Cataclysm (Alternate Earth Series, Book One)

by S. J. West

  “Too bad I can’t fight you one on one,” this world’s Jered says to ours. “It would make for an interesting match.”

  “Yes, it would,” Jered agrees with more grit in his voice than I’m used to hearing. “I wish I could repay your gentle handling of me when I first arrived. I always try to give a proper thank you to my host.”

  “You should really leave here while you still have the chance, Brand,” Will says with a cocksure smile. “There’s no telling what might happen.”

  “Funny,” Brand replies. “I was just about to suggest the same thing to you, Will. Your body is human, after all.”

  “You would think,” Robert says, looking between Brand and Will with an expression similar to that of a disappointed father, “that after all these years the two of you would have worked out your grudges against one another.”

  “Betrayal is a hard pill to swallow when it comes in the form of your best friend,” Brand replies.

  “I chose a side,” Will tells Brand unapologetically, “just like you did.”

  “You chose the wrong side,” Brand says, with great deal of disappointment.

  “That’s your opinion,” Will counters.

  “Enough squabbling,” Lucian complains. “It’s time for the show to…”

  Before Lucian can finish his sentence, Nina phases to the circle of angels meant to protect Baal while he prepares to unleash the fourth seal. She attacks Mammon to draw him away, and gets this reality’s Jered as a second opponent. Our Jered attacks Robert while the inevitable pairing of Brand and Will takes place.

  Malcolm groans in disappointment, “Ugh, Belphagor. I was hoping for more of a challenge.”

  Malcolm phases in front of Belphagor, and strikes at the prince of Hell with his sword. Belphagor blocks the strike with his idiotic mace, but just barely. I guess I shouldn’t have expected more from the harbinger of sloth.

  Lucian stares at Mason and me. “Well, what are the two of you waiting for, an engraved invitation? Don’t you want to defend the honor of your wife, Samyaza? Honestly, how did I get so lucky to be given the chance to kill you twice in my lifetime?”

  “Lucifer didn’t kill me in the war in Heaven, and you won’t be killing me on this Earth,” Mason informs Lucian tersely.

  “Especially not with me by his side,” I add.

  Suddenly, Lucian phases in front of Mason and me.

  “We’ll see about that,” he tells us.

  Lucian raises his sword, slashing its edge at us. We both block his blade with our swords and work in unison to push him backwards.

  “Jess,” Michael says to me, turning my head to see the opening Lucian has left to reach Baal, “go!”

  I hesitate because I don’t want to leave Mason to fight Lucian by himself, but I know I have to take advantage of the opportunity to stop Baal from releasing his seal. I fall back from the fight and allow Mason to use his skill with a sword to keep Lucian distracted. I know he won’t find my husband as easy an opponent as he thinks.

  With everyone busy in their respective fights, I’m able to run up onto the rock and head straight for the open space Lucian left. I see Baal with his head bowed and his hand over his heart, like he’s waiting for something. I raise my sword as I run for him, but my way is unexpectedly blocked by Ravan Draeke, the sword Jered brought her pointed straight at me. She grips the hilt it in a way that makes me think she might actually know how to use it.

  “I don’t want to kill you, but I will,” I tell her. “Get out of my way!”

  “No,” she says simply, staring at me, completely unmoved by my threat.

  “We know who you are,” I tell her, hoping to catch her off-guard. “We know you’re a descendant of Lillith.”

  Ravan tilts her head slightly as she looks at me. A slow smile spreads her full lips.

  “Impressive,” she says to me. “I didn’t think you would even get close to figuring out who I really am. And look at you…you almost got it right.”

  Almost.

  The word echoes in my mind.

  “What do you mean ‘almost’?” I ask.

  “I’m not a descendant of Lillith,” Ravan says, continuing to smile as she raises her sword. “I am Lillith.”

  Ravan charges me, taking advantage of my momentary pause as the full weight of her unexpected revelation hits me.

  At the last moment, I’m able to block the first swing of Ravan’s sword, but that doesn’t deter her from continuing her attack. The speed and accuracy with which she wields her weapon tells me that she’s an experienced swordswoman who has been taught well. Nevertheless, she’s no match for me, because I have Michael’s experience to pull from. Plus, I don’t play nice or fair when the fate of the world is at stake. When I see my opening, I crouch and sweep a leg towards Ravan’s to knock her down. She falls, knocking her head against the edge of a portion of rock, which renders her unconscious.

  I immediately turn my attention back to Baal. I see him begin to raise his arms towards the sky. I feel certain I won’t reach him in time if I try to run. Instead, I leap into the air with my sword pointed forward, and fly directly at him. Just as my sword pierces his side, a ball of white light soars out of his chest and into the sky. A hot, powerful wave of energy sends me tumbling through the air until I hit one of the fragile temple walls.

  From my supine position on the ground, I’m able to witness the large orb of light burst, illuminating the night sky with a multitude of smaller balls of light.

  Suddenly, I hear a sharp crack fill the air. I have just enough time to look over at the top of the wall I’m lying beside, and watch helplessly as it topples down to land right on top of me.

  And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth.

  Revelation 6:8

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  “I think she’s waking up,” I hear Leah say, just before I open my eyes and see her beautiful face hovering over mine.

  “Hey,” she says, greeting me with a relieved smile. “How do you feel?”

  “Like I had a wall fall on top of me,” I complain, knowing that’s exactly what happened.

  Mason comes to stand by the bed, and Leah quickly vacates her spot beside me so he can sit down.

  “Out of everything that could have happened to you,” Mason says, “a wall ends up being your nemesis.”

  “I know. Only me.”

  Mason leans over and gives me a small kiss on the lips.

  “Luckily,” he tells me, “only that one section of the wall fell on you. The rest of it collapsed in the opposite direction.

  “We didn’t stop it,” I say, not worried about a stupid wall. I feel like a complete failure for not stopping the princes from opening the fourth seal. “We didn’t do anything, Mason.”

  “We showed them that we won’t stand idly by and let them destroy this world,” Mason tells me, finding what good he can out of our time here so far. “And, like we’ve discussed before, I think we might need to consider the real possibility that we aren’t meant to stop what’s happening here, Jess. Maybe we’re simply supposed to bear witness to it.”

  “I don’t believe that,” I say with conviction. “We have to find a way to stop them. There has to be a key to ending this. We just haven’t found it yet.”

  “If that’s what you believe to be true, then we’ll figure out how to bring an end to what’s happening,” Mason says, showing his unquestionable faith in my judgment.

  I begin to feel a burning sensation where my bracelet is hanging around my wrist. It grows so hot I actually hear my skin begin to sizzle.

  “Get it off!” I yell, but Mason is already grabbing the bracelet. He immediately breaks a link and rips it off my wrist, throwing it onto the floor.

  “What the hell happened?” he asks in alarm, examining the blistered flesh left be
hind by the bracelet JoJo and Chandler made for me.

  “I have no idea,” I say, holding back tears to conceal my pain.

  “Leah,” Mason says, turning his head to look at her, “get Rafe!”

  Leah rushes out the door and returns a few minutes later with our resident healer.

  “How on earth did this happen?” Rafe asks, examining the burns before gently placing his hands around my injured wrist.

  “For some reason, the bracelet became so hot it burned my skin,” I tell him. “It grows warm if I’m near someone who wishes me harm, but it’s never done this before.”

  “Who was in the room with you?” Rafe asks.

  “Just Mason and Leah.”

  Brand phases in to fill the open doorway of my room, holding a tablet in one of his hands.

  “There’s something the two of you need to see,” he tells Mason and me as he walks into the room. Brand’s alarmed expression turns into one of confusion when he sees Rafe’s hands glowing blue. “I thought you already healed all of her injuries.”

  “I did,” Rafe says, taking his hands away to reveal newly-healed skin. “Her bracelet gave her a new one.”

  “How?”

  I explain to Brand how the bracelet works.

  “Oh,” he says, looking concerned, but not completely surprised by my explanation. “Are you sure they have to be near you for the bracelet to pick up on the hostility?”

  “Why?” I ask, noticing his sudden unease. “What’s wrong? What’s happened?”

  Brand hands Mason the tablet in his hands.

  “I came up here so you could watch this,” Brand tells us. “Ravan just gave a press conference and, well…there’s something you both need to see.”

  Mason changes his position on the bed so we can watch the video together.

  After he presses play, I see Ravan standing behind the President’s podium, resembling someone who was in a fight and came out on the losing side. There is a large bruise covering the right side of her face. I can only presume it happened when she fell on the rock during our altercation. But her left eye is swollen, and her bottom lip is sliced open in the center. Those injuries, I know I didn’t cause.

  “Ladies and gentlemen of the world,” Ravan starts out in a quavering voice. “I am here to beg for your assistance. My fiancé,” she pauses for dramatic effect as tears well in her eyes, and she grips the top of the podium for added support, “has been kidnapped.”

  A collective gasp can be heard from the group of reporters in the room. Cameras begin to flash, chronicling Ravan’s pain and loss.

  “What can we do to help?” a reporter asks, sounding on the verge of tears herself.

  Suddenly, two very true-to-life holograms of Mason and I appear beside Ravan’s podium.

  “You can help me by finding the location of these two people,” Ravan says tearfully. “They are the terrorists who took Gabriel away from me and…caused me to lose my baby.”

  Heated outcries fill the room.

  “Please,” Ravan says, holding a hand up as she tries to calm the people in front of her. “If you truly want to do something for me, help me find these people and make them return Gabriel to me. I have already lost so much because of them. I refuse to lose the man I love, too. If you have any information that might lead to the discovery of their whereabouts, please call the number at the bottom of your screen. Anyone providing information that leads to their arrest and the rescue of my fiancé will be richly rewarded. Thank you.”

  The video ends.

  “She’s made sure the whole world hates us,” I say to Mason in dismay. “The bracelet must have sensed it somehow. All that hatred made it react the way it did.”

  Mason hands the tablet back to Brand.

  “Thank you for letting us know what’s going on,” Mason tells him. “If you all don’t mind, I would like to have a private word with my wife.”

  After the others leave, Mason closes the door to our room and crawls into bed with me. He brings me into his arms and simply holds me close.

  “She’s Lillith,” I tell Mason, realizing I hadn’t actually said it aloud yet.

  Mason looks down at me.

  “Did you just say she’s Lillith?” he asks in disbelief.

  “Yes. That’s what she told me.”

  Mason remains silent until he finally confesses, “I’m not even sure what to say about that.”

  “How can she still be alive?”

  Mason thinks through the possibilities. “It could be that she made some sort of deal with Faust for immortality. I can’t say I’ve ever heard of djinn using their magic in such a way, but it’s the only possible explanation I can think of. She doesn’t look the way I remember her looking.”

  “What do you think Lucian plans to do with her? What does she have to offer him?”

  “I’m not exactly sure.”

  “Do you think Lucian wants her to produce an offspring like Lilly, half-human and half-Archangel?” I ask.

  “It’s possible,” Mason say, not sounding convinced. “But why wait until now to do it? I don’t think that’s his end game here. I think he might have something else planned.”

  I hold Mason even tighter, wondering if we’ll ever solve anything that happens on this alternate Earth. At the rate things are going, the odds look slim.

  We still don’t know what the princes are searching so hard to find or what their plans for Ravan entail. We don’t have a clear plan to stop them, because we still don’t have all the information. The only thing we have working in our favor is the fact that Gabriel is locked up in our basement.

  Gabriel was brought back to the castle and placed in the graviton cage for safekeeping. Though, from the way Lucian reacted to us taking him, it seemed as though we took the most worthless prince to him. Since Baal had the fourth seal, it’s obvious now that our knowledge about who has which seal is useless. It is possible that Gabriel already released his seal. Nevertheless, it was a good lesson to learn. Now we know that we can’t rely on the information from our own reality. The same rules don’t necessarily apply here.

  “Do you think I actually made her have a miscarriage?” I ask Mason, finding it hard not to feel a sense of guilt.

  “I doubt she was ever actually pregnant,” Mason says confidently. “It was most likely a ploy to help get people excited about the wedding. She’s using people’s sympathy to make them hate us and love her. You can’t believe a word that comes out of that woman’s mouth, Jess.”

  “I’m sure you’re right,” I agree, even though I have a hard time shaking off the feeling he might not be. “It was probably a lie.”

  But, what if it isn’t? I think to myself. What if I really did cause Ravan to lose her child?

  I know from personal experience that mothers love their children from the moment they learn of their existence inside their womb. I was already in love with a son who hadn’t even been conceived yet. If I did cause Ravan to lose her baby, I had just shot up to the number one spot on her hit list. She would come at me with everything she had in her arsenal, and I wasn’t completely sure I would be able to stop her.

  “I think I’m ready to tell you my secret now,” I say to my husband.

  “Are you sure?” Mason asks, sounding surprised.

  I sit up in bed and turn to face him, as he keeps his back propped up against the bed’s headboard.

  “Gabe has seen something about our future,” I say. “He had a vision about baby number three.”

  Mason grins happily. “Did he tell you if it would be a boy or a girl?”

  “Are you sure you want to know?” I tease.

  “Of course I want to know! Who always makes Rafe do an ultrasound as early as possible? Me!”

  “It will be a bouncing baby boy,” I reveal.

  Mason attacks me, but in a good way. He pushes me backwards on the bed so he can hover over me and dot my face with small kisses.

  “I needed to hear that today,” he tells me. “I’m glad you wait
ed until now.”

  “I hoped it would lift your spirits,” I tell him.

  “So…do you think you might actually be pregnant now?” Mason asks excitedly.

  “No. I know for a fact that I’m not. I asked Brand to find me a pregnancy test. It came out negative.”

  “Well, you know what that means,” Mason says, using his teeth to tug on the bottom of my ear. “I’m just going to have to work extra, extra hard to knock you up.”

  I laugh and roll Mason over on the bed until I’m straddling his hips with my own.

  I wiggle against him just a bit and say, “It feels like you might be preparing to start on that job right now.”

  Mason grins. “I’m always up for a challenge.”

  Before I have a chance to lean down and kiss my husband, there’s an insistent knock on our door.

  Mason phases out from beneath me to open it.

  I see Malcolm standing in the hallway with a worried look on his face.

  “The two of you need to come to the living room, now,” he says hurriedly, before phasing.

  I stand up from the bed as Mason walks back to me to phase us down to the living room.

  It looks like everyone is present and watching a news report on the holographic TV.

  It’s a split-screen broadcast. On the right, a male reporter stands on a sidewalk in Times Square. On the left, a well-dressed woman sits on a clear plastic stool in a newsroom. The red background behind her is digital with the letters CNN in white flashing across it.

  The man looks a bit frantic as he keeps his eyes directed towards the lens of the camera in front of him.

  “Brice, can you describe to us what you’re seeing?” the woman asks.

  “It’s madness down here, Jeanine!” Brice yells as a line of armored black military vehicles drive behind him. “No one seems to be able to tell me what is happening. All I can say from personal experience is that it’s like a bad horror movie come to life.”

  “What have you seen?” the woman asks apprehensively.

  “Lowell, can you run that footage we got just a minute ago?” Brice asks someone behind the camera.