ALLIANCE (Descendants Saga)

by James Somers

  “What happened?” Hitler asked, walking over to him.

  “One of my patients got out of control briefly,” Josef replied.

  “Are you?”

  “Infected?” Josef said, finishing his question. “Yes, I tested positive for the virus. However, I had enough time to vaccinate myself using the serum made from your blood.”

  “How long ago?”

  “Two days,” Josef said, smiling. “Two days and I have not developed even the first symptom. I’ve tested positive for antibodies. I am now immune.”

  Adolf smiled. “Excellent. Now that we are sure of the cure, we must decide the best means of delivery.”

  “I’ve considered this issue already,” Josef said.

  “And?”

  “With the serum we have seen changes beginning at roughly one half hour. Depending upon the subject, I would expect that number to be the same across the board. However, the virus will take longer.”

  Adolf’s gaze narrowed impatiently. “How much longer?”

  “The rhinovirus I have chosen generally causes patients to become symptomatic within a day,” Josef explained. “From the time the fever develops they should be contagious though they would not become violent yet.”

  “How long would that take to happen?”

  “Consider, my Fuhrer, that those who are caring for these sick ones could also become infected even before the violence. Transmission should occur by contact with fluid transfer to the mucous membranes. This wouldn’t be as sure as transmission through blood like a bite, but it is possible.”

  Adolf sat down on a couch opposite Mengele. “So you’re saying that these non-violent infected have the potential to infect many people before anyone realizes the problem.”

  “If they are only looking for the violence before they become fearful then, yes, these could infect quite a few and it might spread through the non-violent rapidly before the onset of further symptoms. A whole group, previously thought to be fine could become suddenly feverish and then violent within hours after.”

  Adolf considered this. “What about resistance to the strain? After all, not everyone is susceptible to the same diseases.”

  “True,” Josef admitted. “But those people would present a negligible threat to the spread. They would be running for their lives, soon killed by the others. You’ve seen already what they would be up against.”

  “Yes,” Adolf said, remembering the Jew at Auschwitz.

  “Now, multiply that kind of threat by hundreds of thousands.”

  “But we can reverse these effects?” Adolf asked. “I don’t want a world of these things. It must be contained to the Allies.”

  “Containment will be the more difficult aspect,” Josef said. “We cannot control where people go or who they come into contact with. However, once we synthesize more of the vaccine we can even sell it to these nations. Your war coffers would be refilled overnight. There will be a tremendous amount of wealth left lying in banks and vaults in every one of these nations.”

  Adolf liked the sound of that. The war had bankrupted them already, as was evidenced by their current state. If he was going to reclaim what had been lost and more, money would be necessary.

  “Josef, you said that you had become infected.”

  “Yes.”

  “And that you are a carrier now?”

  “Yes.”

  “Have I been exposed to this virus then?” Adolf asked.

  Josef remained very still at this point. He knew what the answer was. He ran down his contact with people since the incident all the way up to this point. “Potentially,” Josef said.

  Adolf rose immediately, his expression threatening.

  Josef rose with him, hoping the man wouldn’t strike him. Adolf’s temper and his strength were terrible to behold. “However, you are immune, my Fuhrer,” he said quickly. “The vaccine was made from your blood sample. You already have immunity to this virus.”

  Adolf considered this and his temper began to quell. But then he thought again. “Could I be a carrier?”

  Josef nodded.

  “Anna? My unborn child?”

  Adolf’s anger was kindled again. He remembered the gentlemanly kiss of her hand as Josef had entered the room with them.

  “But the child is of your blood and the mother protected because of the child,” Josef hastened to say.

  Adolf looked ready to strangle the doctor. “You had better hope so, Josef. We will watch and see if what you say is true. But if anything amiss happens to Anna, you will die by my hand.”

  Josef gulped. Then he nodded. He hoped he was right. His life now depended upon it.

  Doppelganger

  Sadie woke the next morning, realizing only then that she had managed to drift off to sleep again even after the appearance of Lucifer in her room. Malak-esh had never warned her again of his return. She was still safe, but wary of the visit. She couldn’t imagine that he had simply been looking for something to do with his time last night.

  Still, there was nothing she could do about the Fallen and her hunt for her last target must begin today. She considered the fight with Southresh again. Matters had gone much better than expected. Her confidence was emboldened now to finish the task with Adolf.

  Once she had disposed of him, she could then return to America. She missed her father and she missed Cole. Sadie hoped Cole had decided to wait for her like he had promised. They could finally have a life together.

  At least, that was the plan. She hoped they could have a life together. But the realization that she was nearing her goal—the goal she had focused upon for years now—made her wonder if she could return to a life that didn’t revolve around hunting down her adversaries. A dread of the normal hung in the back of her mind.

  She did her best to push that kind of thinking aside and walked out of her room at the inn. She came to the kitchen, finding the wife of the inn keeper there preparing breakfast for her guests. It smelled good, but Sadie didn’t want to waste any time. She paid her bill and departed.

  Emerging on the street, Sadie couldn’t believe what she was seeing. Across the street, on the sidewalk opposite, stood Adolf in his dress uniform. His cap was held under his left arm. A swastika armband wrapped his right bicep.

  “Surprised to see me?” he said.

  Despite standing across the two lane street from the man, Sadie heard every word perfectly. The smug look on his face was outrageous. She had been chasing him for so long, and now here he was. His audacity kindled the flames of her anger anew.

  “You seemed to be having such a hard time of it.” Adolf said. “I decided that you must have some help if you were ever going to catch me.”

  Sadie was too furious to speak. She bared her teeth at him, calling Malak-esh to her hand. The weapon came obediently, appearing quickly and gleaming with power.

  “Let us see if you are truly up to the task!” Adolf said, springing sideways to his right. A portal envelope swallowed his form almost instantly.

  Sadie hadn’t even noticed the shimmer of its presence. Stranger than this was the knowledge that Adolf could create portals at all. It had been her understanding that he did not possess this ability. Clearly, she had been misinformed.

  She launched herself across the street after him. Portals were clumsy devices when compared with other means of teleportation. It was a fact that even vampires, who normally possessed no skill with portal constructs, could still apply enough energy to activate the tell-tale traces left behind in order to follow their prey through.

  Sadie employed a similar technique here, activating Adolf’s portal trace and passing through after him. She would thus be delivered to the same place where he reappeared. Adolf was a fool if he thought he could lose her this way.

  The portal gave way to daylight again. Adolf was running down a cobbled street ahead of her. A quick glance told her that they were no longer in the same city. This didn’t even look like Germany. The language on several signs was oriental, possibly Ch
inese, but she had no time to concern herself.

  Adolf drew his pistol and fired. Bullets ricocheted from a nearby wall. Several more shots hit the window of a parked car as she passed. She raised the sword and kept after him.

  He turned and created a portal several meters ahead. Adolf passed through, leaving only the remnants of his laughter. Sadie gritted her teeth and followed, leaping through mere seconds after he vanished. She had to add her own power to the construct, but it was a simple matter for someone with her level of power.

  She could sense that Adolf was attempting to shut the portals down in some way, like sucking out all of the energy he had put to their constructs in the first place. She wasn’t sure if that was possible. However, if he did manage to collapse the construct completely, she guessed that it would essentially be like he had never created the portal in the first place. If that happened, she wouldn’t be able to follow him.

  Sadie emerged again, this time in Paris. The Eiffel Tower looming in the near distance left her with no doubt. Adolf was running ahead, trying to get to another portal. His look was more desperate now. Perhaps he had not expected her to stay with him so easily, and the threat of Malak-esh remained very real as she carried it like a torch running through the street after him.

  The street was still dark here. The sun had not quite risen yet. If only the people of this city—of this country—could know who it was that was running madly through their street. They would have rushed out as a mob to seize Adolf and put him to death.

  But there was no one else out at this hour. They rushed down the dew wet street—him running, and her chasing. Adolf uttered a curse at her in German just before diving through the portal.

  Sadie saw it drawing down before her. She struggled to make it. The circular opening was closing, a barely defined shimmer that he was pulling apart before she could get to it. She never would have guessed that he could do this. It was a trick even she had never learned.

  Increasing her speed, pushing her self to the limit, Sadie dashed toward the collapsing portal. She launched herself at the meager shimmer, hoping she wouldn’t be too late. She took hold of the portal in her mind, trying to open it again, but he was fighting from the other side to close it and she couldn’t overcome his will upon it.

  Seeing she wouldn’t make it if she ran, she dove. Passing through, the portal snapped completely shut behind her. She had made it. But this cat and mouse game could not continue. Sadie knew she had to do something fast, when they emerged again, or she might lose him.

  Sitting inside the Berghof, drinking scotch from stubby crystal tumblers, the last thing either Adolf Hitler or Josef Mengele had been expecting was the shimmering distortion that rippled the air before the far wall like the disturbed surface of a pond. However, the next event easily beat out the portal construct for least expected occurrence.

  Adolf Hitler, in full military dress, leaped out of the air at the portal to stand before them. He began to speak quickly. He also changed his appearance.

  “Lucifer?” Adolf asked, looking down at the scotch left in his glass and then up at the angel who had just been disguised as him.

  “I’m offering you one final opportunity to prove yourself to me, Adolf,” Lucifer said. The portal still shimmered in the air behind him like the surface of a pool.

  Mengele stood dumbfounded, unable to speak.

  Behind the angel, the portal began to do something. Adolf realized someone else was about to come through. He couldn’t figure out what was going on.

  Lucifer grinned at him, and the portal behind simultaneously changed color from almost clear to an angry red. Someone passed through like they had been diving into a pool. The portal, suddenly charged with a different sort of energy, crackled with what appeared to be red lightning.

  The energy conducted to the woman as she passed through the membrane. She cried out in pain and then hit the floor before them with a heavy thump. A weapon—a sword he realized—skittered across the floor from her hand. The weapon came to rest at Adolf’s feet.

  He started in surprise as recognition dawned upon him. “Malak-esh!”

  How had this happened? That thought was all that kept coming to mind. He hadn’t expected Lucifer to come again to him—at least not in this manner, handing him possibly one of the most powerful weapons ever made and his adversary on a platter. If anything, he had been concerned that the angel might kill him. But never this.

  Reflexively, Adolf reached down for the sword lying on the tile floor before him. Josef only watched. He hadn’t said a word yet. Behind the angel, the portal had disappeared completely.

  “I wouldn’t do that, if I were you,” Lucifer warned. “At least, not if you want to live.”

  Adolf paused half way to the floor. He began to withdraw his hand. “Why?” he asked.

  “I would have thought you knew already,” Lucifer said. “That weapon belongs to the girl. It knows her and will function only for her.”

  “And if I had grabbed it?”

  “You might be dead right now,” Lucifer said. “I’m not sure. Best not to risk it, especially when you could use the weapon in my service.”

  Adolf straightened, considering the angel. Mengele looked between them. He was still speechless.

  “How can I use a weapon that will not obey me?”

  “I’ve been asking myself that same question for years,” Lucifer commented.

  Adolf glared at him.

  “Her blood is the key to control,” Lucifer said. “However, her death will send the blade away to whomever she may have chosen as a successor. Already, she received this weapon from Oliver James that very way.”

  “If you had her blood upon your hands then the sword would think you were the girl!” Josef said, bursting into the conversation.

  Adolf and Lucifer gave the doctor an odd look. Adolf was actually surprised that Lucifer had allowed Josef remain alive. Then again, if there was anyone who seemed a disciple of this fallen angel it was Josef Mengele. He was called the Angel of Death by many already.

  “What do you want me to do?” Adolf said.

  “Kill the father when he comes for his daughter,” Lucifer said.

  “How do you know West will come?”

  Lucifer smiled. “Of course, he will come. The blood bond will guide him right to her and you. But you will be equally matched with Angel Fire in your hand. Just remember to keep the girl unconscious. Your doctor can accomplish that, I think. Otherwise, she will take the weapon from you in a heartbeat.”

  Adolf stood there for a moment, considering the angel’s words. “And what will I receive for this service?” Adolf asked. “Will you restore me to power. Will you destroy my enemies?”

  “Of course,” Lucifer said evenly. “You will have all that you deserve.”

  Desperation

  Brody brought his axe down again, splitting the log with one clean blow. He was tired and sweating. It felt good to be outside. It felt good to be working. With April drawing to a close it was getting much warmer.

  Cole had been away for three days. Brody wasn’t sure where he had gone. He checked in on a regular basis, but with Sadie gone for so long now he didn’t stay around all of the time.

  It was a sad situation for Brody. He had hoped that the feelings Cole and Sadie had for one another would have been enough to pull her away from this insane vendetta. But even love could not keep her from chasing phantoms.

  He felt bad for Cole as well. The young man didn’t deserve this kind of treatment from anyone. He was a faithful and good friend. He wouldn’t leave Brody here alone for long, probably because he didn’t want Sadie to know the loss of both parents as Cole had experienced. That and he knew that Brody had been his father’s best friend.

  Still, Brody had regained a good deal of his strength over the years since Adolf had attacked him. The ability to kill with his touch had not been as potent in him as it had been in his father Grayson Stone. Brody was truly thankful for that fact. Otherwise, he wouldn’
t be alive now.

  Another log on the stump. He whipped the axe back over his shoulder, preparing to bring it down again. A feeling struck him suddenly, causing him to hold his swing.

  Malak-esh was stored away in the dimensional space around him. But the sword was pulsing with power now. An angel was near, one of the Fallen. That was the only time it came to life on its own like this.

  Brody paused and waited. Would it be an attack? Somehow, he didn’t think so. This wasn’t Southresh. He would have felt the angel’s nearness even without the warning pulse of Angel Fire. And, since he knew of no other fallen angel in the world except Lucifer…

  He turned. Sure enough, the angel stood not ten yards away before him. He was dressed in a suit of more current style, though not American style. European Brody noticed. He didn’t give any more thought to it than that. It was unimportant.

  Brody waited. He did not speak. Since the angel was making the effort here, he would see what he wanted before he said a word.

  For almost sixty seconds Lucifer also said nothing. Then, when it was clear Brody would not open up the conversation, he did. “Your health seems to be returning.”

  Brody sighed. “I have no time for your games. I’m going to call out to my Heavenly Father. When I do, you will have to flee.”

  “So I should be quick?” Lucifer asked. “Very well. Adolf has your precious daughter.”

  Brody straightened. He appraised the angel for a moment. “You want me to go to her,” he said. “Obviously, this is a trap.”

  “Obviously,” Lucifer said, grinning. “But I’m sure that won’t stop you.”

  Brody was breathing harder now, his heart rate increasing with every second. “No,” he breathed, closing his eyes, leaning upon the axe now set against the stump. “Heavenly Father, I ask for your help to save my daughter. I am not capable of winning this fight, any fight, without you. Please give me victory today over my enemy in the name of my savior Jesus Christ.”

  Brody opened his eyes again. Lucifer was no longer standing there. Brody knew that he would have gone as soon as his prayer began. He could not remain, but had to flee.