“Landon?” Lylyx asked, answering the phone on the first ring.
“Yeah, it’s me,” I said. “I was just checking in on you. Did you do like I asked?”
“We’re safe for now,” she said. “It took some work to get Izak away, and we barely made it out in time. A freaking army of demons stormed the gates about ten minutes after I talked to you. If it hadn’t been for Gervais I think we would have been toast.”
Wait… What? “What do you mean Gervais?”
“You shouldn’t be surprised, after what he did to Izak. It was only fair.”
“Izak branded him?”
“After he flayed him a few times and cleansed all of his scars. He made his own, with his brand at the center. I’ve never seen anything like it. He sent him out to fight them while we made our escape.”
She was right, I shouldn’t be surprised. “Lylyx, I need you and Izak to go back to New York. Find somewhere safe to hide, someplace far enough away from the city that Izak won’t be spotted. Just wait there, and I’ll find you when I can.”
Hopefully before Rebecca did, but I wasn’t going to tell her that. I didn’t want to move them closer to the oven, but I needed them to be ready for whatever might happen.
She hesitated. “Landon, are you sure it’s safe?”
There was no point in lying. “No,” I said. “It isn’t safe anywhere, but there’s strength in numbers. Just get there.”
I hung up the phone before she could say anything else, and considered Izak. The demon could be a huge problem if he decided to follow Sarah over to the dark side. I would have to put my faith on his love for Josette being greater than his love for her offspring. Nothing felt safe about that bet, but I was hanging onto the memory of him resting his head in Josette’s lap.
One more call to make. I pulled up my contact list and hit the call button.
“Ben’s crematory,” the voice on the other end said. “You kill ‘em, we grill ‘em.”
“Bad time for fire jokes,” I said.
“Sorry, man,” Obi said. “Hey, you sound like crap.”
“I feel like crap,” I said. “I’m getting my ass kicked out here, so please tell me you have something.”
“I’m working on it,” he replied. “I do have Thomas here though, and his initiate, Melanie.”
“Melody!” I heard her shout through the phone.
“Melody, right. We’ve been poring through the stuff you had in your trunk. Thomas thinks he knows what you’re missing. You’re never going to guess what it is.”
It was the way he said it that clued me in. That and the fact that the angel knew what I was missing. “The bible,” I said. I should have known.
“Wow, I didn’t think you’d get that one. Yeah, but not just the bible. The Bible. The first one, and I’m not talking about the first one penned by some monk somewhere, or written down by one of the prophets. We’re talking the original, written by the very first of God’s angels.”
“The first? As in?”
“Yeah, the Devil himself. According to Thomas, the Devil’s Bible is a rumor among the seraph, but he believes in it, and he’s sure your missing text is inside.”
“Why?”
“Hang on,” Obi said. I could hear the rustling as the phone was handed off.
“Landon?” It was Thomas.
“Thomas, why do you think the text is in Satan’s Bible?”
“The marker,” Thomas said. “Do you know what it means?”
“No. Do you?” I had spent hours trying to discover the meaning of the symbol that was left wherever a piece of text was found. I had never been able to determine its significance beyond the obvious.
“There has been talk for centuries among the seraph. Some call it a myth, some a fairy tale, some a rumor. Others believe it to be true. It is about the First Fallen, his bible, and the mark of the beast. They say that while most mortals have interpreted the reference to the beast to mean Lucifer, the term has nothing to do with him at all. In fact, it is said that the mark is mentioned in his bible, in reference to something else entirely, a creature with no name or identity that possesses the power to bring the downfall of all of God’s creations. To be honest, I never believed in it, until I opened your trunk and saw all of these marks for myself.”
I swallowed hard. “You’re telling me that the trail I’ve been following…”
“Is the mark of the Beast,” Thomas finished. “Yes, that’s my belief. My guess is that deciphering these texts will lead you right to it.”
The truth hit me hard. All of a sudden, I wanted to be ignorant again. Rebecca and Sarah were talking about a new lord, a new god who would overthrow the old one. A power that could destroy everything that had been created; the Beast. One whose whereabouts had been scattered across the world but tracked and kept safe by a collection of angels and demons alike. One who already had followers, including the Demon Queen and the world’s only true diuscrucis. One whose location was likely known to at least two of those followers. There was a reason I hadn’t been able to find the final text. I had a good idea who had it.
“Thomas,” I said.
“Yes, Landon?”
“We’re in pretty deep on this one. Rebecca is back from Hell. I think she plans on waking the Beast.”
There was a long, tense pause. “Are you sure?” he asked, sounding as meek as I felt.
“Not completely, but it’s a pretty safe assumption. I met with her over dinner, and she tried to recruit me to their new world order. She was talking about replacing God.”
“I’ve got to go,” Thomas said. “I have to tell the others, and send a message to the archangels.”
“Thomas, wait,” I said. “You can’t tell anyone else. I don’t know who we can trust. To be honest, I’m taking a risk trusting you.”
Another pause. “I understand. You can trust me, Landon. There’s a reason the Lord brought us together. There’s a reason Josette sacrificed herself to you. I will follow you in this.”
There was no lie, no deception. “I know,” I said. “Tell Obi that he needs to find Rebecca, but he has to do it without ruffling any feathers. I know she’s been using cellphones to communicate, so tell him to start there. Stay with him, and do what you can to keep him safe. Do you trust Melody?”
“Of course,” Thomas said, almost automatically. “Well… no, I can’t say I do, not with what you’ve just said. But I also can’t just walk away.”
“You’ve got to keep an eye on her,” I said. “And make sure she doesn’t hear anything that could give us up to Rebecca.”
“I will,” Thomas said.
“Thank you, Thomas,” I replied. “Can you put Obi back on?”
“Yes…”
My ears rang with the sound of gunfire through the receiver, the unmistakeable whoomph of the Desert Eagle unleashing silver fury. “We’ve got to get out of here,” came the shout through the line.
“Thomas,” I shouted, as loud as my tired lungs will allow. No response.
“They’re on the roof,” Melody screamed.
“Thomas,” I repeated. “If you can hear me, find Izak. He’ll be somewhere outside the city.”
“Come on,” Thomas yelled. “Obi, light it up and let’s go.”
I heard the clatter of the phone falling to the floor. I heard growling and more gunfire, and the crackle of flames. The texts, they had burned the texts. Without the strings, we wouldn’t be able to follow the mark. We wouldn’t be able to stop them from setting the Beast free.
Footsteps echoed in the receiver, along with muffled voices. I heard the floor creak, and the sound of someone lifting the phone.
“Landon, is that you?” Cho asked. “You’re missing all of the fun.”
I fought to get up, to move my body from my position in the bed. My limbs felt like lead, and my head began to spin.
“Landon, are you there?” he laughed.
“Laugh while you can,” I said, my menacing threat falling flat in a hoarse, croaky v
oice.
“Oh, I plan to,” he replied. “All the way to the end of your world, and the dawn of ours.”
The phone clicked. I tried to throw it across the room, but even that ended in failure. I fought to get up again, my body resisting every effort, my power useless in my current state. I couldn’t even scream in anguish and rage. I started reaching for the bell, but halfway there I realized it was hopeless. There was only one way to get back in the game, and that was to rest. My mind was racing a mile a minute, but as soon as I let my head go back to the pillow my physical fatigue overwhelmed me. I fell asleep instantly; a dreamless, empty sleep.
CHAPTER TWENTY
Charis was there when I opened my eyes, sitting on the edge of the bed, watching my every movement. I must have been thrashing in my sleep, because I found myself face down, my body splayed out across the expanse of the mattress, the blankets thrown haphazardly around me. I knew by the draft that certain parts of me were bare, but I found that modesty didn’t seem that important in front of her.
I closed my eyes again and reached for my power, finding comfort in the feeling of energy flowing into me with renewed vigor. I had been asleep for nearly twelve hours. It was way too long.
“How long have you been sitting there?” I asked, rolling over and sitting up. She had changed into a pair of yoga pants and a pink sports tank, her raven hair tied back in a single long ponytail.
“A few hours,” she replied, reaching behind her back and tossing me my clothes. “Did you make your calls?”
The question made me remember. I could only hope that Thomas had heard the last thing I had said. I grabbed the clothes and jumped off the bed, out from under the wards for the first time.
“She can See me now?” I asked while I pulled on my pants and shirt. Charis was still watching me, her expression flat, but her eyes dancing along my outline.
“Yes,” she said. “If she is looking for you.”
I nodded. “I figured as much. Tell me about the Beast.”
I could tell she was surprised. “You didn’t know about that when I left,” she said.
“Phone call,” I said. “Look, Charis, I’d love to keep playing this game we’ve got going, because you’re so darn intriguing and super sexy, but my friends are out there, and they’ve got a big red ‘X’ painted on them. You have to get me up to speed in a hurry, because if you don’t they’re going to die, and I have a bad feeling that will only be the start.”
She smiled. “That’s the spirit. Much better than the first time you woke up.”
I recoiled. I had come out of it a little battered the last time. I don’t know if it was the renewed memory of what it was like to be human, or a general feeling of pissed off that was fueling me, but I had reached my limit of self doubt and guilt. Charis had been right when she said I had done my best with Sarah. If she was going to be a brat about it, I was going to put her back in her place. Dante had put me in charge of protecting mankind from the bickering of the Divine. As far as I was concerned that extended to any Beast that could destroy, well, everything.
“I’m committed,” I said. “I assume you already were, or I wouldn’t be here.”
“Follow me,” she said, slipping off the bed and walking towards the door. I trailed behind her. “Like I told you earlier, it took me a long time to catch on to the secret war… the real secret war. I spent years following Dante, listening to his advice, going along with his instructions. I didn’t question it, because I loved what I was. I loved the power that came with it.”
We exited out of the room into a small antechamber with an elevator. She pressed her palm against a flat part of the wall and the invisible doors slid open. We stepped inside, the doors closed, and the elevator began to plummet.
“I was a spy during my mortal life,” she continued. “I worked in espionage for King George during the American Revolutionary War. My role was to get in with the American Generals and convince them to share their secrets with me. I used everything at my disposal; sex, violence, blackmail. I suppose that was what made me so balanced. I did a lot of questionable things, but my motives were always pure, my goals always honest. I was loyal to a fault.”
“No offense,” I said, “but the British lost.”
She cast me a glare that was both amused and offended. “One can only do so much,” she replied.
The elevator finally slowed to a stop, and the doors slid open. We were underground, in a long passageway that led out into the distance, too far to see what waited at the end. The corridor seemed as though it had been created by compressing the dirt outward in a way no machine could manage.
“You did this?” I asked.
“It took me a few weeks, but yes,” she replied. “It’s nothing you can’t do. As I was saying, one day I was hunting an archdevil, one of the First’s many offspring. He had decided to make a run on this world. I thought I had him in my sights, but he was a tricky one, with thousands of years of experience. I found myself trapped, my neck nearly severed. It would have only taken one little cut to end me.”
“How did you get out?” I asked.
“The archdevil was strong, but he had been reckless. He had attracted the attention of the Templars. That they showed up when they did was pure luck, nothing more. That they surprised him enough to keep him from making the final cut was just as lucky. Sometimes, Landon, luck is the only thing that saves us. A millimeter here, a millisecond there. Yet, I’m still not sure that luck is random, or if it’s engineered by something bigger.”
“You’re talking about God?”
“I was never a religious girl, even after going to Purgatory. I’m still not in favor of God’s overall design, especially when it comes to the balance. I was going to die, and the Templars saved me. At the last possible moment they saved me. He saved me. Not God, the Templar, Joseph. I’d always used emotions to my benefit, a tool to meet my aims. It was the first time I truly fell in love.“
I could hear the sadness in her voice. “I’m sorry,” I said. I really was.
She stopped walking and looked at me. “I don’t know why I told you that part. I feel like I can tell you anything.”
At least it wasn’t just me. “We’re cut from the same cloth, aren’t we?” I asked.
She tilted her head. “I’m not so sure,” she replied. “Maybe more of a mirror, like we’re reaching the exact same point from two completely opposite sides and reflecting one another.”
“Balance?”
“Yes.”
Our eyes caught for just a second, but so much passed between them in that short period of time. I felt a comfort I hadn’t known before, as though a missing piece of me had been put into place.
“So, the Templars weren’t created to protect the Grail,” I said, getting us moving forward again.
“They were, in part,” she said. “After Joseph saved me, he taught me about their history. He showed me his world, and I learned more about humanity, even my own humanity, than I had known even when I had been alive. I left my dreams of power behind, and took the oath of the Templars in secret.”
“Why in secret?”
“When Dante found out how I felt about Joseph, he had one of his little hissy fits. He tried to convince me that the Templars were servants of God, and needed to be held to the balance just like the angels. He warned me that if I kept up with Joseph it could only end in tragedy. They are servants of God, but it ends there. Unfortunately, he wasn’t completely wrong.”
She grew distant then, and I could feel the coldness run through me. We stopped walking and stood silently together while she made peace with the memory. I didn’t say anything until we starting walking again, but I knew what she was getting at. Everything was making so much more sense with every word she said.
“The Beast,” I said.
“Yes. The Templars were founded by the son of God and tasked with preventing the Beast from ever being given a new foothold in this world. In a sense, while you and I were charged with being the
bodyguards of humanity, the Templars are the guards of everything.”
“It sounds like a tough job,” I said.
She laughed. “I know you’re making light of it, but it’s harder than you think, especially since nobody is supposed to know their true purpose. They have to fight demons as though they are no more than servants of the seraphim, while being careful not to throw their weight too hard and make waves with the likes of you and I.”
“Okay, so I assume that the Templars have been following this ‘Secret Society of the Beast’ for thousands of years, and that’s how you knew about all of the texts you had me going around and collecting?” She nodded. “You made sure to arrange our meeting five years ago so you could drop your hint about it, and start prepping me, because you knew you would need me one day?” Another nod. “And you didn’t clue me in before now because you wanted to be sure I would side with the Templars when the time came?” She nodded a third time. “And Dante can’t know any of this, because frankly, we can’t trust anybody right now?”
“One hundred percent,” she said. “To be honest, I wasn’t expecting much from you when I found out you had been chosen, but I have to say, I’m glad I blew you up.”
As stupid as it seemed, I was too. “About that,” I said. “According to Dante, you killed a lot of Templars that day.”
She sighed, her posture turning heavy, her eyes dropping to the ground. “We decided to put the Grail out into the public so that I could take it as the Demon Queen. The goal was to get it into possession of someone that both sides feared more than the Templars, without giving away my true identity. I was going to hold the Grail until a new diuscrucis entered the world, and I was expecting to do it for a long, long time. It was a surprise to me that you came along as soon as you did, but I felt it the moment you were brought into this world. I contacted Reyzl and started making the amulets, creating a situation that I knew Dante would throw you into. The rest was just a little bit of luck and a lot of hope.”
Betrayal (The Divine, Book Two) Page 18