmelle.”

  “How in the hell did I get to…. hell?”

  I snort.

  “Remember the pulling and the tendrils and the hell hound? Lucifer pulled me through a portal when he sensed my stress and you just happened to be touching me and were pulled through too.”

  “The last thing I remember is you and that, that, whatever the fuck it was, coming from your hands and you screaming.” Grey says.

  “Yep. But the other shit I have to tell you is really going to blow your mind.”

  Grey raises an eyebrow at me.

  “Later though. How do you feel?”

  “Good, I think. No pain.”

  “You?”

  “Better.”

  “So?”

  “What?”

  Grey raises an eyebrow.

  “Fine. I’ll talk.”

  I sit in the chair beside Grey’s bed and explained everything that Luke has just told me. I also told him about meeting Arakiel in my dream.

  “I have more news too.” I tell Grey.

  He nods.

  “So, when Luke pulled us into the portal, it was a little too fast. You may feel a little drained and unbalanced when you stand. Normally, one has to be prepared to go through a portal. Since we didn’t have time to prepare, the pull through can alter your energy, mind and body. You can even be ripped to pieces if you are yanked through one unprepared.”

  “Ok. But you are accustomed to portalling.”

  “Portalling? Really? Is that even a word?” I ask Grey.

  “I doubt it. But what are you not telling me Kas?”

  “Uumm. In order for you not to be ripped to shreds and lose what little mind you have left, Luke kind of…. helped you through.”

  “Uh huh. And just how did he do that?”

  “Well. When we got through, he gave you some of his essence so that you could survive here in limbo. Without it, you would have died.”

  It’s really hard to describe all the various shades of red that Greyson’s face went through. I've never seen that many before. But, when it stopped, he had a very nice, bright shade of crimson red for a new skin tone. I was actually impressed that a person could turn that color.

  “Just what the fuck does that mean? Am I a demon now? Will I want to be in hell all the time? Will I have evil thoughts? Will I be evil?”

  I sit and stare at him blankly.

  “I’m not a demon, or evil and I certainly don’t want to be in hell all the time. Luke did the same to me when I was a kid so that I could remain here.”

  “Well, I’m not ecstatic to have Lucifer Morningstar essence in my body now.”

  “Would you be more ecstatic to be dead?”

  “Of course not smart ass. I have to take this all in.”

  Grey sits there taking deep breaths, trying to get control of his emotions. Finally, just when I think he may have a mental breakdown, he looks over at me smiling.

  “So, you’re demon kin huh?”

  “Apparently.”

  “Does that make you evil.”

  I roll my eyes.

  “I need to see Asmodeus. I hope he can give us some information on Lucius’ murder.”

  Grey stands and almost falls back on the bed. I grab his arm to steady him as he gets his bearings.

  “Damn man. That portalling shit is bad on a body.”

  “I can’t believe you are sticking with the portalling reference.”

  “I can’t think of anything better to call it.”

  Finally, he gets his bearings and we walk out into the hall.

  “Luke?”

  “Yes boy?”

  “Can you tell Asmodeus to come to the meeting room please?”

  “Yes. We will be there when you arrive.”

  Let’s go talk to the princes. I tell Grey.

  We finally get to the meeting room and enter to see Asmodeus and Luke sitting there with a look of rage on their faces.

  “Please, sit boys.”

  “Oh, now you will be boy too.” I tell Grey.

  Asmodeus snorts.

  “Should I leave you to fend for yourself next time you call for me boy?” Luke asks me.

  Since I know he will, I keep my mouth shut.

  I give each of them a small bow of my head and elbow Grey to do the same.

&
nbsp; “Asmodeus, thank you for coming.”

  Asmodeus nods.

  “I’m sorry for your loss.” I tell him.

  “Whoever killed him will also be sorry.”

  Yes, yes they will, I think to myself.

  “Do you have anything that would help us find his killer?”

  “Perhaps. I can sense the stench of Bazil on him. I can also smell the loogaroo. He had a sigil of torment and pain etched on his abdomen. These are done only to cause torment in the afterlife. The one who done this to him wants vengeance and is a traitor. Bazil is not talented enough to know how to draw a sigil of torment.”

  “So Lucifer said.” I tell him.

  “How can we find who did this?” I ask.

  Asmodeus and Lucifer seem to think for a moment.

  “Find the murderer you have been tracking. I think you will find who killed Lucius then.” Luke said.

  “I think Lucifer is correct.” Asmodeus says.

  “I would request that when you find who done this to my son that you bring them to me for punishment.”

  Inclining my head to Asmodeus, I say, “Of course.”

  “Greyson are you alright?” Luke asks.

  “Yes. Thank you for saving my life.”

  Luke gives Grey a nod.

  “I need a hound for tracking.”

  “That can be arranged. Which one would you prefer? Orthrus?” Luke says.

  “Well, I don’t think Orthrus would be a good fit in my world with having two heads and all.” I tell Luke.

  I thought about it for a minute. None of the hell hounds are… tame. They are trackers and are nothing like an ordinary canine. However, there is one that for some reason, seems to like me.

  “Tazor.” I tell Luke.

  He stares at me.

  “I want him. He obeys me better than the others.”

  Luke waves a hand and Tazor appears in the room. Grey lets out a squeal and jumps on the table while the huge hound runs to me, tongue out and a long dribble of slobber… slime… dripping from his giant maw.

  He rears up on me knocking me to the floor and commences to lick up the side of my head, plastering my hair down with his slime.

  “Come on Tazor. Get off for shit’s sake, you big smelly beast.”

  I can hear Luke and Asmodeus snorting and snickering while I’m being mauled by a giant hound.

  “Get off! Luke, call him off.”

  Luke snapped his finger and Tazor sits down, tongue lolling.

  As I stand, I can now hear Grey snorting and laughing.

  “Fuck you.” I say.

  “Dude, you’ve been hounded.”

  “Shut the hell up Grey.”

  “Your hair is fucked up.” Grey says.

  I reach over and run a hand down the big beast’s back. The little black hair feels like pin pricks as I rub down his head and back and the smell of sulfur is strong.

  “So, how do I set him on someone’s trail?” I ask Luke.

  “You would do it in sigil form. You would need to draw the sigil of the one you wish to find boy.”

  “Draw it where?”

  Luke gives me an unbelieving glare.

  “What?”

  “In all the lessons we have given you, did you remember any of them?” Luke asks me.

  “Yes. But I can’t remember what I don’t use often.” I say.

  Grey snickers and I shoot him a shut the hell up glare.

  “Sit.” Luke demands.

  I sit.

  “Pull your energy in boy. When you have enough pulled in, such as when you use your power to draw things to you, picture what you want. Get a clear image in your mind of what you want to do.”

  I concentrate and gather energy that’s around me.

  “Now envision what you want.”

  I visualize a clean image of Luke’s sigil in my head.

  “Now, use your tendrils of energy to draw it in the air. As if you were drawing on paper.”

  I raise my hand and the indigo tendrils start to extend from my fingers. I start drawing his sigil in front of me. When I’m done, I have a perfect indigo Lucifer sigil hanging in the air.

  “I’m impressed. It only took one time to show you.”

  “That was ugly.” I tell Luke.

  “Dude, that’s cool as hell.” Grey says.

  “Your energy is your protection. Use it boy. Learn how to manipulate it. Learn how to direct and control it so you will have the benefit of using it when needed.”

  I nod.

  “Ok. Thank you, Luke.”

  “For?”

  “Well, for taking me in when I was a child.”

  Luke nods and he and Asmodeus disappear.

  “Are you ready to find this murderer, track down Bazil and the loogaroo and stop this shit in its tracks?” I ask Grey.

  “Hell yeah. Let’s get to it.”

  “I need a portal at Grey’s house Luke.”

  “Fine.” I hear back in my mind.

  Grey follows me to the library and I head to the portal.

  “Is this going to be as bad as before?”

  “No. We’re prepared this time, plus you have the devil in you now.” I snort out.

  “Not funny man. I’m still not sure how I feel about that.”

  “The portal is at your house. Luke likes to play games with the portals he makes for me and place them is tight, small places. Be careful when you walk through as he could have placed it in your toilet just to be an ass.”

  “In my toilet?”

  “Just an example man.” I say.

  I walk over to the portal and take Grey’s hand.

  “This is the one and only time I will ever hold your hand while going through a portal.” I tell him.

  “I hope so because you’re creeping me out dude.”

  “You ready?”

  Grey nods.

  “Come Tazor.”

  Tazor trots over to the portal and walks through.

  I take my first step into the portal pulling Grey beside me. I hear him grunt and feel him squeeze my hand. Our next step takes us through and right into his home.

  In the bathtub.

  “Really? The bathtub?”

  “I told you. I hope you have another bathroom.”

  “Yes, I do.”

  “He really is an ass when he wants to be.” Grey says.

  “I heard that.” A booming voice rings out in both our heads.

  Grey yells out.

  “Oh. I forgot to tell you, when he touched you with his essence, he now has a mental link with you and can hear your thoughts unless you block him.”

  “Now is a fine time to be giving me that morsel of information you ass.” Grey says.

  I shrug.

  While we step out of the bath tub, Luke’s booming laughter rings out through our thoughts.

  “I’m glad to see he’s easily entertained.” Grey says.

  Luke continues his barrage of laughter.

  Chapter 9

  With Luke opening the portal in the bath tub, it was pretty crowded with two grown men and a hell hound weighing in at 300 pounds.

  “This is fucked up man.” Grey says.

  I snort.

  “You should try to come through the one in my closet dude.” I tell him.

  Grey winces and steps out of the tub, then me, then Taz. As we exit the bathroom, I turn to see Taz standing in the doorway, visibly too big to go through.

  “Damn. I forgot he’s too big here.” I say.

  No sooner than the words came out, Taz glimmered and shrank down to about 150 pounds and sauntered through the door.

  “Nice trick.” I tell him.

  He flicks an ear at me.

  I take time to put my duffle bags and other items in a spare room and head into the kitchen to grab a water.

  “What time is it?” Grey asks.

  “About 7:15 pm.” I say.

  “We need to get ready to look for that damn loogaroo.” Grey says.

  “Yeah, ye
ah. I know.”

  “How are we going to find her?”

  “I’m going to give Taz the bounty on her. He will find her in spirit form. I’ll get him to lead us to her so we can see where she has put her skin.”

  “Bounty?” Grey asks.

  “Yeah. Well, a hell hound can be used as bounty hunters. The person who needs to find someone, or something, can set the hound on its trail. Once that happens, the hound will never stop searching until it finds its bounty. What we do is get Taz to find her in spirit form and we can watch her to see where she returns to before dawn.”

  I walk over to Taz and lay my hand on his massive head. He sits obediently and drools as I place an image in his mind to find the loogaroo. He rumbles a growl when I’m done and swipes his tongue around his maw slinging goo and slobber all over me.

  “Come on dude.” I tell Taz.

  He gives me a very toothy grin that shows off all of his razor-sharp teeth.

  “Did Luke show you how to use the new skill you have acquired?” Grey asks.

  “Of course not. That would have been too easy. He told me I could manipulate it for a variety of things and I would have to concentrate on using it. I can grasp things with it and access the healing properties. Bind things, or people, cause fear, detect magic, and a host of other things he didn’t tell me. You know Luke isn’t one to explain things. He would rather you figure it out on your own.” I say.

  “That figures.”

  Taz gets antsy and paces.

  “I think he has a hit on our demon fire ball.” I tell Grey.

  “Fireball?”

  “Remember, at night she takes the form of a ball of light?”

  Grey nods.

  Since I can draw on arcane power through Luke’s link to me, I take a minute to trace a tracking sigil over Taz’s head so we don’t lose him.

  “When we find her, we need to let her get back to her skin at dawn so she’s in physical form. I want to take her to Luke so he can deal with her and she will be bound to him.”

  Grey nods.

  “Ready?”

  “I suppose. This should be fun.” Grey says.

  I walk over and open the door.

  “Come on you big beast. Find that loogaroo.”

  Taz snorts, lets a low growl rumble up from his chest, and runs out the door.