by Hadena James
We didn’t have any problems finding either room. Gabriel’s door was glowing and Azreal sat outside it, behind his chair was a stack of doors. I was guessing it was to replace the ones that melted. My father was bellowing in the room next door. The sound was eerie and echoed.
“Brenna?” Azreal looked at me.
“Hi, we’re going to exorcize my dad. How’s Gabriel?”
“Still healing. He’s getting better, it’s just slow.”
“I’ll check in on him when we’re done.”
Nick opened the door to my dad’s room. He looked as terrible as Eli, only being strapped down made him seem evil or worse. He writhed and shook on the bed. His eyes seemed glazed, staring into a nothingness that we couldn’t fathom.
“Are you two ready?” I asked. They were slumped back into chairs. Daniel gave a sigh. Nick began to pull dust from the tile floor.
“Would it be easier if you used only my magic?” I stopped Nick, the dust fell back.
“Probably not, but we’ll try it,” he sat still and let me push magic into him. The dust flowed again, seeming to appear just above the surface of the marble and streaming upwards towards his hands.
There would be no talking to this soul. Lucifer was too powerful, too unknowledgeable to step back and let the soul be. I was hoping we were right about the soul being that of the wife downstairs. I would deal with the dark magic afterwards.
The form grew into that of a woman. Nick was struggling to hold all the magic together as Daniel began pulling magic from me. I moved in closer to Nick, instead of letting them pull, I pushed it into them. The form grew faster, Daniel’s magic hand seemed to form quicker. I pushed more, shoving the magic into them, but trying not to disrupt their own.
Finally, the hand plucked the soul from Lucifer. His bellowing stopped. Daniel put the soul into the newly formed body. Nick broke his magical tether to the form. It stayed in place, blinking rapidly. She looked at her hands, then used them to feel her face.
“Oh my god,” she fell to her knees and began to weep.
“Azreal,” I said as I stepped into the hallway. “Would you kindly take this woman down to my mother in the cafeteria?”
Azreal stepped inside. His massive frame picked up the sobbing woman and carried her from the room. It was my turn to sag. I sagged into the bed that held my father and waited.
An alarm sounded. I pulled myself up and found the door to Gabriel’s room had melted, triggering some sort of alert. Light washed the walls across the corridor from the door. It wouldn’t take long for them to start glowing. I stuck my head back into the room.
“I’ve got to help Gabriel,” I told them.
“We’ll go,” Daniel stood and grabbed Nick.
“You’ll be burned,” I told my brothers.
“We know, but we’ll follow you into the light of your Angel to save him,” Nick answered. He looked tired.
I didn’t understand exactly what that meant, but I decided there wasn’t time to argue. If they followed, they followed. They were getting old enough to make those decisions on their own. And soon, they may not have a choice but to make them.
They grabbed my hands as we stepped into the searing light and pushed through the doorway.
`The room reminded me of Pendragon. The walls were charred, the paint peeling to show the marble underneath. The ceiling had already crashed in, revealing more marble. Molten pools of silver lay in different areas. We avoided those. The light hurt. I could feel my skin starting to blister. I was getting used to being burned, probably not a good sign.
Gabriel didn’t look much like Gabriel. His skin was like the ceiling, gone. He had no features. He had no wings. The light was emanating from him in waves, not a steady stream. I wasn’t sure what this was, but it wasn’t what I had seen before.
“What do we do?” I asked anyone.
“We feed him power,” Nick answered. “Force him to heal. It would be better with Dad and all the Uncles, but…”
But they were all struggling with different things. One of them was catching Jasmine. I knew they couldn’t help.
“Why is he still like this?” I asked.
“He’s cursed,” Daniel answered. “Like you were, only worse.”
“His soul is cursed,” I looked at my youngest brother. His face was starting to blacken. He nodded.
“Like Anubis?” I prodded.
“No, it hasn’t been there as long.”
“Ok,” I looked at Nick. Nick gave me a thin, grim smile. We were going to do something very dangerous.
I began to move the magic around the room. Time was slipping away from us. I could feel it as it seared into me. But this had to be done very carefully. I drew magic into myself, pulled it from the corners of the room, from outside in the corridor, everywhere my mind could find it. I held it for just a second before shoving it into the Overlord.
He screamed. His body bucked, the magic tried to recoil. I forced in more. I felt the magic inside Gabriel swell. I took hold of Daniel and Nick’s hands and drained as much magic as I could from them. I gave one last shove.
The curse broke, flinging magic into the room. Gabriel continued to scream, it sounded like a dying animal. Nick pushed my head down under his chest. Protecting me. I felt more heat slam into us and then wash over us.
It went silent. Not even the sound of our breathing could be heard. I wondered if I had gone deaf. I was still tucked under Nick and realized neither of us were breathing. I squirmed out and found Daniel. Also not breathing. If they hadn’t been Elders, it would have been a bad thing for them to not breath, but I remembered the feel of the heat and the wish to keep my lungs from searing. I took a deep breath. They didn’t hurt.
Nick groaned. Daniel echoed him. I looked at both. They had been burned, badly. Gabriel was no longer emitting light. He was still a mess though.
Doctors and nurses and Demons rushed into the room. Azreal scooped me up. He carried me while a few other Demons carried my brothers. We went back to my hospital room. Eli was still in my bed.
“Wow, you guys look awful,” Eli said, getting up. “I don’t know which one of you needs to be in the bed the worst.”
“Nick,” I answered.
“I’m fine,” Nick answered. “I want my donuts though.”
“I’ve trained you well. Does Ba’al have the same problem?” I asked.
“Yes,” Rachel finally said.
“Well, we can break it, it is still early enough that it won’t destroy their soul.”
“I’ll go,” she stood.
“No, you’ll need a lot of magic, you don’t have enough. Can he be brought to us?” I asked Azreal.
“One Gargoyle Overlord coming right up.”
Azreal put me down in the bed. More beds were being moved in.
“It’s starting to get crowded,” Pendragon gave a small chuckle.
“Sorry, once we get Ba’al sorted, we’ll try to move out a few beds,” I gave him a sheepish look.
“No, by all means, I kind of like it,” Pendragon gave another chuckle. “It makes me feel at home.”
“Uh oh,” Rachel took a step back. Suddenly, I could feel the energy too. My father was about to storm into the room.
“Quick, lock the door,” Daniel giggled. Samuel got up and locked the door as the Demon Overlord reached it. He gave a small finger wave at our father and moved away from the door. This seemed to quell some of my father’s rage. He stood staring at the door as if confused.
“Ok, I think you can let him in now,” Rachel answered.
“What the hell? Oh my god, what happened to all…”
“Stop,” I held up a burnt hand to my father. “Stop asking questions. Your wife gave birth to a daughter while you were away.”
Olivia brought Amanda forward and handed her to our father. My father made a face at the newborn. The newborn yawned a response. My father laughed. The world righted itself again. All the tension in the room was released.
Azreal came in
with Ba’al. I sucked in air and held my breath. It was not what I had expected. The Gargoyle was only about a fourth of his normal size. Dust fell to the ground constantly, flaking off of him.
“Take the babies,” I told Lucifer.
“All of them?” Lucifer gave me a look.
“Well, two of them, I could use my siblings for this. Nick and Daniel are exhausted. Eli is pretty bad. Eli can take one,” I motioned to my brother. He got up and took Trent. Lucifer took Ginger in the other arm. Together they left the room. Eli pulled the door closed behind him.
“Anyone else not wanting to get their magic siphoned off should leave,” I gave a pointed look at Nick and Daniel.
“All for one, one for all and the rest of that jazz,” Nick answered.
“Couldn’t have said it better myself,” Pendragon answered.
“Ok,” I closed my eyes. I could feel the curse. It wasn’t as bad as Anubis’s. It could be broken with minimal fall out.
I began to pull magic. I had plenty of it around me. My own stash was starting to get a little low. I had used a lot of it while we were in Pendragon’s dining room.
Gathering all the magic that I could, I shoved it into the Gargoyle. It happened much faster this time. I felt the curse swell and break. Magic recoiled through the room. There was a moment of pain and then dust fell from my arms. I looked down. As with Gabriel, Ba’al’s natural magic had flared. We had all lost a layer of two of skin. Of course, it helped most of us, since we were crispy.
Pendragon sat up in the bed and looked at Ba’al. The small Gargoyle peered back.
“It’s good to see you back, although you will have to do something about your size,” Anubis told him.
“Considering I am sitting in Azreal’s hands, yes, that’s bad,” Ba’al answered. “The only good thing is that I seem to have stopped shedding.”
“The Strachans broke your curse,” Pendragon answered.
“What about…” He began.
“We’ve already dealt with Gabriel,” I told Ba’al. “Hence the burnt skin that just fell off.”
“Good, will he be ok?”
“Fine,” Lucifer said as he came back into the room. “At some point, I have to remember that my children are capable of protecting themselves. They are quite a bunch.”
“That they are,” Pendragon answered. He looked at Lucifer, “sometimes we forget that our children grow up and become capable.”
Chapter Thirty-Four
I had a box of donuts on my bed the next morning. Daniel and Nick also had boxes. We were all enjoying the pleasure of the sweet treat and in desperate need of the calories contained within. Pendragon had been released about an hour earlier. Anubis and Sonnellion were still stuck with the three of us.
Now, a very stunted Ba’al and a very dysfunctional Gabriel were in the room with us. Gabriel was having trouble moving his arms and legs. My mother and father were sleeping in my rented hotel room along with their newborn daughter. My other siblings were either with me in the hospital or in the hotel across the road.
Gabriel had taken back Overlord power from Azreal. Azreal seemed grateful for this. He was standing a little taller as he left.
“Now that you are all awake and somewhat better,” Ragnok came into the room. He snatched a donut from Nick’s box. Nick grinned at him and shoved most of a bear claw into his mouth. He chewed with effort.
“What?” Gabriel asked, his arm twitching uncontrollably.
Fenrir walked into the room. He looked rough. I had forgotten about him earlier. I wasn’t sure how though.
“Morgana is still holding on, but it isn’t looking good,” Lucifer came into the room, with a much healthier Pendragon at his heels. A Centaur I didn’t know also entered the room. I tried not to glare. Kagutsuchi came in with Vishnu. Obviously, we were about to have a meeting. I picked up another donut as Azreal came in and shut the door behind him.
“We have four Elders missing. All female, all pregnant,” Vishnu said. “Because of the chaos with the Overlords and the destruction of the Box, we somehow missed the Calls being sent out by our lieutenants. One is Vampire, two are Fey and one is Djinn.”
“Morgana hasn’t been able to pass on her powers,” Lucifer told us. “So, we don’t even know how to start. They went missing while you were pulling Magnus and Jasmine from the Box.”
“Right before Amanda was born,” I hung my head. “That’s why she had a soul form so fast, they had captives. The spell wasn’t needed anymore.”
“We’ve had no luck finding Jasmine and while the Succubi and Incubi were here picking up their father, Magnus got away from the prison,” Vishnu answered. “They didn’t release any other prisoners, but…”
“But what?” I asked.
“They killed one of them,” Vishnu answered. “A prisoner named Alexander, he was a Leprechaun who doesn’t like Humans very much.”
“Saying Alexander doesn’t like Humans is like saying Brenna likes donuts,” Lucifer responded. “Alexander would slaughter them all if he could.”
“So that is their new death,” Daniel answered.
“It would appear so,” Elise sat down in a chair.
“Where are the babies?” I asked, realizing my siblings were all there.
“With the mates,” Rachel answered. “Hannah and the rest volunteered to babysit while we tried to figure something out.”
“The Brothers are still searching for Jasmine, but she seems to be one step ahead of us. We’ve contacted the governments and issued her picture in all nations as a wanted Elder fugitive along with a description of her crimes against humanity to ensure that Humans aren’t going to harbor her,” Vishnu said.
“I don’t like Leprechauns,” I stated.
“We all have our issues. What about the missing Elders?” Anubis asked.
“We aren’t having any luck with them either,” Ragnok looked at Fenrir. “The pack has been searching for a week and we can’t even smell them anywhere. It’s like they vanished into thin air.”
“That’s because Jasmine opened a portal, so in a sense, they did,” I looked down at the bed, I could feel the frown forming. And just when things were starting to get better. “Hell, Jasmine might have possessed their dreams and had them walk through a portal to wherever they were supposed to go, she wouldn’t even need to be there for it.”
“How?” Vishnu asked.
“I don’t know, but I know she pulled Eli and I into a dream where she tried to kill us, oddly with suffocation,” I thought about that for a moment. “Since we don’t need to breathe normally, I’m not sure why we needed to breathe in the dream. I just know that I felt the need to breathe. If she can do that to us.” I didn’t finish the sentence, from the looks on their faces; I could tell they were all finishing it in their heads.
“Who are they?” Anubis asked.
“Margaret Nemick, Georgiana Forattio, Lisbeth Everest and Ivy Le Fey,” Vishnu put emphasis on the last one. It was the only name I recognized, it was Morgana’s daughter. The few times I had met Ivy, I had liked her. Now her mother lay in the hospital, dying and she was kidnapped for her unborn child. I let the anger well up.
“Anger will not help us now,” Anubis told me.
“I know, but it feels like we should all be outraged. How could someone do this to us? How could someone who has lived among us, shared our lives, turn on us like this? It was devastating that my sister did it to me. Crushing when Magnus did it. But to kidnap pregnant Elders with the intent of resurrecting the dead to turn loose on all of us? That is unconscionable. If there’s a hell, I hope she burns in it.”
“Bren,” Sonnellion said my name quietly. My anger subsided. Hate wouldn’t help us at this point. He knew it. I knew it. I was getting angry at shadows.
“I’m guessing they are all due any day?” I asked.
“Yes,” Elise looked at me. “I don’t know where we went wrong.”
“You didn’t, some beings are just born bad,” Anubis told her. “The fact th
at she has a spell book that is as evil as it gets, is worrisome.”
“You think she…” My mother shook her head and let it drop.
“You had it for safe keeping, but like the marks, we never dreamed there was a traitor in our own house,” Lucifer put his large hand on her shoulder. My mother broke down and started to cry.
“Anubis is safe,” I told her. “All the magic in the world wouldn’t break his curse. Besides, we have Ezra.”
She looked up at me. Her eyes were confused.
“Ezra might not have been much on casting dark magic, but he has some serious magical knowledge now and he’s on our side. So let them have their dark spells, we’ll fight magic with magic, and Ezra will help us. He’s forgotten more magic than most of us will ever know,” I told my mother.
“Your optimism is almost uplifting,” Nick gave me a quick smile.
“That brings us to you two,” the Centaur I was guessing was the new Overlord said. “We have to make sure the two of you can’t be kidnapped.”
“That would be bad,” Anubis said.
“Not only do we think you should go back to your sister’s house, but we think guards should be stationed outside,” the Centaur spoke again.
“My house?” I looked at him.
“Even Pendragon can’t appear within its walls. It may be more secure than the prison even. The guards will help if anything appears on the outside,” he suddenly bowed to me. “Archer Gavigan, I replaced Chiron.”
“Pleasure to meet you?” I made it a question.
“I did not believe Chiron was correct in his predictions about your evilness. And my mate is a huge fan of yours.”
“Who is your mate?” I frowned at him.
“Meadow Le Fey,” Archer answered. Ivy’s younger sister, again I had met her a few times and liked her.
“So this is exceptionally hard for her,” I nodded my condolences.
“She is dealing, she is upstairs, with her mother,” Archer told me.
“Lisbeth may be more than they can handle,” Anubis jumped into the conversation. “She is not a Vampire to be trifled with.”
Her name was vaguely familiar, but I couldn’t put a face to it. I wanted for someone to elaborate, but no one did. I sat silently, hoping for good ideas to spring up.