Ascension (Demon's Grail Book 1)

by Amy Cross

  “You can't fool me,” she replies. “I know the kind of evil that rose with your species before.”

  “Is that how you justify genocide?” I ask, starting to feel a mounting sense of anger now I can see that she won't even listen to me. “The vampires wiped my people out! We were exterminated like vermin!”

  “You should be dead!” she hisses.

  “And if I let you up, is that what you'll do?” I lean closer to her, and I can feel the anger rippling through her body as I continue to hold her down. “Will you try to kill me?”

  “I won't try! I'll do it! I'll even -”

  Before she can finish, I get to my feet and drag her up with me, squeezing her throat for a moment as I stare into her eyes. She reaches out to grab my neck, but I simply turn and throw her against the nearest wall with enough force to break half the bones in her body and knock her out cold. At the same time, I hear footsteps in the corridor outside, and I know that the humans have come to stop me.

  “I came to offer you a chance of peace,” I sneer, filled with contempt as I look down at Abby's crumpled body. “I came to try to end the miserable, constant conflict between our species. I thought perhaps you could see past the weight of history, but apparently that's too much to ask. You disappoint me, Abby, but at least I tried. Now, when you find yourself crushed under our advance, at least you can't claim you weren't offered this chance.” Crouching, I put a hand on the side of her head, but she's still unconscious. “I wanted you to volunteer your gift to me. Instead, I'm going to have to find a way to take it by force.” I pause for a moment, ready to tear her head open. “If it was up to me,” I hiss finally, “I'd end all of this right now.”

  “Hey!” a voice shouts from the other side of the door, trying to get it open. “Abby, are you okay in there?”

  “Another time,” I whisper, stroking the side of Abby's unconscious face. “You're lucky I'm so disciplined.”

  Turning, I make my way across the room and grab the trolley, before raising it above my head and throwing it forward. The window smashes, allowing wind and rain to blow into the room, but none of that matters right now. I should take Abby with me, but I'm too angry to deal with her at the moment and besides, I was given strict instructions to leave her unharmed even if she turned against me. I'm a good girl, so I always follow the orders I've been given.

  “Stop!” a voice shouts from the doorway.

  Humans make me smile.

  Climbing up onto the ledge, I look out at the vast dark scene around the hospital, and then I reach up and start climbing toward the roof. I guess Keller was right about Abby Hart after all. She's a fool. Such a pity, though. We could work together so well, but first she needs to recognize that she has no choice. And then she has to give me the secret that's locked in her mind.

  Abby Hart

  “Easy,” Mark says as I sit up. “Abby, you're hurt -”

  “I'm fine!”

  As soon as I try to climb off the bed, however, I realize that I'm definitely not fine. I can feel several broken bones crunching together in my chest and pelvis, and a flash of intense pain ripples through my body, warning me that I still need to wait for the healing process to complete. I used to be amazed by how quickly my body heals after being injured; now I'm impatient, and I want it to heal faster. Every second feels like an eternity.

  “Where is she?” I stammer, turning to Mark. “Where's Emilia Hargreaves?”

  “We...” He pauses, and I can tell that he doesn't have an answer for me. At least, not one that I'm going to like. “We're still looking for her.”

  “She was right here! You had her!”

  “Abby -”

  “She knocked me out.”

  “That was a couple of hours ago,” he replies. “This might sound hard to believe, but she broke the window in her room and climbed out, heading up toward the roof. Someone on the fifteenth floor reported seeing a naked woman climbing past their window, but apart from that there's been no sign of her ever since.”

  “She can't have just disappeared!”

  “I know, but -”

  “Can't you people do anything right?” I ask.

  “What's that supposed to mean?”

  “Humans! Can't you -” I wince as I feel a flash of pain in my shoulder.

  “We're working on it,” Mark continues, clearly a little annoyed. “You're right, she can't have disappeared.”

  “I have to find her,” I reply, turning and swinging my legs over the side of the bed. When I try to stand, I feel more broken bones slicing through my flesh, but I have no choice; I slowly get to my feet, before looking down and seeing that I'm wearing a hospital gown just like Emilia's.

  “You're not going anywhere,” Mark tells me.

  “You don't seriously think you can stop me, do you?” I hiss.

  He stares at me for a moment, before taking a step back. “I'll help you get out of here,” he says finally, “but only on one condition.”

  ***

  “I can't tell you everything,” I reply a few minutes later, trying to fight the pain as I ease myself into the passenger seat of Mark's car, down in the hospital's underground parking garage. “You'd think I'm crazy.”

  “I already think you're crazy,” he says, slamming the door and then making his way around the vehicle. Once he's in the driver's seat, he pulls the other door shut and starts the engine. “People are asking questions, Abby. Naked women with weird slits in their bellies don't usually climb out through hospital windows, and police medical examiners with fatal injuries don't usually start to make miraculous recoveries even as they're being checked over.”

  “So?”

  “So I think the time for keeping secrets is over.”

  As he eases the car out of the parking bay and drives us toward the exit, I realize he's right. I've spent so long hiding among humans, I forgot that one day the illusion would have to come crashing down. I stare out the window for a moment, watching as we head up the ramp and out onto the dark New York street, and then I turn back to him. How can I make him understand? How can I explain it all in a way that his little, under-developed human brain can understand?

  “I've already told you more than I should,” I say finally. “You know more than most humans.”

  “Who is Emilia Hargreaves?” he asks.

  “I...” Taking a deep breath, I realize that there's a sense of nausea in my belly. Still, at least my bones are starting to heal now. “I think she's only half human,” I explain. “I think she's half... spider.”

  “Okay.”

  I stare at him. “Okay? Is that all you've got to say?”

  “Well, I was expecting you to say something that'd sound insane, and you delivered.”

  “Spiders shouldn't exist,” I continue, “at least, not like that. There was a war, a long war between vampires and an ancient species of giant spiders. After the war ended, the vampires were left victorious and the spiders...” I pause, wondering how to compact so much history into a few bite-sized morsels. “Most of the spiders were dead, and the few survivors de-evolved into the kind of everyday spider you see around these days. That's how it was supposed to stay.”

  “But Emilia Hargreaves is a survivor from the old type of spider? The ones with the empire?” he asks. “Jesus, I can't believe that sentence came out of my mouth.”

  “She seems to be some kind of advanced form,” I reply, “but that doesn't make sense because they're not supposed to exist at all. They were wiped out, my father was one of the ones who...” I pause again, as I realize that I've just opened a whole other can of worms. “My father fought in the war,” I continue. “He fought in quite a lot of wars, actually, but after this particular war was all over there was a prophecy that he had to keep in order to ensure that the spiders weren't ever able to come back.”

  “So maybe he broke that prophecy?”

  I shake my head.

  “You never really talk about your father that much,” he adds. “He was a vampire, right?�
�

  “But my mother was human.”

  “And...” He pauses, as if he's worried about what I might say next. “Who was Shelley Spineri?”

  I flinch at the merest mention of that name. “Now you're starting to dig back a little too far,” I tell him, keen to side-step that particular part of my life story. After all, who wants to admit that they were once a monster? “The important thing right now is that Emilia Hargreaves is out there somewhere and I have to find her. I have to kill her.”

  “Kill her? Why would you want to do that?”

  “Because of what she is!” Feeling a sense of rising anger, I look out at the road for a moment before turning to him. “Haven't you heard a word I've been saying? She's a spider!”

  “Sure, but -”

  “I can't believe I let her knock me out,” I mutter. “She was stronger than I expected.”

  “But has she actually done anything wrong?” he asks.

  “Her species -”

  “I'm not talking about her species,” he continues, “I'm talking about her.”

  Sighing, I realize his little human brain has reached its limits. “You don't understand.”

  “But... You want to kill her because of what she is?” He seems shocked. “Abby, that's not right. You can't kill someone because you don't like their species. What would you do if there were others around like her?”

  “I'd kill them too.”

  “All of them?”

  “All of them. Every last one.”

  “That would be genocide.”

  Again, I can't help sighing; he clearly doesn't understand.

  “Are you sure you don't want to be a little less tough on these spider people?” he asks. “Maybe just make them sit at the back of the bus, that sort of thing?”

  “Don't start lecturing me,” I say firmly, “and definitely don't start comparing the situation to petty human history. If you have a problem with all of this, then stop the car and let me out. You're the one who demanded to know everything, remember? I knew you wouldn't understand.”

  “I just find it hard to believe that you'd want to kill an entire species because of what they are.”

  “They're evil,” I reply. “They're monsters. That's what they are!”

  “So you've encountered them before?”

  “No!” I hiss. “That's not the point!”

  “She's the first you've met?”

  “For God's sake,” I continue, “my father and the other vampires fought to get rid of these creatures! If the spiders manage to come back properly, there'll be deaths. Not just vampires, but humans too. Millions, maybe even billions of lives will be lost! Spiders are vile, evil things that bring nothing but pain and misery to every world they reach, and there's a damn good reason they had to be destroyed in the first place.” Feeling as if there's no way I can ever get him to understand, I lean back in the seat. My body is mostly healed already, and I don't need his help anymore. “I should never have told you,” I mutter finally. “There's no way you can see this properly.”

  “I can see that you've been taught to hate these spider creatures,” he replies, “but that you don't really have any experience with them.”

  “She killed Senator McAllister,” I point out.

  “If that's true, we have to bring her to justice,” he continues, “but it's no justification for genocide.”

  “Fine,” I reply, turning to him. “Take a left at the next set of lights. I'll prove all of this to you. I'll make you see that I'm right.”

  Emilia

  “She's an idiot!” I snap, making my way across the apartment until I reach the door that leads out onto the balcony. “Abby Hart is nothing but a prejudiced, bigoted idiot who spews out stupidity that's ingrained in her soul. There's no way I can ever persuade her to help.”

  Standing at the far end of the balcony, watching as the morning sun rises to the east of the city, Keller seems lost in thought for a moment. Sometimes I wish I could be more like him, I wish I could get past my anger and think more rationally, but it always takes me a while to calm down after I've been angered. Finally he turns to me, and I see that as usual he's holding one of his white handkerchiefs over his mouth, as protection against the human world's dirty air.

  “I hate her!” I hiss.

  I wait, but he doesn't reply.

  “She has such an annoying face,” I continue. “And her voice, that's annoying too. And just the way she talks, she's so patronizing, she thinks vampires are so wonderful and perfect. She looked at me like I'm vermin.”

  Again I wait.

  “You need a new plan,” I tell him finally. “Preferably one that starts will me killing her.”

  “Are you giving up on her so soon?” he asks calmly.

  “You didn't see the anger in her eyes,” I continue. “The hatred, the fury... She was like a wild animal. She wouldn't even listen to me.”

  “Perhaps you should have been more persuasive.”

  “She's lucky I let her live,” I sneer. “You have no idea how close I came to ripping out her goddamn heart.”

  “Tearing her heart out would not have killed her,” he replies. “It would merely have been an inconvenience for all concerned.”

  “There has to be another way.”

  “Abby Hart is not a lost cause,” he continues. “She can be made to help us.”

  “I'm not talking about Abby,” I reply, “I'm talking about the whole vampire race. Warm-bloods, cold-bloods, they're all the same. They hate us, and they'll go on hating us for the rest of time. The longer we wait, the greater the risk. We should just gather our forces as quickly as possible and launch an offensive. The only way for our species to survive is for the vampires to die.”

  “You're advocating genocide?”

  “I'm advocating survival.”

  He leans heavily on his cane as he makes his way over to join me. “You remind me so much of -”

  “Don't say it.”

  He smiles.

  “Have you even met Abby?” I ask, turning as he limps past me and heads into the penthouse apartment.

  “I've seen her from afar,” he replies. “I witnessed the fall of Tor Cliff, but I chose not to confront Ms. Hart, not even when she called out to me. She was holding the box in her hands -”

  “Why didn't you kill her and take it?”

  “I knew there would be other chances. I also knew that it would take time to persuade her to see things our way. Besides, I'm just a weak and feeble old man. I can hardly be expected to engage the great Abby Hart in hand-to-hand combat, can I?” He smiles, but there's a glint in his eye that lets me know he still feels up to the challenge.

  “I told you Tor Cliff was a mistake,” I reply.

  “It was worth trying. You must be patient, Emilia.”

  “She knows where to find the palace of Karakh,” I continue. “The knowledge was entrusted to her, we have to get it if there's any chance of us ever finding our homeland.”

  Stopping at the drinks cabinet, he takes a moment to pour himself a glass of whiskey.

  “Pour one for me too,” I tell him.

  He shakes his head.

  “I'm old enough now,” I point out.

  “Don't poison yourself,” he replies. “I'm an old man, it's too late for me, but you should keep yourself pure.” He takes a sip. “You're right about one thing, my dear. Abby Hart does possess the knowledge we seek. If we're ever to find our ancestral home and reclaim the great palace of Karakh, we need that knowledge. Things would be so much easier if Ms. Hart could simply be persuaded to hand it over.”

  “She'll never help us.”

  “Then you must speak to her again.”

  “You've got to be joking,” I spit back at him. “I'm done with her, she's nothing but an annoyance.” I wait for a reply, but he simply sips some more whiskey. “I held my temper, you know,” I continue finally. “I know what you're thinking, you're thinking I blew it by getting angry, but that's not true at all. She was angry, bu
t I stayed calm. You always think I'm such a child, that I can't focus on the bigger picture, but I swear I did things exactly as we agreed. I even tolerated that foul McAllister man for months while I made a name for myself, while I waited for Abby to notice me.”

  “I must admit,” he replies, “you did a better job than I anticipated. It's just a shame that you weren't able to talk Ms. Hart around.”

  “Sometimes hatred is too strong,” I tell him. “You can't talk someone out of those feelings. Her father despised our species and he passed that hatred on to his child.”

  “No,” Keller replies, “she was taught to hate us. It's not something genetic, it's the result of stories she's heard. She has the Book of Gothos, she must have read its biased propaganda many times.” He pauses. “And perhaps that fact should give us a shred of hope. Ms. Hart's mind has been well and truly poisoned, and you might be correct when you say that she can't be turned. I think I shall trust your judgment on that.”

  “So how do we get the knowledge from her?”

  He shrugs. “I suppose we can't.”

  “We have to!” I hiss, stepping toward him. “That's what we've been working for! If we don't find our way to Karakh, we can never restore our species to its rightful place! We need to get to Karakh so the ascension can begin!”

  He nods.

  “So...” I pause as I realize that there's only one option. “We have to go and get Abby Hart, and we have to tear the knowledge from her. Don't worry, I think I can manage that part.”

  “A last resort, perhaps.”

  “Then what do you suggest?”

  A faint smile crosses his lips. “Ms. Hart possess the knowledge of Karakh's location because it was placed in her mind at the moment she was conceived. Even as a child in her mother's womb, she had that information locked away in her consciousness. It was one of the many gifts left to her by her father.”

  “I know all of this.”