“Again,” Boric yelled. “More weight. This is what happens when you steal from me.”
“You call this punishment? You call this pain?” I forced a smile, clenching my teeth. After what he’d done to an innocent boy’s spirit and heart, the makeshift rack was nothing.
The guards grumbled; some offered sympathetic looks. I glanced left and right. Colored blurs stained my vision.
I felt her. And then, I saw her. Dark curls framed her delicate, freckled features. Sweet Lilith, I’ve found you at last. My gaze snapped upward, and her mouth dropped, color draining her cheeks. Folded around the iron bars were her pale, thin hands. My head shook, but my grin spread, widening over my lips. Boric doesn’t know. I must hold on and not give in to his humiliating stunts.
All grown-up, Lily was no longer a little girl, but her light illuminated all the shadows of my cruel world. Like a beacon of hope flashing and guiding me.
Cross attached more weight to my legs, stretching my muscles to their limits. Skin and muscles burned, tremored, and convulsed. Tears filled my eyes.
“More,” Boric commanded.
Cross hesitated and glanced from Boric to me.
“It’ll be you up there next, you bastard.”
Cross added another weight, and I swore he whispered, “Sorry, kid.”
Another scream ripped through another until the pain had guided my weary soul into the darkness. No flashing, golden light carried my blackened soul home. Minutes, hours, or days passed, throbbing agony suspended me in limbo. My mind tumbled through the nightmare of my life.
A tender voice called to me, beckoning me awake.
“Psst. Cain.”
Refocusing, my eyes blinked. Lavender light encircled my skin, and a blue and coppery essence joined it. Warmth and tingles spread over my body; their magic eased my injuries. But the prisoners and I were alone, and I still hung from the ceiling, tethered by my ankles.
“Thank you,” I whispered in a hoarse tone, and my gaze focused on a woman who could’ve been my sister. Hair, inky and dark, fell loose around her shoulders. Unlike the others, she wore tight pants. Why I noticed this detail was beyond me, but I zeroed in on her and the blue magic shooting from her fingertips, combining with Lilith’s lavender and copper, and spreading over my body.
The ship puttered and rocked. Prisoners murmured while their gazes darted, and my heart raced. Were we under attack?
“We’re landing,” Lily replied.
Ah, so she had manifested powers after all.
The waiting game remained in place. But could I hold out? Because no way in hell Boric’s torture was ending on this ship.
No, the torture had only just begun, but I had hope. I had my sister. But above all, Dorian loved me, scarred and broken, and I loved him, shattered heart and skeletor persona. The latter thought rose a chuckle from within, and my hands clutched its warmth.
Chapter
Seventeen
Dorian
Korrigan, Veric, Petre, and his goons dropped from their hiding spots among the treetops. I stared, mouth gaping, at the departing airship. Where the hell were they? We could have stood a chance with Petre and Korrigan’s speed. My nails bit into my palms and drew slick crimson blood.
“Boric’s onboard,” Veric said, the airship disappearing from view.
Already, I had broken my promise, but waltzing into Delphia or Garland without a plan was suicide for Cain. My eyes closed and a tear slipped down my cheek. A tiny voice said maybe it was for the best, but I shook the thought aside. Cain loved me, and I loved him.
“What’s the plan, mate?” Veric stepped in front of me.
My fist slammed into his chest. Now? Now, he wants to put me in charge!
Colored lights flashed as Fauna, Markos, and Hallo appeared in a rainbow soiree of red, gold, and lavender. “Take out the ship,” Markos said, his gaze scanning the stars. “Let’s be done with it.”
I pivoted and lifted my fist, but my brother caught my hand. My teeth ground, and a growl ripped free. “Are you insane? Cain’s on there.”
Markos shoved me aside, and I stumbled, landing on my ass.
Korrigan stepped forward. Child-sized, she clenched her hands and pounded on his chest, sending him flying into the barn door. Metal rattled. “Innocents are on board, you idiot.”
Fauna said, “Collateral damage.”
Korri lunged for my sister, clawing at her. No one stopped her and she tore at them.
“You’re a feisty one.” Markos laughed.
Korrigan didn’t relent, gouging deep gashes into Fauna before jumping on him, fangs audibly sinking into his neck. I cringed as she tore a hunk of his flesh and spat it out. He shouted, his wound turning black before lightening to his natural olive tone.
Petre and Veric watched in staggered stages of horror and amusement. Veric jogged over, head shaking, and ripped her free. “You can’t kill the Archangels of War and Pestilence, luv.”
She hissed, scratching at him to get back to her prey.
“You will not kill my brother.” I shook my head, my eyes blinking. “He won’t kill yours. No one is blowing up anything… yet.” I sighed at the twinkling stars shining through the lingering exhaust plumes. “Fauna, retrieve Belle and Tomas.”
She nodded, disappearing before I had a chance to remark on her lack of clothing. Hallo placed a hand on my shoulder, but I glanced at Petre.
“Veric.” I snapped my fingers, but my attention remained on the vampire staring after the steamship, as if its presence were igniting a memory. “Fetch Jan and whatever she needs. Petre,” his gray eyes shifted to me, “needs his memory righted, now. We depart for Montreal as soon as Fauna arrives.”
In the large abandoned farmhouse, I slept alone and hated it. Unshed tears assaulted me in waves while my mind replayed the evening’s events, searching for a way I could’ve prevented Cain’s kidnapping. From taking a shot to calling my siblings…Why hadn’t we listened to the warning and fled? Would it have made a difference? One more day on the road and maybe we would have missed them. If only we hadn’t turned around...
I palmed my face. “If only I had let you go.” My hand slid down my neck and settled on my key. If only I’d had the cods to end the world.
The bedroom door creaked and a soft glow entered. Hallo said, “I sense your despair.”
“Can’t you blink on board and take him back?”
“It’s moving… if I knew the layout.” Blonde hair tumbled into her face, head shaking. “What happens if I blink into an engine or a wall?” Warm fingers stroked my hair, and her calm settled into my soul.
Bile scorched my throat and my fingers curled into my palms. “I won’t forgive… if Garland touches him, I will kill him.”
“That’s not your destiny.” She stroked my brow.
I snorted. “Fuck destiny.”
“Cain is strong. About that, I have no doubts, but the secret he keeps threatens us all. Rest, Brother. Father will protect your love. With any luck he will aid us.”
“The Archangels—”
“Don’t you dare. Sleep, we’ll talk come morning.”
My eyes closed; I tossed my arm across them. No dreams came and we didn’t convene that night. Cain’s smiling face greeted me until the morning rays peeked through the curtains and revealed the nightmare of my existence. He wasn’t there.
Fauna hadn’t arrived, but we hit the road anyway. Elioud leaped into the skies, white wings replacing clouds, except for Veric’s inky stain. Korrigan didn’t have wings and neither did Petre—he wouldn’t have them as a former human. As the four Horsemen, we had mounts, and although seldom summoned, our three-day trek was narrowed down to one by horseback. I closed my eyes and reached for the tethered connection to my horse, mentally tugging its reigns.
Green, red, and white: one by one, the three horses crunched through the snow, their snorts creating giant puffs of frozen breath. They rested before us and Korrigan gasped.
Mark grasped the red horse’s reig
ns, Hallo reached for the white horse, and I nuzzled my pale horse. Petre’s eyes lit and he tilted his head before petting my horse.
“Do you ride?” I asked him.
He bowed his head. “Yes, I think I owned horses.” Petre glanced to Korrigan, who nodded.
Korrigan rode with me, clasping her tiny hands to my sides. Her arms were too short to encompass my waist. Vampires required no sleep, so there was no fear of a fall. Even if she had, she would have healed. Petre rode with Hallo and held a pinched face.
We stormed east into the morning sun, tackling the frozen, Arcadian tundra, stopping only when the Eliouds’ wings could carry them no farther.
“Sorry, mate, but there’s not enough horses.” Veric and his men perched on an oak tree.
I nodded and reassured him, understanding their limitations. We still hadn’t spoken about his tattoo, but it didn’t change the fact his men were Elioud. At least Eliouds required less sleep than humans, and in the Witches Hour, we bounded out again.
Urging my mount faster, farther along the sightless trail, I saw nothing, cared for nothing, except Cain, and tasted zilch, but the bitter defeat of our situation and my guilt at failing him. He always laughed about my alpha tendencies and over protectiveness, but… my eyes shut; my head shook and a branch scratched my face. My sweaty hands gripped the leather controls, snapping them against the pale horse and driving him.
Feelings and guilt could wait. Revenge was nigh.
Metal clanked and steam rose on the fiery horizon. Steam engines whistled. I reared my horse, rounding as the others caught up.
Korrigan’s nails bit into my hips, her hold tightening. Montreal loomed before us in iron frames and sun-glaring glass jutting into the sky. The first rays of light glittered from the east. An empty beauty without Cain to share the scene with.
Korrigan patted my side. “You love him.”
Not a question, but I answered, “Yes.”
“Even though he kept secrets?”
Her final word twisted me in the saddle. “We aired our secrets.”
Korrigan eyed the ground.
I whispered, “Cain promised.” But I’d already assumed he was still keeping secrets.
The others trotted behind, and wings beat overhead. Landing, Veric said, “He promised her too. Cain promised Angelica first.”
Korrigan slid from the saddle before I could stop her, settling without a sound. Powdery snow kicked into my face. My eyes blinked at her form sprinting toward the city. Veric yelled and raced after her.
“What the fuck was that about?” My putrid horse neighed, and I steadied him.
“Dorian?” Mark’s fingers snapped in my face.
But I ignored my brother, instead observing a sulking Korrigan, and a scowling Veric shoving her from behind, bounding toward me. No Elioud could have caught up to a vampire.
All attention trained on her before shifting to me. She halted at my feet, but studied the ground. I dismounted, placing hands to hips, and loomed over her. “You will explain,” I grumbled. “You too,” I added, pointing to Veric. “I know what you are.”
Her skinny arms crossed over her frilly Bo Peep dress, and her chin lifted.
“Damn it, woman, swallow your pride, and tell me the bloody truth! What’s Cain still hiding from me?”
“Cain still has the keys,” she whispered.
I didn’t understand. “No. I know that.”
Amber eyes didn’t falter. My palm rubbed over my face while I glanced to Hallo and Markos. Jaws slack, both shook their heads.
“Shite.” I never removed them from his possession, and Boric had them because he had Cain. My hand lifted and Korrigan flinched, but I simply wiped the snow from my eyes. Did she think I would hit her?
Crunching sounded behind us. Markos guided his red horse closer. In a gentler voice, he asked, “How many keys does the Keeper have?”
Hallo followed suit and stopped to my right. I lifted one, two, three, and my fourth finger. Cain had them all, but the ones around my neck.
Korrigan giggled and shook her wind-tangled hair. “He still has them all, Dorian.” Korrigan fluttered her lashes. “I wouldn’t be surprised if he has yours.”
I palmed my neck and withdrew my chain. No, my key was still there, but the one Cain had given me was gone.
“He didn’t give you a real one.”
“Boric,” Veric said. “That’s why… he knew Cain had the keys… how?”
Hallo leaned back in her saddle and asked, “Who knew he had them?”
“Has,” I whispered, shrugging. Did Tomas know? “He has them.” Bitter bile filled me, and my burning eyes closed. As if the depths of Hell knew my nightmares, they came alive, swirling at my feet. My stomach lurched, expelling the tainted substance churning in my gut.
“Oi, Dorian, get yourself together.”
“Gross,” Korrigan said.
“You alright, mate?”
Their voices rattled in my shaking head.
“He wanted to tell you,” Korrigan muttered. “To give them back to you. Cain tried the night they stole him.”
I winced recalling his reluctance. Had he been trying to say goodbye?
“He planned on giving them to you. All of them, Dorian. He… Once he knew Lily was safe, he—”
“He’s the Keeper.” The red horse snorted at Mark’s gruff tone. “He’s supposed to keep the damned keys.”
I spun my horse around and urged the steed west of Montreal. Weaknesses exposed and tears caught in my beard. Betrayal surrounded me, and I trusted nothing but my own heart. Once again, Cain had lied, but I forgave him. Boric stole him. Cain nicked my heart. He held all the damned keys. Boric knew. How did he know? Cain held the final piece, the knowledge of my key around. Boric would torture him until he had cracked, splintering him, and only shards would remain before he set his sights on me.
Screw Petre and his memories.
I had to save Cain, but first to find a way into Garland. Faster than possible for a normal horse, the pale beast galloped. My skin turned to ash and swept across the pristine snow. Clothes tattered and the silver robe shimmered to life. Bone and scythe emerged and Death rose. Laughter echoed from my hollowed soul.
Killing Cain wasn’t an option. Boric needed the keys. I held that fact close to my blackened heart.
“‘Ǎḇaddōn,” in Hebrew, I commanded the vortex forever following me to manifest. Shades swirled and screamed as Sheol appeared before me, taking shape of an ominous graveyard. Black-iron gates opened before me and swallowed us whole.
I entered the first level of Purgatory. Darkness didn’t exist. Fire and magma spun and spurted. Balls of mist floated. Distraught faces battled and faced their sins. Pale horse’s hooves clobbered over the hardened lava stones as we ascended.
Purgatory housed seven levels, and each level brought more ear piercing shrieks. I closed my eyes and allowed their pain to radiate against my bones, but I hadn’t condemned them to this torture. No, Father had only selected me as their judge and protector, but they had chosen their own sinful lives.
I sighed and departed the final level. My heart ached, but I entered the realm of infants. Children’s laughter and babies› coos reached my ears. Balls of light fluttered, bounced, and flew about the glittering cavern. The lost ethereals played. Aborted and those young, unbaptized souls rested in my domain, but they didn’t suffer. Knowing neither hunger nor pain, Father’s light reached them there.
A grim smile pressed my lips, but I surged onward toward the next set of waiting gates.
Tartarus.
Quakes vibrated through me.
His power rolled like a sonic boom. “Hallo Death,” he said.
I halted my pale horse, inclining my head at the Archangel’s royal blue aura surrounding the highest level of Sheol.
“What brings you? Do you need me again?”
I shook my head. “Michael, I need to see Lucifer.”
“Why?” His aura shrank, and I shielded my eyes until the
Archangel Michael re-formed on the stone floor in his golden armor. He ran fingers through his cropped golden curls. His sword swung with his pacing steps.
I didn’t glance away and fixated on my brother-in-arms. Breath escaped my clenched teeth. I didn’t have time for explanations. He was always difficult.
“You can’t just—”
All roads led to the Morning Star’s line. “He has answers.” I dismounted, my feet clacking and echoing from the marble walls. “His line on Earth will soon see eradication if we don’t intervene.”
Without flinching at my skeletor form, Michael spat, “What do you care of demons and their spawn?”
“I love them.” My bones clicked against stone, my scythe scratching along the ground behind me. Michael towered over me, but I was Death, ‘Ǎḇaddōn, and ruler of Sheol and my swarm of vampires. His domain merely rested within mine. I pointed my bony fingertip at his chest, my shoulders and skeletal wings pinned back.
He brushed my hand away and curled his lip in disgust. “They’re creatures that even Father cannot tolerate, yet you love them?” Michael flexed his full, white seraphim wings. “Death cannot love, Dorian Fox. Angels cannot love.”
But we had. I cocked my brow. At one time or another, each of the Horsemen had loved another, and the bitterness Michael spouted said he, too, had loved before. But having loved or not mattered little. I had to see Lucifer. My arms crossed over my chest, hugging the scythe to my robe.
Michael sighed and stepped aside. “Father won’t like this. Tread carefully. I’d hate to see you in there one day.”
Yet the Elioud ascended there when they died. I didn’t collect their souls, though, nor the demons. Father created my kind for marking humans. I eased through the iron gate, but Michael’s warm hand stopped me.
“Dorian, I mean it.”
For a moment, I stared into his icy eyes.
“Love isn’t worth the sacrifice of Heaven and eternal glory.”
The memory of Cain’s laughter filled my ears. Flashes of his smiling eyes danced before me. Bone-radiating warmth, quickened breath, and fluttering heart. The hardness of his flesh and the flavor of his fire were worth the threat of Tartarus. Eternal pain and memories, albeit short, without him were purgatory. If I damned myself, the promise of forever… my bony hand patted Michael’s shoulder. Fear of unending prison or torture was worth saving Cain… the price of love knew no bounds.
Altered: A Beyond the Brothel Walls Novel Page 31