Blood Heavy: Ascension

by S. L. J. Shortt

“If I'm so logged into this world, how long before I'm a part of it. How long before I do what they do? It applies to innocent people too Goose!”

  “Then apply it to the things we hunt!”

  He was right. This new little spooky talent of his could go either way, but it still scared him.

  Jerry looked his best friend in the eye with a stoney look on his face. “If it does, I mean if I do a full on Anakin Skywalker, you gotta promise me...you gotta promise that you'll put me down no different from the rest.”

  It was at that moment that the feeling in Goose's chest actually started to become painful. He winced slightly but he was too stunned to really react. Jerry had just asked Goose to kill him if he ever went bad.

  “You can't ask me to do that,” Goose breathed.

  “I have to, because you're the only one I trust to actually do it.”

  “No.”

  “Goose...I don't wanna be one of those things...I can't...” Jerry's voice shook as he spoke. He hated that he had to ask something like this but he couldn't leave it to chance. He couldn't risk hurting innocent people. “You gotta promise me.”

  He'd never ever thought about something like this before. In their line of work there was always a chance that they might get infected from a bite or poison and become one of the very creatures that they hunted but it had never been an issue for Jerry. He was immune. It had always been the other way around. Goose was the one that was vulnerable to such a thing.

  The pain in his chest got worse. Just the idea of pressing a gun to Jerry's temple made him sick to his stomach but the idea of actually pulling the trigger was too much. Could he actually do it? If he had no other choice, if Jerry turned evil could he really kill his best friend?

  Slowly Goose raised his head and looked Jerry in the eye. “I promise,” he lied. He knew he wouldn't be able to do it.

  “Thank you,” Jerry sighed. He didn't have Joe's lie detector ability so he believed it. Plus he was so distraught at that moment, it didn't seem to matter.

  “But from here on out my job is to make sure that I never have to keep that promise! I don't care what it takes, I'm keeping you human, clear?” Goose ordered.

  “Yeah, well, killing me wasn't exactly plan A.”

  “Good,” he nodded with relief but the pain in his chest didn't go away. Instead it got worse, so much so that he actually clutched his heart.

  “What's wrong? Indigestion?”

  “That would be weird since I haven't eaten anything,” Goose cringed.

  Suddenly the pain turned into agony, like knives were penetrating every part of his torso. Goose yelled out a keeled over.

  “Goose?!” Jerry yelled and rushed to his friends aid.

  “Jerry, somethings wrong! Jesus! Something's squeezing my insides!” Goose gasped.

  “Oh, that would be me.”

  They both snapped around to see Aria standing there, her metallic black wings out and folded against her back. They had to have been double folded otherwise they would drag on the floor because of their size. For a second he'd forgotten how beautiful she was but her looks only made her that much more deadly. Her clothes were burnt and chard but she didn't have any injuries.

  “You threw a bomb at me Jerry...frowny face,” she pouted in a ridiculously dramatic way while sticking her bottom lip out.

  “Let him go you bitch!” Jerry roared.

  “Sure,” she shrugged and clicked her fingers. Goose let out a gasp of relief as the pain vanished from his body. He breathed deeply but didn't stand, still clutching his sides. “On second thoughts,” she clicked her fingers again and Goose cried out in pain. This time blood began to pour from his mouth.

  “No!”

  “I thought I made it clear to you, I get what I want! Now, you have two choices. You can be a good boy and come with me or you can continue being a stubborn little shit and watch me kill your friends one by one,” she said now looking very pissed as Goose coughed up more blood. “Oh and his lungs will be coming out of his ears in about three minutes so you might want to decide quickly.”

  Jerry pulled the sawn-off from it's holster with lightning speed and fired straight at her face. She didn't even blink. The bullet never touched her, instead it blasted apart a tree trunk behind her. She had redirected the Nitro round with her mind.

  “Do I look like some piss-ant vampire to you Jerry? Get it through your skull, you can't fight me!” Aria growled.

  “I can!”

  Aria spun around to see a man in raggedy clothes with messy stubble on his face standing a few yards away.

  “YOU!” Aria yelled with burning fury in her face.

  “Smile for the birdy!” the man grinned and held up what looked like a volcanic rock the size of a tennis ball in his hand.

  “NO!”

  A white blinding light consumed the whole area along with a sound that was like a Boeing 747's engine. Jerry and Goose automatically ducked away from whatever had just happened and hit the deck. It only lasted a second or two before the light and noise vanished. When they did, Aria was nowhere to be seen.

  Goose gasped and struggled for breath as the pain once again ended. They slowly got off the ground, Jerry holding Goose up by his shoulder stared in shock. They both looked around at the man just as Joe came bolting out of the house with a shotgun at the ready. He came to a halt near them looking around with confusion all over his face.

  The stranger looked over at Jerry. “Daniel Jericho?”

  “Yeah,” Jerry finally said still wide eyed and blinking the little star bursts away.

  “My names Wick, John Wick. I see you've met the Devil's daughter.”

  CHAPTER 16 – A MONSTERS WORST NIGHTMARE

  Sophinia's Mansion – Sioux Falls

  “Help!” Joe yelled as soon as they burst through the front door of the mansion. Jerry and Joe were holding up Goose as Vic and John Wick entered behind them.

  Vic had returned seconds after Wick had shown up and transported them back. Goose was alive but not looking too good. He was pale and still had blood dripping from his chin. His body was pretty limp and they weren't taking any chances.

  “What happened?!” Cass yelped as she and Claire rushed up to them.

  “Aria!” Jerry growled.

  “How did she know you'd be there?”

  “She placed a proximity ward on the house. Probably weeks ago,” Wick answered.

  “Who the hell are you?” Claire asked quickly. The guy looked like a hobo.

  “My names John Wick,” he said as they rushed Goose into the nearest room with a couch.

  “It’s okay, he helped us,” Jerry said.

  They laid him down on it gently and Cass straight away checked his pulse. She then felt his head for temperature and then started examining his eyes. “Goose, you okay?” she asked softly. It was more concern than she normally showed. Their little family of misfits and outcasts seemed to have come a long way in three months.

  “I've had better days,” he groaned.

  “It's okay, if there was going to be any permanent damage we'd know by now,” Wick said just as Sophinia and Rachel entered.

  The pureblood could have had him pinned against the wall and ready to snap his neck in a heartbeat if she wanted to but she didn't go for him. Instead she took a defensive position between Rachel and the others, never taking her eyes off him.

  “How do you know that Mr. Wick?” Sophinia asked still studying him with caution. She had heard his name from yards away.

  “I know a lot about Aria,” he stated. He didn't seem surprised to suddenly be standing in front of a pureblood vampire and if he was he wasn't showing it. “That was a particularly nasty piece of old world black magic she used on him. But it puts up a lot of red flags, if you know what to look for you can track it. That's how I found you guys.”

  “You were looking for us?” Jerry asked.

  “Yeah, for about two weeks now,” Wick turned his eyes to the pureblood. Her wings seemed completely natural to him.
“You're Sophinia, right? Heard a lot about you,” he held out his hand for her to shake.

  She did so carefully.

  “Why can't I read your mind?” Rachel demanded in very unfriendly tone.

  “You're a psychic? Interesting,” Wick smiled but looked surprised at seeing such a young mind reader. At the same time he pulled a small pendant from under his clothes. It looked like a coin that hadn't been in the right place on the printing press when the piston had come down on it. The markings seemed almost like they weren't on straight. It had a bunch of odd lines and grooves that didn’t make sense to any of them. “Got this from a group of Tibetan monks. It shields against mental manipulation. We thought Aria might be able to read minds...she can't, well, not exactly, but this thing comes in handy nevertheless.”

  Rachel didn't look pleased about not being able to get into his head. She had gotten so used to being able to do it, it worried her when she met someone she couldn't read.

  As he tucked the pendant back into his clothes, a rosary fell from his sleeve. It was attached to his wrist.

  “You're a priest?” Claire asked as her eyebrows shot up.

  Joe looked both confused and cautious. Like he didn't know what to make of Wick. That amulet must have been blocking his 'sixth-sense' as well as Rachel's.

  Wick chuckled lightly. “Err, yes and no. I got my masters in divinity but I haven't exactly given many sermons lately. Figured I could do more good protecting people from the evil that's out there.”

  “Lot of that going around,” Rachel said looking at Jerry.

  “And right now you're hunting Aria?” Joe asked.

  “Right now? No, for the past eight years I've been hunting Aria. My mentor, he was after her for over twenty.”

  “Was?”

  “He's dead. She killed him. His name was Father Reeves, he taught me, well, everything,” Wick said pulling off his ripped and dirty jacket. He put it down on the same couch Goose was lying on and pulled a few things from his pockets including the weird little volcanic rock.

  “Okay, what is that and where can I get one?” Jerry asked.

  “Sorry kid, this is the only one on the planet, as far as I know,” Wick said. “It's an Enochian banishing stone.”

  “Enochi-what?”

  “Enochian,” Sophinia gasped in amazement. “The divine language.”

  “Huh?”

  “The language of heaven.”

  Jerry rolled his eyes.

  “Heaven's got it's own language?” Joe asked looking confused.

  “It makes sense, I mean they predate all of ours,” Claire shrugged.

  “Yeah, and this thing does exactly what it says on the label: it banishes.”

  “Where?” Goose croaked. He seemed to be way more interested in this new info than his own injuries.

  “Ahh, well, that's the down side of this little beauty. It's got a hell of a range on it but it spits you out completely at random. Right now she could be inside the bathroom of the local movie theater or she could be orbiting Jupiter, there's no way of knowing. Either way, all it's done is buy us some time. No matter where it sent her, she'll find her way back.”

  “Wait, you're saying she could be floating around in space but she's not dead?” Cass asked.

  “Afraid not. To say that she's resilient would be the understatement of the century.”

  “Not surprising. Angels are immortal, right?” Rachel asked.

  “You called her the daughter of the Devil?” Goose added.

  “Again with the heaven crap,” Jerry groaned. Why were they still stupid enough to believe that Aria was an angel. She had just tried to kill Goose which should have been enough to convince them all that she was some evil creature and not a servant of God. Everyone just ignored him and kept their attention on the priest.

  “The Devil's daughter is just a nick name,” Wick said not paying much attention to Jerry's annoyance. “She's got dozens of them. The Dark Lady, the Fallen Princess, the Hammer of Satan, they've all got one thing in common, basically they all tie her to Lucifer.”

  “And now Lucifer, well this subject never gets old,” Jerry continued to roll his eyes at every turn.

  “Not a believer I take it?” Wick guessed.

  “How can you tell?” Jerry smirked.

  “Well, you better start. You're gonna need to be if you wanna fight Aria.”

  “What is she, and please don't tell me that she's a freakin' angel!” Jerry huffed in annoyance.

  “Oh, she's not an angel,” Wick said.

  “Thank you! Finally, someone with common sense,” Jerry said looking smugly at Goose who glared back at him. “So what the hell kind of monster are we dealing with here?”

  “She's not a monster either. She's the thing that monsters have nightmares about.” Everyone’s attention was firmly locked on Wick now. “She's a demon.”

  Cass, Claire and Sophinia looked like they'd just had a bucket of ice water thrown over them. They were terrified but Jerry couldn't help but laugh. Demons? That was just a stupid as angels.

  “A demon...as in -”

  “Made by hell for hell.”

  “You gotta be kiddin' me!” Jerry snorted.

  “I wish I were. Aria's unlike any demon I've ever heard of. She's a demon that is specifically designed to impersonate an angel,” Wick said.

  “Why?” Rachel asked.

  “Well, think about it. If you wanted to do some real damage, would you go with the whole head-spinning, projectile pea soup approach or would you convince people that you were a messenger of God? You could tell someone to do anything and they would do it because they believed that they were -”

  “Doing heavens will,” Sophinia finished suddenly looking so frail. This information had gone straight through her. All her talk about heaven and hell, her being a true believer, it was hitting her hard. The idea of something abusing faith like that, it hurt her.

  “Exactly. It scares me to think just how many people have done terrible things in God’s name just because she told them to.”

  “I don't get it, what's the end game?” Joe asked.

  “Well, that I don't know. If her goal was just to create chaos then she could have done far worse than what she's been doing. She has a reason for being here but she ain't a Bond villain. She's been very clever about covering her tracks and hiding what her real mission is.”

  “Okay, how the hell do know she's a demon? Where's your proof?” Jerry asked, still frustrated.

  “She admitted it to father Reeves, right before she ripped him in half,” Wick said. The look on his face said he wasn't lying.

  “You trying to tell me that heaven, hell, demons, angels...God...it's all real?” Jerry just couldn't seem to buy into it.

  “Well, I might be a little one sided on that debate,” Wick said pointing at his rosary, “but yeah, looks that way.”

  “Awesome,” Jerry growled with gritted teeth. “That's just freakin' great!”

  He turned and looked at Goose but his friend wouldn't look him in the eye. He didn't look frightened, more like he was hurt and not because of what Aria had done to him.

  First he turns out to be some kind of hybrid freak and now angels and demons are real? This crap was spiraling way out of control. Twenty four hours ago the world had been so black and white. They were the good guys, they hunted the bad guys, end of story. Now heaven, hell, God and who knows what else were in it with them.

  Just when Jerry thought he had a handle on the supernatural, something else popped up and tore that understanding down. He should have been getting used to it by now. But real or not, heaven and hell were things he never wanted to get involved with.

  Worse still, that meant that God was real and he was doing nothing to stop the evil that plagued the world.

  “Alright, Mr. Wick, I tink it's best if you start from the beginning,” Vic said after taking a sip from a silver hip flask that seemed to have come out of nowhere.

  Wick nodded and took a seat next
to the couch Goose was lying on.

  “I'm guessing you guys have heard of Noah's Ark?”

  “What, the dude that built a floating zoo right before the world flooded?” Jerry snubbed. “You're not actually gonna tell us that crap is real too?”

  “Do I believe in God? Absolutely. Do I believe that the world was repopulated by a centuries old boat builder and his family? Kinda doubt it. I may be a priest but that's pushing it,” Wick smiled.