“You had better think about that before your raise your hand to me,” he said. Messalla turned the rocks beneath The Man’s feet into spikes, causing him to fall back upon them.
“I unleash you!” he shouted as the spirits of the nganga rose to defend him. “See here. The spirits are angry. Since you are the one that put them there!” The Man said, pulling the spikes out of his flesh; laughing like a lunatic.
Messalla’s alchemy was of no use to defending against the spirits. He grabbed a handful of dirt and transmutated it into salt; spinning around to create a barrier between them. The spirits encircled him, the remnants of their faces were all too familiar to him and amongst them was that of his mother.
“Mama. Lo siento,” he said, as her face became like that of a demon. He stood up, reaching for her, walking through his salt barrier and exposing himself. The spirits lifted him off the ground, ripping at his robes and flesh. He didn’t fight as he felt he deserved it. The Man watched him and frowned as he liked his kills to be more eventful.
“Stop!” he shouted. “So you just going to lay there? No fight left? You don’t get off that easy,” he said pulling out a machete. “I will summon you to my nganga. Then you will be mine forever!”
Those words triggered something within Messalla that anger could not describe. He transmutated a large log into a car which slammed into The Man, throwing him into the burning pyre. The Man screamed at the top of his lungs as a brown van pulled up.
“Sweet Brigid!” Marissa shouted, hopping out of the van.
“My sisters and brothers! How could you!?!” she shouted at Messalla, who's mind was already in a bad place. Solon got out of the van clapping in his new white outfit.
“Shit,” Messalla said.
“So you're the culprit! Nice work. Now what are you going to do?” Solon asked.
The three witches pulled out their wands, extending their lengths to that of a vine. Messalla’s mind was in a panic and as he attempted to transmutate the vines into strings of yarn, he in turn made the live electrical wires. The witches began to fry as the electricity over took them and Marissa screamed.
“You murderer! You are a Black Knight! You are our ally! Why would you do such a thing?!” she shouted. Messalla was curious as how they knew he was a Black Knight, but noticed his robes were ripped, revealing the seal of the Black Knights on his shirt.
“Listen. I didn’t mean for any of this to happen. I’m sorry,” he began to say. The Man slowly made his way back to his truck as Messalla stood trying to defend himself to the upset witch.
“We will see you again Messalla,” The Man said shooting him a bird. His fingers and arm were burnt and gooey, making the drive home quite uncomfortable for him.
Marissa pointed her wand to the sky and as she was going to send the call of distress, Solon grabbed her.
“Which side do you choose? Magia or Magnum Opus?” Messalla stood quiet knowing that Solon could undo him if the events of the night got out. “Magnum Opus,” he replied with a sense of guilt.
“I thought you might say that,” Solon said, grabbing Marissa and stuffing her in the back of the van, taking her wand and tying her up.
“Now then, we have to clean this up,” Solon said creating an illusion, leaving traces that the Order of Mopses had struck again.
Messalla was somewhat surprised by Solon's display of power. The last encounter he had with him, Solon was much weaker.
“Why do you wear a white coat Master?”
“White? I own nothing white,” Solon stormed. Messalla held up a piece of glass where Solon could see his reflection.
“What is this?!” he shouted.
The look on his face was one of utter confusion. His thoughts became scattered and his soulless heart began to beat slower. There was a dark laughter coming from deep within him which he could not understand. He grabbed his chest, falling to his knees as there was something within him trying to tear itself out.
He screamed in agony as he pushed the clawing hands back into his abdomen. Messalla watched, completely confused as Solon calmed himself.
“It’s time to go then,” he said walking off as if nothing happened. Messalla was unsure, but knew he had to leave Coven Orchid before anyone else showed up. Solon got in the van, Messalla looked towards the back as Marissa kicked with muffled screams.
“What are we going to do with her?”
“Oh, I know a place,” Solon said smiling.
21
the blue goddess
“Go ahead boy. Spit it out! I can feel your eyes burning the back of this paper!” he shouted. Caden cleared his throat.
“So umm. Did you see my father at the umm --,”
“Yes I saw Casper. He told me to tell you hello.”
“Did he actually say hello? Or are you just making that up?”
“Dammit boy. Just call the man. I’m not your fucking carrier pigeon,” Rufus said. Caden grunted.
“The last time I saw my father he told me I was the biggest fuck up on the planet and he never wanted to see me again. I’m not fucking calling him until he calls me,” he said, folding his arms.
Rufus shrugged and chugged on some beer just as Cesare and D'Artagnan returned to the Grand Rotunda.
“Really Rex?” Cesare said, noticing Rufus sat at the head of the table in all his glory, a pair of boxers. His feet were propped up on the table and he was reading a newspaper.
“Report!” he shouted before the Knights could sit down.
“Report? Dis mudderfucker nearly gets me killed! He always got to talk to shit. I tell him to leave it be, but no. Den it jump in him!” D'Artagnan went on.
Cesare stared at the tattle tale like he wanted to hit him.
“What the fuck did I say?! Oh wait, I'll tell you. I said LOOK! Don't engage. I could have sworn that's what the fuck I said because I remember saying it!” Rufus shouted as he watched Cesare's eyes fade out. Rufus took on a more serious look as he realized something was wrong.
“What really happened up there?” he asked, calming his tone.
“Egregors. Lots of them. The sheeple are using the magic from the internet and creating Egregors. They think they are gods. And one of them tried to possess me,” Cesare explained as his world began to spin.
Rufus walked over to him and could feel something was off.
“I think it scarred your spirit boy,” he said motioning for Jin-Lu to give him a read.
“Fuck off I'm fine,” he said frowning, rejecting their help.
“Well, it’s nothing a little BG magic wouldn't heal,” Rufus said walking back to his throne.
Caden began searching the internet for the Horned God website to verify what the Knights reported.
“Crap-olla. There are so many broken spells and rituals on here. And look, someone is posing as the horned god, posting videos up every week,” he said, as the Knights looked on.
“God damn Prophet. Now were gonna have seven billion people on the planet thinking their gods,” Rufus said.
“I wonder what the long term damage will be to the veil. These rituals are incomplete or just completely wrong. This is going to be a big problem,” Jin-Lu said.
“Caden, can you shut that damn website down?” Rufus asked.
“Yes, but knowing them they'll just put another one up.”
“How many users are registered?”
Caden clacked on the keyboard as a program ran a statistic. A map of the globe popped up showing red dots all over the world. Caden grunted.
“Well boy?”
“There's currently 3 million give or take visiting the website every day,” he replied.
“For fucks sake! And how many did you kill?” he turned to D'Artagnan.
“About a dozen,” he said almost sounding defeated.
Rufus stood quiet as Cesare began to doze off.
“We have about 200 men in the Ludus, only two dozen of those are red coats. I'll talk to Hammer and see about knocking that number down. Niko and Torin ar
e ready to get their feet wet. When word gets out that these “rituals” work, 3 million will quickly become 30,” he said.
Caden nodded but didn’t have any suggestions on how to solve the issue.
“Oh, by the way,” Rufus said falling into laughter.
“Dante is sending that tight wad Callan here to stay with us for a little while. He'll more than likely be here soon. Now boys, be on your worst behavior. He's as tight as a hooker's thong, and since he has a negative impression about who we are, we will show him such,” Rufus said laughing. Claudius looked at him from over his glasses.
“Why can't we just send him to your house?” he asked.
“My wife has a two pet maximum; me and Beast,” he said laughing.
Cesare tuned out the extra conversation as he was texting Mila, but still, she gave him no response. Typically, she answered quickly unless she was angry at him, but that wasn't the case tonight.
“Well I'm out yo,” D'Artagnan said throwing everyone the deuces. He knew there was the possibility of another man being in his bed and needed to get there quickly.
Just as he left, the temple video phone rang. Cesare answered it and a witch bearing the seal of the Cult of Winged Reapers sat on the other end.
“Merry Meet. I was asked by the Crone to call your order. Another coven has been attacked and eleven of our Reapers were burned at the stake. She asks that the Magia become involved and help us.”
“Where did this happen?” Cesare asked.
“I'm sending you the location and photos now. Thank you Knights. Namaste,” she said hanging up.
Cesare put the photos up on the large display screen and Rufus threw his newspaper down once again.
“For fucks sake! Damn,” Rufus said staring at the photos of the burnt witches. “This is probably the worst one yet,” Rufus added.
“There is a definite escalation. And look, they keep leaving signs. Deliberate? Or deflection?” Claudius added. Cesare sighed.
“Fat ass Kriminel is loose. God damn Angels fucking shit up! Witches getting burnt the fuck up! Alchemists trying to kill us. Fuck it! Don’t worry about it Borgia. I'll go. Hell, I'm pissed off and I need to stretch my legs. Watch for any energy spikes. It could be Kriminel. I'm sure he's quite weak since he's been locked up for several millennia. I'll call if I need some back up,” he said, leaving to get dressed.
Cesare was somewhat relieved and picked up his phone and saw that he still had no messages from Mila. He started to fret and called Bibi, but she didn’t answer either. His mind began to wander as something within him had raised suspicions.
“Alright, I'm out,” Rufus said grabbing his short sword and keys to his jeep. Cesare's mind was worried but he attempted to keep his face straight as Lance and Adonis walked in with bags of food.
“Why the long faces? We got burgers! Lots of burgers!” Adonis said sitting the bags down. Claudius and Caden got up to sort through the bags but Cesare remained in his seat. He was too weak to move but couldn’t understand why.
“So check this out. Beebs told me that she and Mila had to get rid of an incubus. Can you guess where?” Adonis asked. “The Parthenon!” he said bursting into laughter.
“Whoa. Seriously?” Caden asked with a mouth full of food.
“Hell yeah. And that’s not even the worst of it. I'll tell that part after we finish eating,” he said giggling to himself.
***
Mila’s eyes began to open and she found herself in a strange room. Around her were the severed heads of men; fresh blood dripping from the decapitation. She picked up one of the heads as it was saying something, but no words were coming out. “I can’t hear you,” she said, finally putting it to the side. Upon closer look, all of the heads were talking, but there was dead silence in her ears.
She laid down, smiling and laughing triumphantly rolling around in her bed of heads. Her moment of joy was broken by the sound of a door opening up, but darkness was all around her. She grabbed one of the heads and stuck it on the end of her trident, shaking it to light up in the darkness. Her feet walked upon a river of blood which she splashed with each walking step.
The head upon her trident groaned as if it were in pain while she walked down the dark corridor. Her eyes moved from side to side, noticing a door in the center of the darkness that wasn’t all the way closed. She pushed it open and could hear a sound she was very familiar with.
A coin shash shaking, but there was no music. She stepped through the door and there was a naked woman on her knees in a pile of dead men; shaking her hips. Her skin was the bluest blue she had ever seen, her hair was long and black; around her waist was a shash made of skulls. The woman gnawed on the corpses paying no mind to Mila.
“Mother?” Mila said and the woman turned to her. Mila dropped her trident and bowed respectfully.
“Oh Mila! Hi honey!” she said in a happy, excited voice. “Have you come to dine with me?”
Mila smiled. “If it would please you.”
Mother continued to chew and nodded. “It certainly would. Sit with me,” she said, as Mila kneeled next to her.
“It has been so long since we've spoken. And you do not seem like yourself,” Mother said.
“Did you summon me?”
“No. I was eating. You came to me. And I’m glad you did,” she said, breaking the bones of the man as she handed Mila a forearm. Mila bowed and accepted her gift ignoring the fact that it turned her stomach. Mila couldn’t help but stare as she was the most beautiful woman she had ever seen.
Her big, dark eyes with long lashes, her dimples and perfect nose. Although she was completely naked, she was adorned with gemstones and jewels which were otherworldly to say the least.
“You are truly beautiful. I’m am honored by your presence,” Mila said as she began to tear up.
“Oh, no. Goddesses don’t cry love. Come here,” she said pulling Mila towards the door she just came from.
Mother grabbed her hand and guided her through the dark hall way. Their feet crunched upon the skulls and bones of the dead as Mother's laugh reverberated throughout the small space. She stopped at a door and looked through.
“See, look,” she said. Mila looked through and saw herself as a child.
“I remember this day,” she said stepping in closer. “I also remember --” she began to say as her voice trailed off.
Mother clasped her hands together and giggled as the ten-year-old Mila was led off the playground by a neighbor.
“No! Don’t follow him home!” she shouted.
Ten-year-old Mila followed her neighbor into his house, and as the door closed she found herself standing in her living room four years later. Her mother yelled at her for getting caught with the neighbor and her step father was livid.
“You're just fourteen years old! You stupid slut! Vernon, beat her ass and get her out of my sight!” her mother instructed.
“No! Not again!” Mila shouted as she watched her step father drag her to her room.
“You love him more than me?” he whispered, as not have her mother hear. Young Mila shook her head as Vernon had his way.
“I hate you! I'll kill you!” she shouted, as she watched it take place. Mother giggled at Mila's outburst.
“You already did love. Remember?” she asked. Mila noticed that her mother was peeking in the door as it happened and she shook her head and walked away.
“So you knew mama? I knew you had to know! You let all of them do that to me!” she shouted as tears streamed down her face.
“Shh. I know honey. Painful, yes,” Mother said, as time sped up. “Ah! This is where it gets good!” Mother said, as Mila watched.
Now at 18, she returned home as her mother lay sick. Her mother's fifth husband, Robert, was there and began forcing himself on her. Mila fought with him and stabbed him in the throat with a cooking fork. Mila's tears began to dry up and all she felt is laughter.
“See. That's it!” Mother shouted. Time sped up again and the now 22-year-old Mila stood
on a street corner looking for customers.
“Holy fuck. That’s the night I met Bibi and Brig,” she said. She watched as the young Mila, Bibi and her younger sister Brig fought over the street corner. Mila began to laugh as she had put away many of these memories.
“We made our own little pact to look out for one another. Then one night Bibi got in the car with the wrong man. Or wolf rather. That was a pretty bad night.”
“Yes, but we do love our Bibi don’t we?” Mother said, as time sped up again.
“Oh my god, Cesare! He looks so young,” she said admiring the young Cardinal who was embracing her.
“Pain is something you've felt your whole life. Pain makes us strong, it makes us who we are. It is the thing that connects the sisterhood and makes us goddesses,” Mother said, grabbing Mila and taking her through another door.
“Go on,” Mother instructed as Mila crept to the door.
The sound of swords clanging and fires raging were all about her. It was an ancient battlefield. The armor was unlike anything Mila had ever seen and the weapons were monstrous. A soldier dragged a beautiful woman across the field by her hair as she kicked and screamed. Mila crept closer to see that the woman was Mother. She gasped as the soldier began ripping her clothes off, bending her over and tying her to a rack.
“Gentlemen! Your reward for defeating the queen! Everyone gets two minutes!” he shouted, being the first to partake.
Mila began to cry uncontrollably as the entire army had their way with her. For three days while they set up camp they abused Mother, doing some of the lowest and foulest things she had ever seen.
“See Mila, our way is the way of pain. But what happens next makes all the difference,” she said, as the vision turned to Mother being tied to the back of a horse.
“Get her out of here!” the soldier said, as the rider began to drag her across the forest.
Mother's body hit trees, her flesh tore upon stones and stumps; every part of her was broken. He untied her and rode back to camp. She lie awake for three days dying, in total agony and pain.
Knights of Enmity: The Barons Have Fallen (Descending Fires Book 1) Page 27