Slade nodded to her in greeting and pressed the button to slide the door open without saying a word. She gave him her best smile in return and walked inside, her heart still racing inside of these prison walls even after all of these years. She preferred the openness of the outside world; this place was one built of mortal means, sealed of alien technology. There was no outside entrance into here. Only those with teleportation keys set here could enter. She continued to look forward, her peripheral vision the only cue that there were others there, sending souls on. Other female seraphs bringing back the souls they had collected. Each of them smiled at her as they passed excited to reap yet another soul and complete what was asked of them. Annalise smiled in return, the other seraphs were the only thing that made this place feel like home. They were her people, her family in a sense. There was a loyalty among them that no other species knew, or so she had been told.
She knew this room well, making several visits here per day. It was perfectly square, bright florescent lights beaming down on her in an unnatural way, the walls lined with holes that somehow took the soul to the afterlife. She reached a circular hole across the room and gave one last look at the soul. It was continuing to glitter, the light bouncing off the wall in front of her and giving the only natural feel to the dark space, colors swarming in a circular motion. It made her smile to know that she had saved this soul and could send it on to its resting place. The mortal would never again suffer. She held the ball out in front of her, offering it to the hole and continuing to watch it in awe. Carefully, she placed the soul into the hole and it was sucked away, off to the afterlife. Annalise took a step back, allowing herself to wonder where it really went, what really happened to them after she deposited them here. She turned around and walked back outside, giving a nod to Slade and wishing she could tell him goodbye. The two of them were acquaintances and he spent some of his free time with Leon. But this was a place of complete silence, and so she remained quiet, waiting until she was further down the hall before teleporting herself back home.
Chapter Two
Ash
The sound of Arie’s communicator stirred Ash from his trance. He had been so busy studying all of the drunks who walked to and from the Underground entrance that he had spaced out from the real world. Arie nudged him softly in his shoulder before leaning into his ear close enough so she could whisper in it. He closed his eyes and inhaled the scent of flower perfume that drifted off of her skin.
“Dad says that Loki is at the back entrance. I’ll see you later.” She jumped off the railing and started to make her way toward the back door only a few yards away.
Ash, not even taking a second to think, jumped off and followed her.
“Arie, wait for me,” he called out. He caught up with her quickly. Curfew was almost upon them and citizens were already making their way home.
She swung around, hitting him with her thick mess of red hair in the process.
“Ash, this is my job. I really don’t need to worry about saving your bender too.” Arie held up a hand to stop him from walking any further. Her small hand pushed against his chest, she was strong and her height nearly matched his, but she was no match for Ash.
“Arie, my bender is fine.” He gave his back end a soft tap and smirked, “So you can stop dreaming about it.”
Arie’s eyes flashed with embarrassment. She gave a small huff and shook her head before running towards the door. She was used to his jokes, and he couldn’t figure out if they really annoyed her or if she secretly enjoyed it. Ash continued to follow her.
He kept only a few paces behind her as she swung open the large, iron door ready to attack who ever or whatever was out there. The back alley was dark and quiet. There was only a bit of light that shone out from some apartment doors a few stories above. No one frequented the back alleys in this layer. They were notorious for muggings, shady dealings and the planet’s most wanted. Smoke drifted out from the bar as the door slammed shut.
A dark, hooded figure stood quietly in the shadows only a few feet away. Ash put his hand in his pocket, ready to grab his dagger in case it was Loki. Arie once again put her hand up against his chest to stop him from moving. Ash didn’t like it when she tried to protect him, when his entire life he had been taught to defend. He took a step back and complied. He let her win, this time.
“Daddy?” Arie asked as she walked toward the figure. He raised his hands and slowly brought down the hood. Ash squinted but could barely make out his face, yet from Arie’s reaction, it was in fact Sasha Raines.
“Where’s Loki?” she asked, as she quickly checked her father for any injury.
Ash let them have a private moment as he looked around. There was no fire escape or other doors to the alley, so Loki could have only made it to the main street. Everything surrounding them was metal, smog drifted through the air and only shouting could be heard from a distance. Metal was a common building material in most of the layers. It was strong, cheap, and readily available. The lights above were dim so everything was dark.
“Loki knew he was being watched,” Sasha slurred, “Walked right in and right out of the back door. I couldn’t follow….too many drinks at the bar.” The poor man was wasted, but at least he was in the right mind not to run after immortal beings.
Arie sighed loudly. She was frustrated and angry at her father for letting their target get away. This was an excuse that had frequented the past couple of years.
“Dad, go home. Ash, you want to help? Follow me.” Arie didn’t waste a single moment. She ran out toward the main street. At this hour of the night, the street was likely to be empty, the power almost nonexistent. At 2 o’clock the keepers would shut off all the power to the eighth layer. Ash, once again, followed right in Arie’s footsteps. This time he took a few extra leaps to pull in front of her. She grunted in exhaustion as she pushed her long legs to keep up with him, but it was no use. He was already far ahead. If anyone was going to see this fallen creature, Ash wanted to be the first. He could feel his pulse pounding with excitement. Violence was his nature. From the time he was taken to train with the keepers, he had been bred to fight and win. This time would be no different. True, he had never fought an immortal being, but they couldn’t be any harder to take down than many of the other races he had come up against. He had once fought a race of intruders who could only be killed by water. It burned their skin and melted their bodies. The fact that Cabalin was now void of any natural occurring bodies of water made the planet a perfect new home for the aliens. They had been quick and hard to beat, but the keepers had successfully kept the planet safe.
As he made it to the main street, he looked both ways. To the left, the street was empty. Only large metal buildings used for various stores and bars. He heard the crackle of electricity running through the wires up ahead. High above, the metal reinforcements of the ceiling stretched out for miles. Dim florescent lights flickered on and off. To his right, he zoned in on a figure in the distance. It was walking not too slow, yet not too fast.
“Gotcha,” he said to himself. “How much time till the lights go out?” He turned to Arie and gave her one of his ‘we are about to get into trouble together’ looks.
He heard her fiddle with a few buttons on her wrist communicator. It didn’t matter what she said, he had already made up his mind; he would chase Loki. Darkness or no darkness he wanted to be the one to bring down a fallen. If he could bring in an immortal, a race only rumored to exist, there would be no way the keepers could still be mad at him. If that was, in fact, what he still wanted.
“About ten more minutes, Ash, and it’s not going to be a good idea to do this right now he…”
Ash didn’t hear the end of her lecture because he had already started to run after Loki. As a keeper, he had three times the reflexes and strength of an average human. He put all his energy into catching up with Loki. Nothing mattered, not the fact that Arie was now far behind him or the fact that Loki had started to increase his speed. He was now only a
few dozen yards behind him. The streets were barely lit, so he couldn’t see much about what Loki looked like. It was so dark he doubted he could even tell if his eyes were really black or not. Somewhere inside he knew that this was a reckless move, but he didn’t care. He just wanted to catch him. Loki ducked quickly into a random side alley. As Ash caught up, he pulled his dagger out, ready to attack.
He paused at the spot where he saw Loki disappear and turned to his left to look down the alley’s dark decent. He looked back at Arie who was three streets behind him. He gave her a quick salute and started to walk down the alley. His stance was ready to fight; his dagger was poised out in front of him. He could just imagine what Arie was doing, cursing him for taking away her capture. He felt his heartbeat increase in anticipation of the unknown. The alley way led to a tall metal fence. Only the most elite and private citizens in the eighth layer could afford a fence this high-tech and expensive. It had to be a smuggler living here, Ash thought. A door freely swung open and shut near the bottom. Ash ran his hands down the cold metal squares and smiled as an idea ran through his mind. There was no way he could take down Loki while trying not to worry about Arie at the same time. Ash was a good fighter; Arie not so much. She excelled in sneak attacks and dexterity. Hand to hand combat was not her strongest points, but they sparred together frequently so she could work on it. He stepped through the small doorway in the fence and closed it behind him. Ash used his hands to smash the tiny keypad beside the door, locking it indefinitely. He watched Arie turn the corner to the alley in the distance; so he quickly turned away from her before she got close enough to realize what he had done. The fence wouldn’t stop Arie for long; it would only take her a few minutes to figure out how to fix the lock. He turned a sharp corner and came upon a tall metal building. It was a dead end. A dark laugh bounced off the walls around him. Ash spun around in circles, unsure of what direction the voice came from.
“Show yourself coward,” he yelled. A figure blurred past him so quickly he almost missed it. Ash focused his eyes in on the shadow that ran along the wall. Loki jumped out in front of him with a jagged sword held high. He was nothing like Ash imagined. He looked almost human and stood over six feet tall with choppy brown hair that fell in his eyes. A pair of gray wings were tucked close to his body; they were almost hidden from sight. Loki was fast and his blade was twice the size of Ash’s, but that didn’t stop Ash from blocking the attack and kicking Loki square in the chest. Loki didn’t fall back though, only jumped straight in the air over Ash’s head. Loki’s eyes were filled with pure animosity.
“Is that all you got? I thought you were supposed to be this immortal fallen creature,” Ash taunted. He turned to face his opponent.
“I’ve only just begun,” Loki replied. Loki swung faster this time barely missing Ash’s arm. Ash noticed that Loki wasn’t trying to kill him; Loki was trying to strike him down with minor blows. After a few minutes, the two fighters seemed to be getting nowhere. Ash could feel his body start to tire out, and his frustration seemed to rise. It was almost pitch black around him, and Loki moved too fast to catch. He heard what he made out to be a hissing sound before he felt a sharp pain radiate through his shoulder blades. Ash fell to his knees. The pain was so strong it practically numbed him. His attacker had shoved a sword through his back. He tried not to look at the foot of blade sticking out of the front of his chest. He used his keeper training to clear his mind of the pain and pretend that it didn’t exist.
“Only cowards attack from behind,” he gasped. He struggled to stand back up, and vowed not to fall down again. He was foolish for running after the fallen. He never thought before he acted. He knew it; the keepers knew it, which was why they had made him take a sabbatical. His small dagger would not protect him now. As he struggled and gasped for air that just would not come, he saw Loki step out from the shadows. Ash took a moment to memorize his attacker’s face. Hatred boiled inside. Loki smirked before speaking.
“I have watched you fighting at Ethereal Underground and I figured you would give me more of a challenge. Now I have something special planned for you, an experiment of sorts.”
It was then that Ash realized that Loki’s eyes were pitch-black. Today would not be the day he died. He wouldn’t be someone’s experiment. Ash let his anger consume him as he charged toward the immortal being. He raised his dagger high and made a few quick slashes at the being. Each time he thought his blade had made impact, Loki had moved. He was faster than anyone Ash had ever seen, regardless of race. Blurring left then right, after about ten failed attempts, Ash felt his dagger fall from his fingers; all of his strength left his body. His dark figure blurred in front of Ash’s eyes.
“No!” he cried out between waves of pain. He would not die like this. He was only twenty-eight, and he had so much more to do. He felt the anger build deep inside him before he felt it snap. Ash kicked his leg out in front of him and sent Loki flying back into the steel buildings. Yet the fallen didn’t seem dazed or hurt. In fact, he started to laugh.
“Your girlfriend can give your dead body as a message to whoever hired her. I’m only going to leave a trail of dead bodies behind me.” Loki started to laugh while he circled Ash and pulled his sword from its nested spot in Ash’s back.
“Argh!” Ash tried to hold back his cries; he was a warrior to the end. “Don’t think this is over.”
He closed his eyes as he fell forward onto the hard metal ground and waited for the darkness to come. Whatever afterlife he was fated to, he was ready. He had never really thought about it before.
But the sword never met his body again. The anticipation of the pain grew worse. Ash focused on the cold metal that lay under his face and waited. He faintly heard the sound of a laser gun, shuffling, and a voice in his ear. It was a familiar and sweet voice that caused a bit of hope to surge up from deep inside.
“Arie?” he tried to keep his eyes open, but the darkness looked too inviting and he was already so tired.
Arie squatted down beside him and gently turned Ash over onto his back.
“Oh, Ash.” He could hear her holding back her sobs. “It’s not that bad, we can get you to the keeper conservatory, they can have a healer fix you…”
Ash slowly shook his head; he knew they would never make it in time. It could take hours to get to the surface. He heard the sound of the siren in the background that let the pedestrians know that the power was about to go off.
“You need to go Arie, before the lights go out.” He knew it wasn’t safe to be a girl alone after dark. Arie was tough, but even she knew what kind of creatures lurked around these parts. Creatures, mutants, and thieves came out after dark.
Arie groaned “Come on Ash, let’s get you up and back to the Underground.” She started to lift him up, but he only got a few inches off the ground before the pain became too much.
“I can’t walk- and you can’t carry me that far in enough time.” Ash tried to use his remaining strength to pull her off of him, to get her to let go. He didn’t want her hurt because of his reckless behavior. There had been far too much of that in his life already. Arie backed off and stood quietly for a moment. She was deep in thought.
“I’m going to run back to the bar, don’t go anywhere. I will bring back help.” He heard her fiddle with her communicator, but if his timing was right she only had a few minutes to make it to the bar and back. Ash relaxed against the ground and tried not to let the darkness engulf him. The last thing he heard was Arie’s footsteps pounding on the ground as she ran away.
“This isn’t over,” he mumbled. Today was not his time to die.
Annalise
Picking up a Lilligan fruit from the vendor, she placed it in her basket, thanking the seraph on the other side of the wooden table and continuing down the cobblestone path. Leon stood by her side, one of his hands coming up to guide her through the crowded street. Normally, vendor alley wasn’t so full of patrons, but the new harvest had come in and everyone was excited to partake in it.
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“Are you ready to roast over the fire this afternoon?” he asked, leaning over to whisper to her and letting the excitement show in his face.
“Of course!” she said returning the smile, “I cannot wait to have some of Finlay’s new vegetables. He swears he has created something new, and he always knows how to cook them so very well.”
Even though their seraph friend spent most of his time doing as he pleased, he often spent time with the two of them, roasting food on their bonfire and telling stories of great battles. He always pulled Annalise in, acting out the scenes as he told them and letting her be the hero, he the fallen. The three of them often had such fun times, that it made her forget they were duty bound creatures. Seraphs were very loyal to one another, each of them gathering in small tight knit groups but only getting together when all duties were performed. This was a rarity, but Annalise’s small group of friends made it a point to spend as much time together as they could. The Elders didn’t seem to care, besides, all of them, even Finlay, made sure to get the job done. It was important to all of them.
“Do not let Finlay trick you into thinking he comes up with all of that stuff on his own. He tends to use mortal components when showing off his new dishes,” Leon clarified, amusement on his face that she had believed their friend.
She pulled her eyebrows together, and lowered her eyes to the ground, disappointed that she had been so naïve. It was no wonder that the other seraphs found her weak and unable to take care of herself. If she continued to listen to everything that she was told without questioning it, she would never be able to show them that she is smarter than they think.
Ethereal Underground (Ethereal Underground Trilogy) Page 3