Dark Calling

by McIntyre, Cheryl

  Inhaling shakily, Keely looks down at her hands. She turns them over, examining her palms. The hairs on her arms rise and even they are glowing. It’s such a pretty color, bright in shade like Bryon’s eyes, but pale in illumination. She smiles back hesitantly. In her mind, she seconds Bryon’s earlier statement. She’s freaked out, but totally enthralled simultaneously. The only word she can manage is a nearly inaudible, “Why?”

  Lila circles her like a vulture before coming to a halt beside Bryon. She places her hands on her hips and inspects Keely from head to toe, then back up again. “It’s pretty,” she finally decides aloud.

  Bryon nods in wonder. “I say we don’t look a gift horse in her light conjuring face. Or however that saying goes.” Bryon shrugs and Keely squints at him.

  “Did you just call me a horse?”

  Once again, Bryon shrugs. Lila is monumentally giddy. Turning Bryon so they can continue on their way, she is almost skipping. “You are just full of surprises, Keely.” Smiling, she adds, “Do you realize that you basically became a flashlight when we needed light the most? It’s amazing.” She shakes her head. Lila’s long pink-blond hair falls over her shoulders as her tiny frame bounces with each step, reminding Keely again of a pixie.

  “Do you know how you’re doing it?” Bryon hasn’t stopped smiling at her.

  She mulls it over, constantly looking down at herself. She’s unable to wrap her mind around it. Light is coming from under her clothes so she knows her entire body is alight. “I’m not positive, but I feel a humming throughout my body, and something keeps rolling in my stomach. But not in a bad way. It feels almost normal to me.”

  “Do you think you could turn it off if you needed to?” Lila gives her a panicked look.

  Keely shakes her head. “I don’t know. I don’t even know how I turned it on.”

  “O.k. We’ll just deal with that when we get to it. We may need to hide and darkness is probably our only hope here.”

  Nodding, Keely bites her lip. She wants to try turning it off just to make sure she’s capable of it, but doesn’t want to take the chance of not being able to turn it back on. As it turns out, she doesn’t need to worry about this any longer. As they round the next corner, there’s a light at the other end.

  Keely focuses on switching herself off as they jog toward the light. She imagines herself as a lamp and pictures herself flipping a switch. When that doesn’t work, she thinks of a flashlight, like Lila had said. She envisions pressing the button. Keely even thinks about removing the batteries. Still she is glowing. Looking at Bryon, she bites her lip wondering how to stop the light. With several flickers, like the lantern shortly ago, her light abruptly burns out.

  Lila and Bryon look questioningly at her. She shrugs, unable to offer a theory.

  They are close enough to discern it is not natural light, but definitely coming from an electrical source. Keely can hear the hum from the wires above their heads, mirroring the feeling that had just been throbbing inside of her.

  Bryon stares at Lila. She nods, giving the all right. They hover around the open door, listening. There is a sound and Keely can picture feet anxiously shuffling. It’s followed by a long sigh and her heart thumps hard against her rib cage. Everything goes very still around Keely for an excruciatingly long second as it registers in every cell of her being that she knows that sigh. Without any indication she is going to make a movement, Keely rushes through the door, leaving Bryon and Lila in shocked silence.

  “Mom?”

  In the half of a heartbeat it takes Keely’s eyes to find her mother sitting restlessly in a dark wooden chair, Lila and Bryon are at her side.

  Kimberly Kiem stares back at her daughter, her mouth rounding in an O as if bewilderment is the only emotion she is capable of at the moment. She stands so quickly her chair tips over, making her jump as it hits the floor with a loud thud. “No.”

  “Mom?” Something seems very wrong to Keely. Shouldn’t her mom be happy to see her? Shouldn’t they be embracing in a long overdue hug? Shouldn’t… She looks around the room searching for her dad. “Mom?”

  Shaking her head, Kimberly looks at her daughter in horror. “Why did you come?”

  Before she can feel hurt by her mother’s reaction, Bryon is wrenching Keely’s arm. He pulls her back, shielding her with his body. Before, when bad things happened to her, everything seemed to slow down drastically. That has not been the case tonight. It all happens so quickly, her eyes don’t even have time to focus.

  A dark blur moves through the air at an insane speed. Keely can almost make out an outstretched leg right before Bryon’s head whips to the side with a spray of thick blood. A splatter of red drops hit her face. She is still reaching up to wipe them away as Bryon springs after the unknown being. Keely hears her mom scream and looks in her direction as Lila fills Bryon’s spot guarding her.

  In the past week, Keely has witnessed some miraculous and unbelievable things. None of it compares to what she sees in front of her now. With an athlete’s agility and a dancer’s finesse, Bryon strikes out at the impossibly fast attacker. His arms shoot out blocking, then returning blows with matching speed until Keely loses sight of his hands. Gasping from either shock, or appreciation, Keely takes a step back.

  Lila holds the bar out in front of her defensively. Her head turns from side to side, waiting for more danger. After only seconds more, two dark figures enter the room. Their frames vibrate slightly and Keely can see the mass of thick, dark, mutated muscle that makes up these Demons. They only have three fingers on each hand, but they bend into claws with sharp, black talons. Their eyes are small white voids high on their misshapen heads. She wonders for the slightest moment if they can see, realizing quickly they can as they turn to stare in her direction. Lila pushes Keely backward until she slams into the wall. Her back presses into Keely’s chest so firmly, she feels as if she can’t get enough air.

  Bryon kicks at the Demon’s face with a scary amount of strength. It falls back into the other two before they have a chance to make a move. Without turning his attention away from the hissing pile of Demons on the floor, Bryon stretches out his arm. Though nothing is spoken between them, Lila tosses the bar into his waiting hand. In one solid move, his fingers wrap around the bar so tightly his knuckles whiten, and he brings it down, slicing through all three Demons chest at once. There is a whooshing sound as the air rushes out of them and shimmering white salt fills the air. It swirls up around Bryon as if trying to hit him one last time, and then it settles to the floor like tiny pieces of hail in a storm.

  Keely and Kimberly Kiem lose their legs at the same time. Keely slides down the wall while her mom plops to the floor, crying with relief.

  Bryon pivots his body, the bar in hand. His eyes find Keely and he relaxes his stance. He nods at Lila as she smiles back at him.

  “We keeping score? I’m just asking because that would make it four—zero,” he taunts breathlessly.

  Standing there smiling as his chest rises and falls quickly, Keely thinks he looks like a super hero. This isn’t even his job and he kicks serious Demon ass. She feels her heart fill with hope that Nick is o.k. After all, Nick’s job is Guardian. He’s trained especially for protecting against these creatures. She wonders if he’s making his way through this place keeping a count like Bryon.

  Keely allows Lila to pull her up and she walks carefully to her mom. Squatting down beside her, she places her hand gently on her mom’s shaking shoulder. Her mother grabs Keely and pulls her into a hug.

  “You were not supposed to come.” She chokes back her tears now that the danger has momentarily passed for her daughter.

  “I had to. I couldn’t let him kill you.”

  Kimberly strokes Keely’s hair over and over. She pulls away quickly, but still keeps a hold of her. “Are you hurt?” Her hand brushes Keely’s bruised cheek.

  Keely shakes her head. “It’
s not bad. Where’s Dad?” From her peripheral, Keely sees Lila stiffen. This is followed by a scratchy dragging sound that sends a convulsing tingle down her spine.

  “Which dad are you referring to?”

  Keely stands, and faster than she knew she was capable, she is in front of Apophis. Bryon grabs her arm and pulls her back to him. He’s noticed something Keely has not in her rage. Apophis is flanked by about ten Demons. He also knows that at least two of them are Originals.

  “Where’s my dad?” A calm slides over Keely, blanketing her. She isn’t frightened at the moment. In fact, the only emotion she can muster is a cold loathing for her brother.

  “Again, which one? You need to be a little clearer as to which you are referring to since you do have more than one.”

  Keely rips her arm away from Bryon easier than she expected. She doesn’t know if her anger has given her extra strength or if he just hadn’t been prepared for her to do that. “I said my dad. Not yours.”

  Apophis smiles, liking the anger that is boiling in his sister’s blood. “You mean, ours, of course.”

  “I’m guessing you don’t know where our father is. Or you don’t want to know, seeing as how he is royally pissed about what you’ve been doing behind his back.” Now it’s Keely’s turn to smile because, although it is only for the briefest moment, she sees Apophis’ smile falter before he slams it back into place.

  “Oh, yeah, that’s right. I forgot to mention to you how I learned this neat little trick. It’s called dream meeting.”

  Lila clears her throat. “Visiting. Dream visiting,” she corrects quietly.

  “Dream visiting. Anyway, I’ve been meeting with our father just about every time I close my eyes. He isn’t very happy that I keep getting hurt. Hope you don’t mind, I mentioned you by name.” Keely stands a little straighter, refusing to be intimidated by Apophis’ penetrating glare.

  “Why hasn’t he come for you then, my sister?” He looks around them dramatically. Spreads his hands out in front of him. He looks at her sadly, pitying her. He changes expressions quicker than she can keep up with. She thinks he must be bi-polar.

  Keely knows why her father isn’t here. She told him they would be at Pandora, not knowing they would be entering a Demon realm. Granted, she hadn’t known about Demon realms at the time, but he was probably searching the tunnels under Pandora as they spoke. She doesn’t share this info with him. Instead, she just shrugs. “Doesn’t really matter though. Does it? I mean, you kill me, he’ll know it was you. You can’t hide forever.”

  Apophis with his ever changing faces shifts to incredulous. “I don’t want to kill you.”

  Bryon’s body goes rigid beside her. She ignores him as she laughs. “You’ve tried to kill me three times. Twice this week!”

  Lips spreading into a friendly smile you would offer to a child, Apophis leans toward her. “You are mistaken. I love you, my Keely. I want you to join me.” He places his hand over his heart.

  She leans forward, matching his stance. “Because I am able to do something very important?”

  Apophis straightens up answering Keely’s question with his action. She nods as if she knows what she is capable of, but really she is bull shitting her way through this conversation using pieces and parts of information she received from several different sources.

  He has tricks up his sleeve as well. With a motion Keely barely has time to register, the Demons behind him move forward. “I may want you alive, but I don’t need them.” He thrusts his finger at her mom and friends. All the fight goes out of Keely as fast as it came to her. Her mouth drops open, trying to think of something she can say to stop him.

  Apophis reaches out and pushes her chin up, closing her mouth. “What are you waiting for? Grab them.” He is looking at Keely while he says this, but she knows he isn’t speaking to her. Bryon shifts the bar, holding it defensively. At the same time, he grabs the back of Keely’s shirt, pulling her back so violently she stumbles to the floor. Three sets of feet move in front of her. Protecting her even though they haven’t got a chance against this many Demons. One of the sets of feet belongs to her mother. As Keely looks up in shock, she doesn’t quite recognize her mom. She has the same green eyes, same shoulder-length light brown hair, same business-casual clothes, but that is it. The expression on Kimberly’s face is one Keely has never seen. The way she holds herself in front of Keely is how the others stand. As if she has trained for this all her life. As if she is ready to fight to the death. Not exactly the cheery, mild-mannered realtor Keely has grown up with. Kimberly kicks the chair up in front of her, grabbing it while it is still in the air. Gripping one of the legs, she slams it into the face of the first Demon that approaches. The chair breaks into pieces, leaving her with half the leg as a weapon. She kneels, bringing the wooden leg down into the injured Demons chest as if she were staking a vampire.

  And this is when Keely knows with certainty that Kimberly isn’t just the typical soccer mom. This is the moment it all makes sense. Why it was so important for her to have her own child. A child with her same blood.

  Kimberly Kiem is an Angel descendant.

  The room becomes a blur of arms and legs and broken furniture. The air fills with blood and sweat. Keely’s ears tingle with the grunts and moans. She can’t just sit here uselessly sprawled across the floor. She gets to her feet and looks at the ground for something to garnish as a weapon. Plucks a large splinter of wood from the demolished chair and tries to decipher exactly where she can help.

  Across the room, she meets Apophis’ eyes. Somehow, without consciously making the choice, she wanders through the craziness in his direction. Lila’s hand slides down her arm in an effort to stop her, but her hand is coated in blood and sweat and she’s fighting ruthlessly against a large hairless Demon with ashy white skin. Keely glides right past her. Comes to a stop in front of the brother who has tried to kill her too many times.

  Apophis is leaning against the wall examining his nails. He hardly acknowledges her. Simply hooks his finger in the air as if to say ‘come here.’

  Keely raises her make-shift weapon above her head with both hands. From out of nowhere, it seems, Apophis pulls his mini-machete. The same one he used to slit her throat two years ago. “Join me or die sister.”

  Her eyes become slits as she glowers at her brother. “I will never join you.”

  For a heartbeat, his face changes into one of disappointment and then honest sadness. She thrusts her weapon at his heart, but he flicks it away and snatches it from her with one hand. He smiles at her, almost proudly. “Last chance,” he sighs.

  “I don’t want to be anything like you,” she chokes, accepting the fact that she is going to die.

  “You already are,” he says passionately. “We can take it all. Everything. It could be ours together.”

  Keely shakes her head and closes her eyes. “I would rather die.”

  Keely doesn’t see Apophis flinch away from her words. “I won’t kill you. I’ll take the lives from every single person you care about.” Her eyes pop open with terror. He lifts his knife, using it to point. “Starting with him.” Keely follows the point of the blade to Bryon, his back to them. He’s close enough to touch, struggling with a Demon half his size, but with a lot of fight in her.

  Keely tries to move in his path, but she’s too slow. The knife sails past her head, barely missing her. She turns with it, screaming out Bryon’s name.

  Bryon turns inhumanly fast hearing his name. Appearing out of thin air, Asmoday catches the knife before it makes contact with Bryon’s face, just as Bryon’s hand moves a half a second too late to block.

  Apophis makes an enraged sound deep in his throat. Snapping his fingers, his Demons stop their attack reluctantly. Lila takes the opportunity to finish off the one she had been fighting for some time now.

  By the time Keely turns back, Apophis and his remaining Demons a
re gone.

  Facing the room, Keely sees body after body appear out of nowhere as they join this realm.

  Asmoday closes the space between them in one stride. His body nearly touches hers. “The last time we spoke, you said you would be happy to never see me again.” He meets her eyes steadily. “Is this still true?”

  Glancing around her, she observes that her mom is o.k. Bryon is battered, but alive. Lila is limping, but otherwise all right. “No. I have never been happier to see you, Asmoday.”

  He smiles one of those smoldering smiles that are way too intimate and make Keely feel all gooey, and nervous, and disgusted all at the same time. He touches her face gently. “I did not do this.”

  She brushes his hand away softly. “Apophis. Again.” She looks past him as more and more bodies fill the room. Many of them are human, but several are most definitely Demon. Bryon isn’t sure if he can relax or not until the next person arrives. “Michael?”

  Kimberly’s head snaps in Michael Laszlo’s direction. They hold each other’s gaze for a moment before he puts his hand on Bryon’s shoulder.

  “Who are all these people?” Keely looks back to Asmoday. She notices he is still too close to her. She takes a step back leaning on the wall behind her.

  “I led a group to Pandora to find you and Apophis. We stumbled upon another team in search of you down in the tunnels. After a small altercation, and some shared information, we began working together. Once we knew you must be in another realm it was easy to find you. I followed your essence and knew where you were immediately.”

  “Keely!”

  Her name never sounded so wonderful in all her life. Nick’s strong arms pull her away from Asmoday and into his chest. She clings to him, afraid if she lets him go he’ll disappear as quickly as he appeared. “Are you o.k.?”

  Keely raises her head enough to see his face, but doesn’t release her grip on him. They both gasp at the same time, stunned by the other’s injuries. She caresses his puffy eye, trails her fingers down his purple and swollen cheek, runs them across his bloodied lip. “I’m fine now. But you, what happened to you?”