by CS Patra
All rights reserved. Published by Anna Lynn. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written consent from the publisher.
C.S. Patra
Copyright 2014 C.S. Patra
Cover Artist: Nathaniel Herbert-Winter
Editor: Kim Schultz
Dedication
For Pamela and Piyanka Saha
Prologue
Once upon a time, humans and demons lived together. It seemed like the beginning of a perfect story. It was like one of those novels that you couldn’t put down after reading a few pages. Both sides were able to live in one place together. While they had never become friendly, they were able to tolerate each other. It was the best way that they could coexist.
Some humans didn’t know demons existed. They were aware of the Underworld, they were aware of death, and they were aware that everyone had to die. But demons that took souls and helped balance out life and death were just myths. To most, they didn’t even exist, except in fairy tales. But as days passed, mankind was becoming more aware of the fact that there were supernatural things out there. While some were open to this idea, the majority still feared it. It wasn’t a surprise. Humans hadn’t made an effort to fix the relationship they had with the supernatural.
It had all started a long time ago.
For many years, there was a peaceful relationship between demons and humans. Things back then made more sense. Just like there were humans that did terrible things, there were demons that did good things. For many years, they had kept balance between both sides. One group in particular, the Reaper’s Apprentices, were trained to reap souls and send them to the Underworld. Once they had trained long enough they became Grim Reapers and were bound to the Underworld forever. And out of all the Apprentices, there were four who were born to be Guardians of the Underworld. Every few years or so, the current Guardians would keep watch on the gates between the Underworld and the Upper Word, which they referred to as the Upper World.
“How could it all lead to this?”
Three figures stood in front of a burned down building; smoke was still crawling out, and they were careful not to touch any of the glowing embers. It seemed like everything was gone, and all the bodies had been removed. But the stench of death filled the air, and they could hear all the lost souls tonight.
“Terrible, terrible.” The tall, black figure kept shaking his head. His companions — a dark-haired woman and another dark-skinned man, looked around the area. “Has anyone seen Linn?”
“She said she was coming,” the woman replied, her dark hair framing her now pale face. Though she looked middle-aged, she felt as though she was ten years older. “Give her time, Odom. She’s still got the mentality of a twenty-year-old. This is going to be a shock for her. It is for me.”
“I understand, Olana, but this is a crucial time,” Odom said. He turned to the other man, who was also dark-skinned and looked worried. “Have you heard anything about survivors, Salvador?”
“No,” Salvador admitted. “I’m looking and waiting though. All we can do is be patient and hopeful.”
“Hopeful,” Olana murmured, sniffing the air. It still smelled like corpses and smoke. “The stronger this stench gets, the more hopeless I feel.”
“Where do we start with all this?” Salvador asked. “Where do we begin looking? What do we do first? Do we get justice or do we just sit back? I have no idea what any of these answers are.”
“Patience,” Odom told him as someone neared the house. “And stay quiet. I think we might have a survivor here after all.”
They all waited to see who would appear out of the shadows. It was a slight relief to see that Grim Reaper Linn had finally arrived on the scene. She whipped her head back and forth, her blond pigtails swaying with it. Her face slowly lost all emotion as she looked at the damage. Her hand went to her mouth and nose as she slowly made her way through the remains of the garden.
“Linn!” Salvador called out to her. She turned and let out a sigh, happy to see it was the rest of the Grim Reapers. “We thought you were never going to show up!”
“Good evening, everyone. Sorry I’m late. I was at the hospital, reaping a few souls, but this is far more urgent now. And looking at it now, it’s a lot worse than I imagined.” Linn greeted them, looking up at the remains of her home. What was once a paradise and safe haven was now nothing but rubble and ashes. Still, it felt like home. It was broken and destroyed, but it was home. “It’s been a long time since we were last here.”
“Never thought I’d come here for this,” Odom said. She shook his hand like they were meeting for the very first time, though they spent time with each other often. The darkness masked the look on his face. They had to be careful because humans would come to know of this soon. They didn’t have much time to reap all the souls. She was sure the others had already gotten a head start.
“I was expecting something else,” she admitted. “I was hoping for something else. I’m still trying to tell myself that none of this is real.”
“How are you, Linn?” Salvador asked, trying to keep her calm. Not that he was feeling calm himself; deep down he wanted to scream. “I didn’t believe it when I heard it. Even now, I’m in denial.”
“So have we gotten news?” she asked.
He shook his head. His face was stone cold, but everyone could tell he was hurting inside. It was the first time in a while that they were feeling an emotion. They were used to death, but not deaths like these — not deaths of followers and friends.
“I wish I could explain why anyone would do this,” Odom said. “The search for survivors continues, but the chances are growing slimmer by the hour. Humans don’t really know what happened here. They sense something went wrong but aren’t sure what. Luckily, we’ve got a barrier up again so no one can see the real damage. Anyone that might have spotted something has quickly forgotten it thanks to that barrier. We’ll bring it down and have the world announce it was a terrorist attack.”
“I cannot believe it,” Olana murmured, looking at the damage. Body bags were lying all over the floor. The last of the fires was dying out, and it was starting to rain. Most humans were staying away from the scene, which was good. They had a long night ahead of them.
“So it’s true?” Linn asked.
“The good and the bad,” Odom admitted. “I should say it’s lucky that we are not completely out of luck here. Because that is really all this was — luck.”
Salvador frowned, staring at the wreckage. “This was all done by humans?”
“Hard to believe, isn’t it?”
“And what about our sole survivors?” He wanted to know. “What are we going to do with them? They’ll be out of it for at least a few days and then we’ll have to tell them. It’s obvious they can’t live here anymore. Not to mention, if they showed up here at all, they would be killed. Then we will have no hope left.”
Everyone was silent for a while as they thought about the survivors. It was a tragic incident, all right, but there were demons who managed to live. Unfortunately, the survivors were in a coma and being watched over by their families. Everyone knew how strong they were, but they still needed protection and, for now at least, were not accessible. So now these demons were their priority. They had to do everything to keep the survivors safe.
“The last ones of their kind,” Olana murmured. “I don’t think that’s a title they ever wanted. I really don’t know how I’m going to break it to them when they wake up. How do you tell someone that the only world they’ve known, the people they’ve been close t
o, their entire culture, is gone? I don’t know how I’m going to deal with it.”
“They’ll get by. We’ll get by,” Salvador assured her. “We’re just going to have to help them get stronger. They’ve got some of the skills and in time they’ll get better. They just need a little practice, and they have to make sure they don’t get caught. Once they are strong enough, they can become the Grim Reapers and Guardians that we know they are meant to be.”
“And until then?” Linn asked.
“Until then, keep them away from harm. Make sure they blend in with humans,” Odom suggested. “They’re already very good at doing that. And above all, prepare them for the war that is coming.”
“War?” Salvador asked. “You…you’re sure there will be a war?”
“I think it’s pretty obvious from all this damage. Humans are more aware now. Demons are scared. In doing this, they just declared war against us. This is just the beginning. You know they will be back to finish what they started. At this time, it is crucial demons stay together. No attacks, no conflict. Whatever matters they have, they should keep it to themselves. This is not the time for fights and grudges. This is a time we have to come together and restore what we had before.”
“I agree,” Olana said, looking disgusted at the mess here. “We can’t shirk away now. For their sake, we have to stand strong.”
“For their sake,” Linn agreed.
“Yeah, for their sake,” Salvador added. He watched as a tree branch broke off and landed on the ground. “What do we do about the other demons and humans? Both sides are going to be more alert than ever. We should keep an eye on the other three sanctums and any other areas demons might be hanging out at. I have no doubt demon slayers are probably rounding up and trying to snuff out whatever they can.”
They were silent for several seconds before Odom spoke again. “Actually, after a lot of discussion with the other Grim Reapers, we think it’s best to evacuate the other three sanctums. Everyone was told to pack up what they had and go back home. Those without a home will be staying with one of the older demons. We can’t risk keeping them around. Tonight, it was Tartarus Sanctum. Tomorrow, it could be something else. Do we really want to wait to find out?”
“I don’t like any of this,” Linn admitted, her eyes turning to the fallen wood and broken statues. “I wish we could keep everyone where they were.”
“So do I. But for the sake of the whole world, this is the best solution. We have to protect the ones that are still around. Until we come up with something better, we’ll have to work with what we have,” Odom said. “I just wish we had gotten here sooner. We could have saved someone…”
“But that’s just it, Odom. We don’t save people. We reap souls,” Salvador said. “We’re the bad guys to humans. They accept us only because we’re immortal. We have to make sure people get to their final destination safely.”
“Yes, that was the plan,” Linn agreed, looking down at the necklace that she had found earlier in the rubble. The crest. It was circular with funny curves and lines in it. Her fingers gripped it tightly as she thought about the owner of the necklace. The owner would never wear this necklace again. They would never be able to hold it or keep it on their dresser or even show it off. That necklace would just have to be pawned or given back to the demon’s family. Just thinking about what had gone down tonight was breaking her. She was a Grim Reaper, yet she wanted to cry.
Odom noticed this and tried to calm her down. “They went down fighting. The only problem was that they were outnumbered. No one could have survived such an attack. Not even…”
“Not even them.” She finished the thought for him. “I know.”
“So what do we do next?” Salvador asked. “We can’t just stand here.”
“It looks like that area will be closed off until further notice,” Linn said. “Though I hope they realize it will be futile to search for suspects. We know who did it. We know why they did it. We just can’t tell anybody. It’s so frustrating.”
“Hey, Ola,” Salvador called. He was one of the few demons who could get away with calling her ‘Ola’. “You think we should hang around? Still hope for any sign of more survivors?”
Olana sighed. “We’re searching still but the chances of finding anyone alive are getting slim. More bodies have been dug up. It turns out that this is much worse than we expected. I’m still hoping there might be just one survivor hiding; more would be better, but it doesn’t look like it.”
“Great,” he muttered. “We’ll be collecting souls all night.”
“I’m a little less worried about that and more worried about our only survivors,” Odom said. “We finally got them to a safe place. No one will question them in their own home. Plus, no one knows about them; only us and the dead know.”
“How bad are they taking it?” Linn asked.
“Well, they’re not happy about anything. Not that I blame them of course. Still, they have to understand that this is for their own safety. The humans are also shaken up. The massacre is being called a terrorist bombing for those who know nothing about demons. Makes sense, to be honest. The whole place looks like it has been blown up.”
“So the whole thing…” Salvador began.
“Gone,” Olana said. “I think it’s safe to say they’re all gone. We can keep searching and digging, but I doubt we’re going to find anything. They’re all dead. Well, almost all. I keep forgetting…”
She looked behind at the house they were leaving. This was their home. This was their sanctuary and safety net. What used to be a strong building, filled with life and secrets, and had become pieces of rubble and ash. All the pets and fish were either missing or dead. It hurt to look at the goldfish pond in the middle. This was where so many dead fish were now. At least most of the demon bodies that had drowned in there had been removed. The bodies — that had been what hurt the worst. So many demons were gone. Most of them didn’t even have a chance to use their powers. They had been murdered in cold blood.
There was a little bit of relief though. There was still the giant statue of Grim Reaper Isabelle, the guardian that Odom had descended from. It had been made so long ago that no one knew what it was made of, but was still standing strong and tall over the remains of their home. They had tried to destroy it, but there wasn’t a single scratch on it. It had survived. If anything, her statue was proof that they could rebuild and come back again.
Salvador followed Ola’s gaze and looked up at Grim Reaper Isabelle. She was gone already, but the statue was still here. Humans couldn’t touch them. “You know we have to remind the girls not to take it out on all human beings. Hopefully, they’ll understand.”
“They will understand. They’re smart enough...”
“If only they knew the hold they have on everything…”
“They will know one day,” Odom promised, leading them away from the house and through the neighborhood. “We should get going. It’s been a long couple of days, and I have a feeling it won’t end anytime soon. But they,” he looked back at the house, “are what the human world needs — what our world needs. So we have to put whatever hope we have in them.”
“Yeah.” Linn stopped as the others went on, clutching the crest in her palm. She knew that Odom was right: the survivors were their only hope.
“Good luck, girls,” she whispered quietly so no one else could hear. “You’ll need it.”
Chapter 1
Nine Months Ago...
It was a typical warm day in September for Miami. No one was bundled up or complaining about the cold. People walked around enjoying the sunny weather. It was so crowded that no one was really paying attention to what was happening in the alleys or darker places. If they did, they would have noticed one alleyway that led to something far from the city. Anyone who would walk down it would probably be afraid, but the truth was that it led to the greatest secret known to mankind: Tartarus Sanctum. As soon as they’d emerge, they’d stumble across black iron gates and peer thr
ough the bars to see lush gardens and several young people also enjoying the weather. The only reason people didn’t know about them was that Tartarus Sanctum and the people were blocked from the world.
It wasn’t because they were prisoners, because then they would not be so happy. It wasn’t because someone wanted to keep them from the human world. It was because this house, majestic and colorful with gardens lining the sides, was home to creatures that some people knew nothing about it. These were creatures that stayed awake at night and could destroy the human population if they wanted to. Some would call them terrors. Others would refer to them as ghouls. But in reality, they were nothing but demons.
Tartarus Sanctum stayed nestled in the shadows, a place that no human could look into. For them, this was nothing more than a rundown area that no one would bother with. Many humans didn’t even realize there were such things as demons running around with them. It had to with the fact that demons didn’t always act the way people suspected; they weren’t always monsters running and causing terror wherever they walked. They had lives, dreams, likes, and dislikes. They kept their demonic side a secret to everyone but a special few, staying away from society at large. Nighttime was when they were able to become the demons that they were.