by Hadena James
“You think this is my purpose? To feed magic to those around me?”
“Yes, because it makes them stay loyal to you. Not just the Overlords who are Bound or your family, but all of us. That makes you not just a leader, but a formidable opponent. You are a rallying force, a beacon of light for all of us who would see the world and our own breeds survive. You and I are the keys to their destruction. We are lynchpins. If we fall, everyone falls with us.”
“That’s why Jasmine was weakening the Box,” I said, seeing it fall into place. “Daniel may not have known about the partial soul inside, but she did.”
“That would be my guess, then you risked your own life to save us, to save me. I owe you, Brenna.”
“No Pendragon, no keeping score. I have this feeling that by the time it is over, we will all be indebted to each other.”
“You may be right. But do you understand now? Understand why you are so important? Understand why Jasmine is trying so hard to kill you?”
“Yes. And if you are right, then I can understand why she is trying to kill you as well. Tell me about the soul?”
“His name is…” Pendragon stopped, “no, his name is unimportant. Like me, he was plucked from the sea and like me, he had great magic at his disposal. For the first several billion years everything was fine. He helped me build the Island and the Prison. Helped me to hold it all together. Then he changed. It was gradual, gradual enough that we didn’t see it until the change had taken place. Too much power, I think. He became cannibalistic. Much like the Succubi and Incubi, he found he could gather the magic from those around him. However, he had to consume them to get it. So he did. He killed thirty-four Elders before we figured it out. It was realized that if he was dead, there was always a small chance that he could be resurrected and that just couldn’t happen. Pandora’s Box was being built at the time. With the help of some very dark magic by a very evil Witch, we managed to remove his soul from his body without killing it. At the time, Cerebus was just a three-headed dog, his pet. However, just before we ripped his soul out, he killed Cerebus. We had a fresh vessel to shove part of his soul into, so we did. But we knew we couldn’t put his entire soul in Cerebus or the dog would be a monster. So the other part was put into the Box.”
“One could argue that Cerebus is a monster.”
“Cerebus is not a monster, he is…” Pendragon seemed to search for the word that didn’t exist. “Cerebus was dead or we thought he was. Imagine casting a double soul spell with the other soul being that of an immortal canine-like being? That’s sort of what we did. Cerebus’s soul wasn’t departed when we shoved the other partial soul into him. So now the hell hound carries its own canine soul and the soul of the Elder. However, because the soul we shoved in wasn’t compatible with the body we put it into, something else happened. Cerebus had always been large, but he got bigger. He got meaner. He turned into what you see today. It isn’t his fault. He was predator before, now he is an apex predator capable of magic that he doesn’t understand.”
“You like Cerebus,” I said trying to hide the surprise.
“I always liked Cerebus, we all do. We were saddened when we thought he had died. He is to us what Gregorian and the chimeras are to you.”
I put my hands behind my head, relaxed into the bed and thought. Cerebus had once been a friendly, playful giant dog-like being with a good soul who had hunted for food. I tried to imagine that and failed. All I could picture was the hell hound.
“That’s why Daniel and Nick say he isn’t really dead and Daniel isn’t afraid of him. Nick on the other hand is terrified,” I finally answered.
“Probably, Daniel may have some sort of memory of what he used to be. I imagine he picks up the fact that we have some affinity for the dog that exists within the monster. And being Daniel, he can probably feel him still in there. Nick probably can too which is why he is terrified. Nick is not a necromancer. He is something else, something more interesting. He deals with the living and the dead.”
“Then what is Nick?” I asked.
“Nick is a creator of sorts. He can create bodies for living souls or resurrect the bodies if the soul has departed.”
“Thank you,” I told the Overlord.
“For what?” He looked at me, rolling his head, real surprise showing in his eyes.
“For making me understand, for taking the time to explain it.”
“We all need guidance in our lives once in a while. No need to thank me, just glad I could help.”
“What do you think about Nick and Daniel?”
“I think if anyone ever gets their hands on the both of them, someone like Jasmine, it would be very bad. And Brenna, try to cut Sonnellion some slack, he is almost as powerful as you and I. He is trying to be a good being, a good Demon, a good uncle, but he needs to know that we trust him.”
“Do we trust him?”
“I do. Sonnellion is much different this time around. His magic isn’t what it used to be. I consider it a sign. Besides, if he was going to do evil, he wouldn’t be living around his family. Mammon can read his mind. Beezel can read his feelings. You can read his emotions. If he were plotting malevolence, he certainly wouldn’t be around the three of you.”
“I don’t think he’s evil, I think he’s weak.”
“Weak how?”
“He was sort of dead for a very long time, finding his way around in this world is still new to him. Is he getting his powers back? Yes. Does he understand how to use them? I don’t know. And is he faring well in a modern, mixed society?”
“You think he isn’t?”
“I think he is still adjusting. There’s a lot to adjust to, he went from being a sort of dead boogey-man to being a fully living Demon with a complicated family and an even more complicated future. It takes time.”
“Spoken with a wisdom beyond your years,” Pendragon gave a dry chuckle. “Brenna, sometimes you astound me.”
With that, the room fell silent again. There were noises floating in from the hallway. There were noises floating in through the windows. But Pendragon was breathing deeply. Not moving or squirming in his bed. There was no need for more conversation. He had made his point and it had hit home. Perhaps, I wasn’t the tortured hero. Perhaps, this was just part of the journey on my road to becoming whatever it was that I was supposed to become. My mother was right, I had good friends and good family to help me along the way. Even more, I had gurus and guiding lights and guardians to help me. They would pick me up if I fell, hold my arm when I stumbled and dry my tears when I was wounded. The world suddenly seemed a much brighter place and all because I had taken a few minutes to get to know Uther Pendragon and his view of life.
Chapter Thirty-Three
I was still in the hospital. There were babies crying around me. There were siblings bustling to and fro as if they were doing something important. Anubis was back in the room with us. Sonnellion had also been wheeled in two nights before. Eli was sitting in a chair, looking very ill. I didn’t know where Lucifer was.
It was morning; two days had passed since the incident in Pendragon’s dining room. He was healing. The charred skin was carefully being scrubbed and exfoliated a little at a time by a very severe looking nurse who reminded me of someone.
Sonnellion was getting the same treatment. His skin had also blackened and charred, since he hadn’t had much, it wasn’t nearly as bad, but the effect was more gruesome. When he smiled, it reminded me of the skull with maggots that I had seen in my parents’ kitchen before he had been reinstated as a being with a body. I had changed my outlook. I no longer considered him resurrected. That would have required him to be dead and I knew that he had never been dead like others were dead. So instead of resurrected, I considered him reinstated to the race of intelligent beings that littered this planet.
More surprising than just changing my opinion on my uncle, I had changed my opinion about everything. I could be a magical vessel to help save the world. The role was growing on me and I found mys
elf smiling more. I was sure it would change once I was away from all the positive glowing feelings of my siblings and mother, but for the time being, it was nice.
Eli seemed to be getting the same “positive feelings” treatment that I was getting. Hence his being propped up in a chair looking like warmed over death. His skin was sallow and drained. His eyes didn’t seem normal, they were almost lifeless with deep, dark circles under them. His mouth always seemed puckered. He was listless and only his eyes roved the room and then only rarely.
“Why are you happy?” Eli asked my mother after a long cooing session at the newborns. “Your husband is still going through hell and you are in here cooing over your children.”
“Because that is what I am supposed to be doing,” Elise gave him a pointed look. “And frankly, just as soon as Brenna is capable of helping Daniel and Nick, you’ll be gone and I’ll get my son back. That makes me happy.”
I looked at Eli again. Had he been possessed? I hadn’t been told that, but judging by the way my mother spoke to him, it was a safe bet to say that he had.
With the calling of their names, Nick and Daniel entered the room. Nick walked a wide path around Eli. Daniel stood staring at him, before skipping past.
“How do you feel?” Nick asked, taking hold of my hand.
“Pretty good,” I responded squeezing his hand in response. “I haven’t had a chance to thank you and Daniel.”
“No need,” Nick kissed my cheek. “If we hadn’t done it, life would suck at the moment. It was a self-serving act.”
Daniel grinned at me as Nick spoke. It was clear that the revelation that the two could work in tandem had brought them closer together. They grinned and giggled together about some unknown secret, some secret we would never know or understand. It was nice to see the two boys had become so close in such a short amount of time. I looked back at Eli.
He was my compliment. It was the first time the thought had hit me. Like Daniel and Nick, the two of us could work our powers in tandem to create chaos and damage. My other siblings didn’t have compliments yet, but I was sure that it was a “yet”. They would, eventually, and I was sure Amanda would play a role in it. As if she had heard me think her name, her chubby clawed fingers reached out to me. They seemed to be pointing. My mother cooed at her and looked up at me. Elise was well and truly happy. It didn’t seem to matter that her son was possessed or that her husband was also likely to be possessed. All that mattered was that everyone was alive. I could understand her happiness.
“So, we’re supposed to do an exorcism?” I asked Daniel.
“Something like that,” he screwed his face in a weird way that made him look lost in thought. “Exorcism might not be the right word since Eli’s a Demon with a Human soul inside him.”
The irony wasn’t lost on me. I smiled and shook my head. I had seen all the demonically possessed movies on the planet. I enjoyed horror films with the caricature demons of Humankind. I was under the impression my father had been asked before the film was made if it would be offensive. He had assured them that it wouldn’t be. I agreed with him, it wasn’t offensive; those demons were nothing like us.
“How exactly did the Human get in Eli?” I asked.
“Jasmine,” Olivia answered as she took Amanda from my mother. “We don’t know exactly how she did it, but she forced two souls into Dad and Eli. Both are Human, Daniel thinks they are both living. So, Daniel is going to pull the souls out of the bodies and Nick is going to create bodies for them. But they aren’t strong enough to do it without you.”
“Sure,” I sat up in the bed and looked around. The Elders were all pretending to be asleep. “Do we know what the Humans looked like before their souls were removed?”
“That’s where it gets murky, we are trying to get the Human soul to tell us, but he is being a bit rude,” Samuel said.
“Have you asked nicely?” I looked at Eli. “What’s your name?”
“Does it matter?” My brother answered.
“Nope, I was just trying to be polite. Why won’t you tell us what you look like? If you leave it up to my brothers there is no telling what kind of body they will put you in. Much better in the long run for you to tell them.”
“I don’t like Elders.” He told me.
“There are times, like now, that I don’t care for them much either. That doesn’t change your predicament. My brother’s soul has retreated instead of fighting against you. But he will take back over and if he has to do it by force, your soul will be destroyed. We would like to get both you and my brother back over to some semblance of reality, intact, this is the best way we can do it. So, if you could be helpful, it would be appreciated.”
“Damn Demons.” He said.
“Ok, what were you doing before you ended up in my brother’s body?” I pressed forward.
“My wife and I were walking down the road and this stranger came up to us, he gave each of us a silver dollar and now…” My brother shrugged.
“Not Demons, Witches,” I corrected him. “Damn Witches did this to you. My guess, one of my sister’s underlings. Ok, so your wife, did she take the coin?”
“Yes.”
“Is she possessing dad?” I asked one of my siblings. Most of them shrugged. Elise gave a very slight nod.
“Good to know. So, you won’t tell us what you used to look like, how about how you want to look? Nick can create just about anything. What color hair? What color eyes?”
“Is this a trick?” Eli narrowed his eyes at me.
“Nope,” I assured him. “It isn’t a trick.”
I touched Nick, putting my hand on his back. Nick got the message. From the marble tile, streams of dust began to rise up towards him. He began to mold the dust.
“Brown hair,” Eli said. “And tall, six foot tall, muscular with a tan, and green eyes.”
From the streams of dust a figure began to become apparent. His skin was tan, he was six foot tall, with rippling biceps and defined pectoral muscles, even washboard abdominal muscles. I was guessing this was nothing like the guy looked like in real life.
“Now remember, if it is too off the mark on how you look, you won’t be able to use your driver’s license or get into your bank accounts,” I answered as my brother continued creating.
“Well hell,” the soul said. Nick let his creation crumble back to the ground. It disappeared into the tiled marble floor. “My name is…”
An hour later and a Demon police officer named Tanner arrived with a photograph of the happy couple. They were both in their fifties. The guy wasn’t even close to six foot tall, his wife was actually about an inch taller than him and she wasn’t taller than my mother. His hair was graying and he was developing a paunch, but they looked truly happy in the photograph. They looked like my parents, like they were in love. My mother deftly swiped away a tear that had formed while she had held the photograph.
“Ready?” I asked my brothers. They both nodded. I put a hand on each of their backs.
The magic began to grow. Again the backward running streams of dust came to my brother, he shifted it, molded it, bending it to his will to create a form. Daniel was building his own magic, little by little it grew until a large magical hand seemed to form. I watched in amazement as the hand of magic plucked the extra soul from Eli’s body and planted it in the one that had just been formed.
My brothers each slumped into a chair. Their magic exhausted, at least for now. The man was wiggling his fingers and watching them as he did so.
“It takes about a day for the form to feel solid,” Sonnellion told him. “After that, you’ll feel just like your old self.”
We all turned and looked at my uncle. The thought that none of us had really asked him about the experience struck me. We had been very thoughtless and maybe a little callous towards him. The fact that we had been licking our wounds from Magnus’s betrayal was no excuse. I walked over to my uncle and hugged him.
He seemed surprised, his body stiffened and for a secon
d, I didn’t think he would hug me back. Then his arms encircled me and I felt the great heaving of his body. I didn’t move. The others would know he was crying, but I would shield them from seeing him. My shoulder caught fire. My hair caught fire. And just as quickly, the flames died out. Another hand touched me and Sonnellion pulled away.
“Sorry, I forgot,” he blushed.
“So did I,” I looked at my shoulder. No burn marks, just some burnt material. My hair on the other hand would need to be cut. The hand touching me was Eli.
“How do you feel?” I asked him.
“Terrible,” he answered. “Can I have your hospital bed?”
“Sure, I’m done with it,” I gave him a smile and looked at the man.
“What about my wife?” He asked.
“We think she is trapped with Lucifer, but my brothers can’t fix her right this second and Lucifer wasn’t as willing to step back as Eli,” I looked at my mother who gave me another nod of confirmation. Lucifer didn’t have any Witch in him; he wouldn’t know how to not fight it. I hoped the wife’s soul wasn’t too damaged.
“Probably should have plucked her out first,” Rachel looked at the boys.
“I didn’t know it would exhaust them,” I shrugged.
“Me either,” she frowned. “Although, I should have, they were pretty bad when they arrived. I thought it was from battling the Box.”
“Where is dad?” I asked.
“Three floors up, in a quarantine room, next to Gabriel,” Samuel answered.
“Ok,” I grabbed my shoes and slipped into them. I looked at Nick and Daniel, they struggled to their feet. “When we get done, we’ll go get a huge box of donuts and maybe some Mexican food.”
“And then a nap,” Daniel answered.
“If you want one, sure,” I told him encouragingly. The man started following us. My mother stopped him. She took him downstairs to the cafeteria instead.