by M. R. Forbes
"This is bad," I said to Josette.
"He'd have to send a demon that could stand up to Izak," Josette replied.
"Mephistopheles, help me up."
He reached out with his good hand. She took it, and he pulled her up. She turned and looked at me, and I felt her power reaching out.
"How do I stop her?" I asked. I could feel my body reacting again, and my mind returning to its sexy woman mush state.
"Let me in," she said.
She'd never asked to drive before, because unlike Ulnyx, she respected that my consciousness was mine. I gave it up to her easily, feeling the soul of her rising up and taking control.
The demon seemed to know it, as soon as it happened. "I can make it worth your while too, my innocent darling," she said. I could still feel her power. If Josette did too, she didn't show it. "No? Izak, kill them."
Izak took a step towards us.
"How was this a good plan?" I asked.
"Izak," Josette said. My lips moved, but the voice that came out was hers. "Izak, don't." The fiend paused.
Ardat Lili grabbed his shoulder, turned him and looked into his eyes.
"What?" she said. "You fell in love with an angel? You?"
"Izak," Josette said. "She wants to hurt me. She wants to take Sarah. You can't let that happen."
"No," the succubus said. "Mephistopheles, we have a past. You know what I can offer you. Kill her, kill the diuscrucis, and help me take the girl. I can give you everything you need, in his new universe."
Izak turned his head, looking back at us.
"Izak," Josette said. "You-"
Before she'd even finished speaking, the fiend's hand came up and wrapped around Ardat Lili's throat. He lifted her off the ground, while her eyes filled with fear.
"Izak, no," she said, her voice little more than a croak. "Think of the pleasure."
He smiled and nodded. He squeezed tighter, the palm of his hand igniting in hellfire as it sunk into her neck. She screamed in pain and anger, her body frantic to fight him off. He held on tight, pressing harder and harder, until she stopped moving.
He never let her go, and she turned to ash in his grip.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
We spent the next two hours trying to keep the Beast's forces from getting into the church and claiming Sarah. All the while, I could feel the balance twisting and rocking, like a glacier moving towards an inevitable end. It seemed as though the Beast had convinced half of Hell to join his cause, by the number of creatures that kept pouring into the area through an unseen rift, joining with a much smaller cadre of fallen angels. If it hadn't been for the Inquisitors and the Deliverer, I don't know that we would have lasted ten minutes.
We were still spread out at the different entrances, with Izak and I manning the gaping hole in the front of the church while Adam, Melody, and Obi took the rear. The angels roamed the streets, cutting a swath of destruction through the hordes, but it was all they could do to keep a small enough number from coming at the church that the rest of us could hold them back. I kept waiting for reinforcements from Heaven, or for the archangels to get themselves involved and the true meltdown to occur. It seemed they were willing to wait it out, as long as the balance didn't go too far.
"Landon!" Charis and Alichino came running through the doors behind us. The demon had the Box in his hand. I knew from a glance it didn't look any different.
"Good news?" I asked. I was tired, dead tired, having spent more of my time in Ulynx's skin than I would ever have wanted to. It was an unfortunate side effect that using his power made me overly arrogant and lustful. I had to fight against the bad thoughts that seeing her put into my head.
"I haven't figured out the conversions yet, no," Alichino said. "But I have done some calculations on the energy output. There's a way we can pump enough strength into the Box to make it the most power dense prison ever constructed."
I liked the news. I didn't like the way he gave it.
"But?"
"You have to inject it with the Beast's own energy."
I put my arm up to block the sword of an incoming devil, then brought my claws around and severed its head. I would have thought after killing a couple hundred of them, that they would have tried a different tactic. It was no wonder Hell hadn't won this war yet, despite vast numbers.
"So we have to trick him into powering the box?"
"Not exactly," Charis said.
There was only one other source of the Beast's energy I knew of.
"We have to power it?"
"Yes," Alichino said. "Both of you. You need to mix his pure energy with that of the true diuscrucis. It has to be a balance of all of the forms. Based on my calculations, that should get you a ten thousand percent improvement over Avriel's original design."
I kicked a devil out of the way, and turned to him. "Did you say ten thousand?"
The demon hopped up and down, excited. "Yes. Impressive, no? It's a combination of the power source and the Templar script. I can show you the math downstairs if you'd like?"
"Just make it work," I said, looking at the Box. "You haven't changed anything."
"Landon," Charis said. "There's a catch."
Of course there was. There was always a catch. "What?"
"The Beast's power has to be pure. We need to find a way to empty our souls."
I shifted back to my human shape. "Izak, I need a few," I said. He looked over at us and nodded as he put his hand to a hell hound's forehead and crumbled it with a thought. I took Charis' hand and pulled her back to the nave.
"When you say pure, you're talking about-"
"Extraction," she said. "We have to get our absorbed souls out."
"Extraction isn't possible."
"Lylyx said there was a djinn in Moscow," Ulnyx said. "If you can get me back into my own meat, I'd kiss you."
I didn't know what to think, or how to react. I'd been carrying both the Were and Josette around with me for more than five years. I didn't know if I would have lived any of those without the power they had brought. I couldn't imagine what Charis was feeling. She'd had Vilya's soul for longer than that.
"It has to be," Alichino said. "There's no other way. I can show you the math?"
I shook my head. "Lylyx said she had heard there was a djinn in Moscow who could do it. I don't know where she heard it from, or how reliable the intel is, but that's all I've got."
"Then we go to Moscow," Charis said. "The slimmest thread is the strongest we've got right now, and let's face it - we can't stay here."
I had stuck Malize's bracelet in my pocket. I pulled it out now, and put it back on. Charis followed my lead.
"Go set up the rift," I said. "I need to round up the troops. It's time to retreat."
Charis and Alichino headed off to the basement. I ran back out to the front and got Izak's attention. "When I come back, head for the basement. We're getting out of here."
He responded with a short nod. I looked through the hole in the front, finding the glow of the Deliverer in the distance. Then I ran to Father Tom's office.
The priest was still at his desk, his head in his arms, a wet spot spreading from the arm of his vestment. He hadn't stopped praying and crying since the fighting had started. Sarah was there too, her head straight forward, her body stiff. I imagined she was watching as much of the battle as she could through Izak's eyes.
"Sarah," I said. A slight tremor in her form, and then she turned her head.
"Get down to the basement. Charis and Alichino are there. We're leaving."
She got up and ran out the door.
I walked over to Father Tom, knelt down, and took his arm.
"Father, it's time to go. The demons are going to take the church."
He lifted his head and looked at me. His eyes were bloodshot and puffy.
"I could have been Touched," he said. "There was an angel once, she was such a beautiful lass. She offered to give me the power, because of my piety and faith. I turned her down. I said
I couldn't continue to touch humanity with His word if I wasn't fully human myself. If I had been Touched, I think I could have saved this place."
I put my other hand on his back, and started lifting him from the chair. "You saved something a lot more important, Father," I said.
His eyes caught on mine. "Only if you win. Otherwise, we'll all be nothing more than a blip in time. A quickly forgotten blip in time."
The games of gods. It was a game I was determined to win. "Come with me," I said. Plain, old mortals couldn't go through the rifts, so I would need Adam to get him out of here.
I led him out into the nave, where Adam, Obi, and Melody were doing their best to hold off the hordes of demons pouring in from all sides. The altar of the church had been desecrated in the fighting, crucifix shredded by angry Hell spawn. I heard Father Tom gasp beside me, and I had to grab his arm to keep him standing.
"Time to go," I shouted from the back of the nave. Obi turned to acknowledge they had heard me. I couldn't help but wince when I saw the deep cut across his face. I couldn't be sure if his left eye was still functional or not beneath the torn flesh. "Adam, I need you."
The angel shoved his blade into a demon and hopped backwards, his body launching the full length of the nave. He spun as he landed in front of me.
"What do you need?" he asked.
I pulled Father Tom forward. "You need to get him to safety. Then, find Fredeline and tell her to bail. This isn't the fight we need to worry about right now. If you can get to Mumbai and scout the place out, great. Otherwise, meet us in Moscow. Oh, and see if you can get me a sword." If we managed to find a way to extract Ulnyx, I was going to need one.
He nodded, and took hold of Father Tom's shoulder. "Come with me, Father," he said, his voice gentle as he Calmed the priest. Father Tom followed without complaint, out to the stairs and up towards the hole in the church's roof. He had to fight through a few demons to get there, but he dispatched them without trouble.
I ran back out of the nave to the front of the church. Izak had retreated closer to the doors. "Come on," I said. He backed out with me, and we met up with Obi and Melody near the stairs.
The demons were still pouring into the building, overrunning the spaces we abandoned. I'd never imagined how much force they could actually bring to bear, if they had enough of a motivation to work together to do it. That none of the archfiends could manage the singular sense of purpose that the Beast had told me a lot.
"I can heal that, when we have a minute," I said to Obi when we reached the bottom of the stairs. Izak took up the rear, and held the flood of Hell from reaching us.
He wiped some blood away with his hand. "Just the eye would be good enough. A scar might be sexy."
"You don't need a scar to be sexy, mate," Melody said.
I looked to the back of the room. The rift was awash with hellfire. "Go. Now," I said.
Alichino went first, followed by Charis and Sarah, and then Obi and Melody. I tapped Izak on the shoulder, and motioned at the rift. We both made a run for it, and went through one behind the other.
A few demons managed to get through the rift before Charis could disconnect it. They didn't last long.
"First stop, Moscow," Alichino said, giggling.
"You think this is funny?" Obi asked, headed for the demon.
I put my hand up in front of him. "Let it go, Obi," I said.
He growled under his breath, and then lowered his guard. "So, what are we doing here?" he asked.
"We need to look for a djinn," Charis said. "That's all we know."
"Seriously?" Sarah said. "Do the words needle and haystack mean anything to you?"
"Whoa, whoa, whoa," I said, stepping into the middle of the gang. "Everybody take a deep breath and chill out." I felt the balance in my soul, resting on a cliff and inching towards the ten-million-mile drop with every passing second. "We're all on the same side. Let's get our crap together and come up with a plan."
"Okay," Obi said, sucking in a mass of air with his nose, and blowing it out through mauled lips. "That hurts."
I put my hand to his face and closed my eyes, focusing on my palm, and his skin beneath it. I felt for the damage, and willed it to repair, demanding it to put itself back together. The act left me short of breath, but within a minute his face was as good as new.
"Thanks, man," he said, reaching up and rubbing the new, pink, skin. "You forgot to leave the scar."
"Shut up," I replied.
I needed some recharge time. Looking around, we all needed some recharge time. None of us were going to get it.
"So, how do we find a djinn?" I asked. Between everyone present, we had to have nearly three thousand years of experience to go on.
"Djinn are shape-shifters," Charis said. "They can be anyone, anywhere."
"Are they good or bad?" I asked.
"Nobody knows," Ulnyx said. "Neither side wants to claim them."
"What do you mean nobody wants to claim them?" I said it out loud, so the others would know I was talking to myself.
"Nobody likes to talk about the djinn," Josette said. "They live like mortals, though with a much longer lifespan, but they have Divine power. Some have said that God created the djinn to keep an eye on humanity, because the angels were too busy with the demons. Others have said that Lucifer created the djinn to cause trouble for God's creation."
"What do you think?"
"I think it doesn't matter. We just need to find the one that supposedly lives here."
"If somebody heard the the djinn could do extractions, then somebody must know how to find him," Melody said. "Who in Moscow would be that somebody?"
I knew the answer. So did Charis. There was an archfiend in Moscow, a ruthless, cold, violent, and powerful woman who went by the name of Darya. She wasn't the most gifted with demonic runes, hellfire, or even personal combat, but in some ways that made her more of a challenge to deal with. She had risen to power through fear, intimidation, and manipulation, and held a tight grip over one of the most powerful vampire clans on Earth, as well as a pretty nasty pack of weres. The good news was that I knew where to find her.
"Darya," I said. "She should have a lead on any Divine stalking around the city, and probably anywhere in the former Soviet Republic."
"Great," Obi said. "Where do we find her?"
"We don't find her anywhere," I said. "I don't know about the rest of you, but my tank is getting low, and I'd rather avoid another confrontation right now. Charis and I will go talk to her, and see what we can find out. The rest of you should go to Mickey D's or something."
Obi sighed. "Yeah, I guess the whole lot of us headed for her HQ wouldn't make the right impression." He reached into his pocket and pulled out his cell. "Who wants Starbucks?"
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Charis and I split with the rest of the gang a few blocks before we reached the Stolnik building, leaving them to follow Obi to a nearby Starbucks. It was a shorter, older building that had been renovated recently to put a penthouse on the roof, a massive apartment that spanned the entire length and width of the building, complete with a pool, a yard, and, oddly enough, palm trees. The apartment had been paid for by a local architecture company, a front for the Stolyev family, a massive and far-ranging cadre of vampires who had been subjugated by the archfiend.
"How are you feeling?" I asked her, as we treaded the block up to the building. I couldn't throw my Sight out to check on the number of demons hanging out around us, so I was a little more tense than normal.
"Tired," she replied. "And a little apprehensive. Vilya and I have been together for some time. She gave herself up in Hell to be with me. Let's say we find the djinn, and he can do the extraction. What's going to happen to her?"
"We find her a body to take over," I said. "That's how the whole thing usually works." Ulnyx had tried to absorb my soul, and take my body after I destroyed his. He hadn't known what I was, and had been caught off-guard, allowing me to turn the tables on him.
C
haris stopped walking and looked at me. "I know we can but... she defied Lucifer by helping me escape. Can you imagine what will happen if we stop the Beast, and the demons find out she's vulnerable?"
"You can still protect her."
"It's not the same, and you know it."
"I'm sorry," I said, putting my hand on her shoulder. "We don't have a choice."
She nodded. "I know. You asked me how I was feeling. That's it. Neither one of us likes it, but we'll do what we have to. Even if the outcome is scary, the Beast winning this thing is much worse."
We kept walking until we reached the entrance to the Stolnik building. There was a doorman standing outside, and a second man in a black suit standing behind him. I didn't need my Sight to know he was a vampire.
"Good afternoon," the doorman said as we approached.
"Good afternoon," I replied. I looked over at the vampire and motioned for him to join us as we entered the lobby.
He was short, but well-muscled, with cropped black hair and a thick face. "Diuscrucis," he said. "I hadn't heard the Mistress was expecting you. Either of you."
"She isn't," I replied. "We need to talk to her. To ask a favor, actually."
He smiled. "You need a favor? One moment." He leaned away, reaching into the top of his shirt for the small microphone that would allow him to communicate with the security upstairs. "The Mistress will see you, on the condition that you make the deal in blood that you will come and go without a fight. She doesn't want to waste so many of us stopping you."
Of course, she would never tell her subjects she was afraid of what the two of us together could do to her and her goons. She also didn't know we'd lost a bit of our mojo since then, and that our worn state had reduced the juice further. I don't know if we could have taken her if we needed to. I didn't want to find out. I shifted my right index finger into a thick claw, and used it to slice open my left thumb, and then Charis' left thumb. The vampire cut himself on a tooth, and we pressed our thumbs together.
"Deal," Charis and I both said. I felt the weight of the binding. It wasn't that strong, but it was an act of good faith that would put the archfiend at ease.