"How are you able to stay here so long?" I asked Dante.
"I'm not. I have been coming and going the entire time. Rose is a treasure, signore. She may be mortal, but she is tireless. A rare find."
"Yeah, she's pretty great," I said. "Are you okay right now?"
"I am well, Landon. Get me to the prison, and I will bring it to Central Park for you. Then you can meet me there."
"If we make it. Abaddon isn't bound to the prison anymore."
"What do you mean?"
"He can break it open any time. He's been waiting for me."
"Waiting?"
I didn't understand it either, but it was what it was.
We reached the first deck. Bradford had seen Rebecca go below the surface, but he had no idea how far she had travelled. If we needed to search every deck, we would be here forever.
"Do you know which deck?" I asked Dante.
"No, signore. We saw them load the prison onto the ship. It is a rune covered wooden box just big enough to fit a man, with more runed chains wrapping around it. There is a blade mounted inside which sits in Abaddon's gut and draws out his power, while at the same time keeping him healed. Whoever holds the hilt gains the power."
"A sword that steals Divine power?" I said.
"Yes. It is an ancient relic, predating the Canaan Blades. I had thought it was long lost to this world."
"Apparently not. Do you think maybe next time you could tell me about missing relics with that much power beforehand?"
"As I said, it never occurred to me what the artifact was because we all thought it long destroyed."
"Great. Just great. Well, there's only one other way I can think of to find him."
And I hated it.
And I wanted nothing to do with it.
And I did it anyway.
"Abaddon," I said, internally, closing my eyes and pushing my voice through our bond.
There was no response.
"Abaddon," I said again, pushing some of my power through.
I felt a wave of confused nausea hit me. The demon still didn't answer.
"Abaddon," I said a third time. I pushed harder, sending my energy through the link and into the demon. He wanted me to come so I could set him free? Maybe I couldn't end him just yet, but this was going to be his best chance.
I felt dizzy once more, and I fell against the side of the corridor. I felt Dante's hands on my a moment later, but they turned numb against me. I was only halfway within myself, and halfway somewhere else.
Not somewhere else. Someone else. Abaddon. I was there, inside whatever passed as his soul. I could feel him around me. The power radiated like the sun. The only other time I had felt this much was inside the Box.
"Judith," Abaddon said, his voice soft.
I opened my mouth the reply before realizing he wasn't speaking to me. I could hear him speak? That didn't seem right.
"Judith," I heard again.
His power was all around me, but none of it was coming at me. He was distracted by something, wide-open for me to eavesdrop.
"I told you I would come, Abelard," I heard a second voice say. It was ethereal. Corporeal.
Rebecca.
"I'm sorry," Abaddon said. "I didn't believe you."
"It is well. I understand."
"I'm sorry."
"You've told me that a thousand times. I told you, I forgive you. I'm here. I've been here, all of this time, waiting for you. A spirit, waiting to be joined to my lost love."
"I killed you."
"And by killing me you brought us together for an eternity."
"I want to end. I want to be done with this existence."
"No. Please don't leave me, Abelard. Please. Not now, when I've finally found you."
"But Judith."
"Please. If you're truly sorry, you won't go."
I could feel his hesitation. Rebecca was baiting him, too, and he was falling right into her trap. How did she know about his lost wife, the one he had killed in a fit of rage?
"Abaddon," I said again, pushing a little bit harder. "You can't do this. We had a deal."
He heard me this time. I felt his power turn on me, overwhelming me and throwing me violently from his soul. I snapped back into mine, the pain of it a thousand lances across my entire being.
"Landon," he said. He was different than he had been before. He sounded more put together, more intelligent. Like the way he had in the Box. "My apologies, diuscrucis. I have reconsidered our bargain. Ten thousand years aren't long enough for me to make good on the wrongs I have done to my Judith."
"You'll destroy the world," I said.
"If she wishes it, yes. That is of little consequence now. I have long believed my love lost to me. I have long been remorseful and regretted my actions. I have suffered, and in that suffering wished to end. I suffer no more. I care not if humankind suffers in my stead."
"She isn't your lost love," I said. "Her name is Rebecca. She's a-"
"Do you question me?" Abaddon said, sending some of his power through the link. My entire body turned cold, and my vision began to fade from the sudden shock and pain.
I did question him. She wasn't Judith. I knew that for a fact. How could I prove it to him?
"Tell me where you are. Let me come to you, and I'll prove it," I said.
Abaddon was silent, though his power swirled within me, a maelstrom ready to unleash.
"Abaddon?"
The demon's voice was cold and calm.
"I have decided, diuscrucis. I absolve you of your promise. Consider our bargain satisfied."
I didn't have time to say anything else to him. One moment the bond was there, strong enough to choke me. The next, it was completely gone. The link shattered, leaving me feeling momentarily cold and alone.
It had been bad before.
It was much, much, much worse now.
Thirty-Nine
"Landon?"
Dante's voice echoed in my ears. My vision was blurry, but it started to clear as I shook my head.
"Landon, what happened?" he asked.
I opened my mouth to speak.
The boat began to shake.
"Abaddon," I said. "He's free."
"What?" Dante said.
"Damn Rebecca. She convinced him that she is the ghost of his dead wife. Can you believe that?"
The boat shook harder. I heard screams from further below.
"Down. He has to be down," Bradford said.
"Dante, you don't need to be here anymore," I said.
"I can help you."
I glanced over at him. He couldn't help me against Abaddon, and he knew it.
"Okay, fine. I'll return to Rose. We need to get her out of here."
"Good enough," I said. I pulled myself to my feet, feeling oddly empty without the demon's bond weighing on my soul.
The boat shook again, a little harder this time. I wasn't sure why. Abaddon's power didn't work like that. It was something to worry about later. We had to do something to stop Abaddon before he escaped.
The question was, what?
Bradford would be immune to his power. As for me? I was hoping he wouldn't kill me outright. That he would give me a chance to talk. It was a naive hope, but it was all I had.
"Come on," I said, leading the Nicht Creidem back to the stairwell. We ran down the steps, taking two at a time, following the source of the shouting.
Bradford didn't feel it as we drew closer. He was lucky. One step and I was fine. The next, and I felt a cold tingle growing within me, getting worse with every subsequent movement forward. The fear. It was part of Abaddon's power. From a distance, you felt frightened. Closer, you were terrified. Closer still, and midnight tendrils of paralyzing darkness would circle around you, envelop you, and finally wrap you up and take you in, feeding on your fear and your soul until there was nothing left but an empty husk.
It was a lousy way to go.
I fought against it the only way I could think of. I relaxed into it, letting my power sit ne
utrally on top of me like a blanket, accepting the demon's energy and asking it to change. I could almost feel it washing over me, cold one side, room temperature on the other as it was converted. I wasn't able to stop it all, but it did allow me to continue the descent.
"You okay, bro?" Bradford asked as we grew ever nearer.
I could feel the darkness of him, and I knew we were almost there.
"You don't feel it at all?" I asked.
"Feel what?"
Right now, I would have traded all of my power for that. "We're close. His power is slamming me pretty hard."
"Oh."
"Any sign of Rebecca?"
"Not so far. When she's in spirit form, she can float through walls and all that shit."
"Why did God think ghosts were a good idea? It seems pretty unbalancing to me."
"I don't think most ghosts turn so evil."
Rebecca was almost too evil. It was beyond what I had ever expected she would do.
We exited out of the stairwell and into the engine compartment. Massive turbines occupied both sides of the area, vibrating and thrumming while they worked to turn the ship's propellers. There was a light at the far end, spilling out of an open compartment.
Abaddon was standing in front of it.
I almost collapsed at the sight of him, my efforts to quell his power lost for a moment in the immediate. He wasn't the well-dressed warrior I had met in the Box. He was the dark and nearly formless demon, the black soul that stretched out in a shifting tide of pure death, reaching for whatever it could kill and eat and destroy.
"How do I kill it?" Bradford asked, holding up his knife.
I laughed at him. "You may be immune to his power. He's got a thousand years on you. He'll take that knife and jam it right into your eye."
Bradford didn't seem bothered by the comment. "Okay, bro. So what do we do?"
"Do you see Rebecca?"
"Nope."
Abaddon was stationary, his tendrils whipping around him as though he were in a storm. He looked like he was waiting for something. What?
There was movement at the other end of the engine room, and a second bulkhead door swung open. Abaddon's form shifted slightly to see what it was, as did Bradford and me.
Randolph Hearst entered the space, followed by half a dozen of his henchmen. It was easy to see that the vampire had drank heavily of Abaddon's power. His skin was dark as night, while his eyes burned a luminescent white. Wisps of the dark energy swirled around him with every step.
He leaped from the top catwalk down to the floor, landing a dozen feet in front of Abaddon.
"Sheeeeee's baaaaaccckkkkk," Bradford said, pointing at Hearst.
Abaddon's tendrils reached for the vampire. Hearst reached into his pocket, withdrawing an unevenly shaped stone.
"What is that?" Bradford asked.
"A Riftstone," I replied. An escape route. A way to go from here to any other demonic rift on the planet.
Rebecca had to have known Hearst had the stone, surely to use for his own timely escape. Now she was going to use it to evacuate Abaddon.
I took one long breath, pulling in my power and holding it. "Can you handle the drop?" I asked Bradford.
He nodded. "I got the power, bro."
I hated timewalking, and I had a feeling this one was going to get me killed. I had to do it, though. The only thing I could imagine was a lifeless world where Rebecca and Abaddon lived in sick bliss. Either that or God on his knees and letting her into Heaven to stop her from destroying everything. Rebecca. In Heaven?
Both of those images sucked.
I pulled time ahead of me and pushed it behind. As I stepped forward, I appeared directly in front of Hearst, reaching out for the Riftstone while still trying to fight against Abaddon's power. It wasn't my intention to stay anywhere near the demon. I just wanted the damn rock.
I got my hand on it, too, before the combination of Hearst and Abaddon's power slowed me down. Rebecca yanked her hand away, and a solid punch to my midriff sent me bouncing off a piston. I fell onto my stomach, coughing up blood.
"Landon," Rebecca said. "That was a nice move."
She dropped the Riftstone onto the floor, mouthing the incantation that opened it. Then she started walking toward me.
I tried to pull myself up, slow to recover from the hit. I wanted to heal, but the timewalk had weakened me, and I was struggling to resist Abaddon's power. I was barely on my knees when Rebecca approached.
"I'm sorry it had to be this way," she said, holding her hand up, claws extended and dripping with Abaddon's poison.
For the second time in an hour, Bradford fell from the sky. His feet slammed into Rebecca, knocking her back and away from me as he landing on his rear.
"You," she said with a hiss, planting her feet and pouncing at him.
"What did you think of that move, bitch?" Bradford asked, catching Rebecca and turning, throwing her hard against the side of an engine. She landed on her feet; teeth bared, her eyes wide in confusion.
Bradford's shirt had a claw-shaped tear straight down the center. There was no blood. No decay. His immunity was obvious.
Could Rebecca take him in a straight-up fight?
Maybe.
Maybe not.
"Abelard, we're leaving," she said, deciding not to try. "Landon, a little parting gift for you. Have fun with Randolph two-point-oh." She smiled and then vacated the premises. I couldn't see her in ghost form, but Bradford could, and his head turned to watch her go.
She and Abaddon entered the Rift and vanished.
Forty
I struggled to get to my feet, my body and mind exhausted from the time walk. I kept my eyes on Hearst, who was regaining his consciousness after Rebecca's possession.
"Landon?" he said, his white eyes locking on me. He looked truly scary in the dim lighting of the engine room.
"Randolph," I replied, putting up my hands. "I don't want to fight you."
Hearst looked past me, toward the compartment where Abaddon had been stored.
"What the hell happened?" he asked.
"Rebecca possessed you."
"Where's Abaddon?"
"Gone. She took him."
"Son of a... I knew I couldn't trust that bitch; that's why I brought Abaddon out here. How the hell did she know where to find me?"
I looked back at Bradford, who shrugged in response.
"She followed me," I said. "I was looking for Rose."
"Rose? Who's Rose?"
"The girl from the deli," I said, getting angry.
He thought for a second. "This high, big tits?" he asked.
I rolled my eyes. "Yes."
"Dammit. I told Rebecca to get her, too, but she refused."
"You killed Elyse," I said. "She was a friend of mine."
"If you cared that much, you would have kept your part of our agreement."
I heard a few light taps on the floor behind us. I glanced back to see that Hearst's goons had joined the party.
"You knew I wasn't going to just let you run around with Abaddon. I told you I would keep out of whatever you were doing, not that I wouldn't try to find a way to stop it."
"Now you sound like a demon."
I kept one eye forward, and the other on the approaching vampires. Bradford was watching them too, staying close to me.
"Rebecca just ran off with Abaddon," I said. "What are you going to do about it, Hearst?"
He flashed a dark, toothy smile. "First, I'm going to kill you. Then I'm going to find Rebecca, and I'm going to kill her. Simple."
I was afraid he was going to say that. I barely rolled away from him as he leaped toward me, landing amidst his henchmen and spinning on his heels. I was tired and weak, and he was super-powered.
It wasn't going to be pretty.
I couldn't do this on my own. Not where I was right now. Bradford was immune, but he wouldn't survive being choked out or having his neck snapped.
"Come on, Landon. You can do better than this."
He waited for me to get up. He even kept his subordinates back. Bradford was standing in the middle of it, trying to decide what to do.
"I recommend getting out of the way," I said to him.
He shook his head and pounced on one of the vampires. I took that as my cue to go on the offense, throwing my power out at Hearst. It hit him hard and knocked him back a few steps, but he recovered too fast, hissing and coming at me again. I caught his arm in mine, turning him and pushing him away. He was fast, he was strong, and he didn't really know how to fight. It was my one hope of winning.
I heard the fracas to the left as Bradford did his own damage, killing one of the vampires before he was tackled by two others. I needed him alive to help me see Rebecca, so I backed away from Hearst, grabbing them by the neck and throwing them away from the Nicht Creidem.
"Damn it, Bradford. Get the hell out of here."
"Dude, you can't fight them all alone."
"We can't fight them together, either," I said.
They were forming up again, and I could tell Hearst had no intent of coming in solo a third time. I pulled my power in, feeding it into my lungs.
"Alllyyyxxx," I shouted, extra loudly. It echoed off the surrounding steel, loud enough that the vampires grabbed at their ears.
I took advantage of the opportunity, taking the stone from my pocket at throwing it at the closest vamp. It changed into the spatha as it flew, embedded itself deep into the demon's neck.
Bradford followed close behind it, grabbing the hilt a moment later and wrenching it free. He put his arm out to deflect a claw, swept his leg to knock the vampire over, and brought the sword down in its belly.
Hearst roared and leaped at me again. I brought my power up ahead of me like a shield, but he was stronger than I was right now and it served only to slow him. I fell away, barely escaping a poisonous claw before he embedded Abaddon's decay inside me.
I scrambled to my feet, barely avoiding his next attack. Had Alyx heard me from all the way down here? I could only hope so.
"I had everything planned out," Hearst said, stalking me. "I was using Rebecca to drum up support down below. You know, they don't take me seriously in Hell. I'm just a blood counter to them. I've always been the second fiddle. The nerd."
Execution (The Divine Book 6) Page 16