by N. P. Martin
Some demon.
Demon.
I looked at him.
“What?” he said.
I sat up straight for the first time since we’d left the warehouse. “Abigor said only a demon could bring out the power in the sword. So did the angel.”
“Yeah, so?”
“We still have that demon’s blood, don’t we?”
“Yeah…Wait…I know what you’re thinking….” Frank said as he caught on.
“That’s exactly what I’m thinking. We just might be able to stop Abigor after all.”
“Normally, I’d say you were crazy, but under the circumstances…”
“It’s the only option we have,” I concluded.
We got out of the car and ran to the cabin. Once inside we went to the cellar where the bucket of demon’s blood we siphoned from Morgana still sat on the floor. “Get me a glass,” I said to Frank.
When he arrived back a moment later with a tall glass I dipped it into the bucket of demons blood. The blood was dark and thick, almost treacly where it had congealed over the last few days.
I looked at Frank and he nodded for me to drink.
Putting the glass to my lips, I drank. It tasted foul, like a spoiled meat smoothie, only much worse. I wretched and gagged after the first mouthful, and spat blood onto the floor. “Oh my God…that’s…indescribably awful.”
Frank’s face contorted as he watched me try again. I took another mouthful of the blood and quickly swallowed. I gagged again but I somehow managed to keep the vile liquid down. I repeated the process, drinking and gagging until I had drank the whole glass. I closed my eyes for a few moments while I allowed the blood to settle in my stomach. My body protested. The angel DNA in me tried to resist, tried to reject the liquid evil that I was putting in my system, but I fought and kept the blood down.
“How much are you going to drink?” Frank asked, filling the glass up again.
“As much as I can stand.” The second glass was harder to drink since I already knew what to expect. It took me half a dozen attempts to empty it. The blood felt heavy in my stomach, like lead, but I kept it down. “One more,” I said and Frank refilled the glass. I tipped my head and drank and after two mouthfuls I had to stop as my stomach heaved and I vomited on to the floor. At least half a glass of demon’s blood spewed from my mouth and splattered all over the concrete. Frank jumped back to avoid the crimson splashes.
“Okay, that’s enough.”
“No! Let me finish.” Tears streamed from my eyes with all the retching and vomiting but I kept drinking until I finally finished the third glass. “Oh, Jesus…oh, God this is horrible.”
Something was happening inside me.
Frank had a hand on my shoulder. “What is it?”
“It’s…it’s like the blood is alive in my stomach…oh God…it feels like it’s crawling through my system.” I fell down to my knees.
“Leia!” Frank kneeled down with me. “You alright?”
“I don’t…” My whole body felt like it was on fire, like I had just drunk acid and it was burning its way through me. It was excruciatingly painful and I fell back on to the floor, convulsing and screaming with the pain. Blood erupted out of my mouth and I coughed, spraying red into the air and over Frank.
“Leia!”
The convulsions carried on for a few more minutes before they finally stopped and the burning sensation died down. One final convulsion forced me to arch my back off the floor for several seconds before my whole body just as suddenly relaxed again and I flopped back to the floor.
When I opened my eyes things looked different.
There was an orange tint to everything and when I looked up at Frank he seemed to have a yellowish aura around him. He flinched when I looked at him. “Your eyes,” he said. “They’re black.”
It worked.
I got up off the floor and stood for a moment while I tried to reconcile with myself what I had become. I could still feel the Nephilim power inside of me but it felt much stronger now, more potent.
I had never felt such power and strength coursing through me.
My mind, which normally had a thousand thoughts running through it all at once, felt almost empty. I thought about nothing. My instincts ran the show now.
When Frank went to put a hand on my shoulder I gripped his wrist and grabbed him by the throat with my other hand, driving him back into the wall and lifting him off his feet. He pressed down on my arm, trying to say my name but unable to breathe properly.
When I looked into his eyes all I saw was a meat suit, not a person, just something to be used and abused as I saw fit. There was no emotion in me, only cold and calculated instinct, like a great white shark going after its prey.
I squeezed harder on Frank’s throat and watched calmly as his face turned purple. I only let him go when I felt something splashing on me and then a horrible burning sensation on my face and neck. I staggered back, my hands clamping my face as I cried out in pain. “What did you do?” I screeched at him.
Frank slumped against the wall, holding his throat, trying to get his breath back. “Leia, you have to…you have to control it…Leia…please!”
The sound of Frank’s pleading voice touched something deep within me, something that was buried beneath the demonic power that coursed through me.
Emotion.
Conscience.
I felt faint traces of both in me somewhere, but they were overwhelmed by the terrible power that had a grip on me.
“Get control, Leia!” Frank said. “Please. We can’t do this unless you get control.”
Frank’s voice somehow touched my buried emotions, just enough for me to realize who he was to me. As I looked at him I no longer saw him as a piece of meat, but as a person, as my uncle. I felt the black power inside of me trying to beat down those feelings. Two different forces vied for control within me.
“You’re in control, Leia,” Frank said, his voice calmer and more measured now that he’d gotten his breath back. “You control the power inside you, not the other way around. Find the strength. Remember what we have to do. Think about saving Josh.”
At the mention of Josh’s name my vision cleared and I saw Frank relax a little. “Your eyes are back to normal,” he said.
I stood, blinking at him. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know what I was doing.” I felt like myself again but the demonic power was still there, just below the surface, waiting for me to give in to it again, to yield to its awesome strength. I had to maintain control and I knew it would be a constant battle. It was only the Nephilim power that gave me the strength to counter the demon influence.
“It’s okay,” Frank said. “I’m fine. Lucky I had holy water on me.” He held up his hip flask.
“That’s what burned me? That hurt.”
“Now you know why it’s so effective.”
“Don’t do that again.”
“Don’t try to kill me again then.”
“I won’t.”
“Come on. We gotta go. Now.”
We made our way quickly upstairs and then out to the car. When I looked down the mountain, to the city below, I stopped. “Frank,” I said, but Frank had already seen because he had stopped to look as well. There was a mass of black swirling clouds forming over the city, an omen that something terrible was about to come.
The demon power in me almost rose to the surface again as I took in the swirling black and gray clouds.
It recognized what was happening and it wanted a front row seat.
“Leia, let’s go.” Frank was already in the car, the engine started. I willed the demon power in me to back down and ran to the car, praying we weren’t too late to stop Abigor .
Chapter 26
Even though it was daytime, the whole city was shrouded in darkness. People were out on the streets looking up at the coal black sky, fearful and wondering what was going on. Traffic on the roads had slowed to a standstill, which made it difficult for us to drive the car to the cemeter
y where we knew Abigor and his minions would be. Frank was forced to mount the car on the pavement a few times, frantically sounding the horn to get pedestrians to move out of the way, a couple of times almost hitting people as we sped along the sidewalks in the Chevrolet, wrecking shop signs and whatever else stood in our way. Frank didn’t care. He drove like he too had demonic power in him. Our only objective was to get to that cemetery and stop Abigor. Frank had already called Eva and told her to meet us there.
About half a mile from the graveyard, we stopped the car and bailed out. Traffic had come to a complete standstill as people just abandoned their cars so they could get out and see what was happening above them. As Frank and I got out of the car, the dark maelstrom above us began to thunder. Forked lighting projected down from the sky, hitting cars and people all over the place. The entire city was in a panic, people running wildly everywhere. It was a scene from a disaster movie.
“This is chaos!” Frank said as we opened the trunk to get our weapons. I immediately grabbed the Demon Blade, which felt different in my hand, heavier, more powerful. Alive. “Let’s go!” Frank grabbed his own sword from the trunk. We ran as fast as we could through the crowds of people, knocking them out of our way as we raced through the streets towards the cemetery. After five minutes, we made it to the open cemetery gates. The darkness seemed to be greater there than anywhere else, as did the winds and sounds of crashing thunder. We couldn’t hear ourselves speak as we stood in the midst of the maelstrom.
“Okay,” said Frank as we ran through the gates and into the cemetery. “Kill whatever comes near us. I don’t care who or what they are. We can’t afford mercy.”
He didn’t have to tell me that; I already knew the stakes. Despite the fact that Abigor’s minions would be mostly his private army of Nephilim demons, we still had to kill them if they tried to kill us. It was collateral damage.
“And, Leia?” The strong winds were blowing Frank’s hair wildly, forcing him to half close his eyes.
“Yeah?”
“Kill that sonofabitch Abigor. End this, you hear me? End it!”
I nodded as Eva came running through the cemetery gates. She was dressed in her leather battle gear as she wielded her twin blades, one in each hand. “This is some party,” she said, her dark hair blowing around her face.
“Best ever,” Frank said and they smiled at each other like it was the last time they would ever fight together.
“Hate to break up your little moment,” I said. “But are we ready?”
“No,” Frank said. “But let’s go anyway.”
We advanced forward into the cemetery as the first of Abigor’s soldiers came running at us, just kids with their master’s demon blood in them, having no choice in what they were doing, but neither did we have a choice.
We cut them down with our swords.
The Demon Blade, glowing bright crimson, felt attached to my hand, like it was a part of me. It made quick work of whatever demon came near me. With one swipe of the blade I was able to cut limbs off, decapitate bodies and in one case cut one of my attackers clean in half with one blow. The brutality of my actions, the carnage I left behind, would once have been unthinkable to me. Not anymore.
The demon power in me reacted to the bloodlust and violence.
It wanted to seize control and I let it.
My vision changed and I felt the awesome power within me grow.
I felt unstoppable as I forged on through the dark cemetery, slashing and hacking my way through Abigor’s minions like they were nothing, like I was swatting flies. At one point I sensed Frank beside me and I almost swiped my sword at him like he was just another demon to cut down. Luckily one of the Nephilim demons got in the way and took the blow, his head falling of his shoulders. When I looked again Frank had gone. I didn’t know where and I didn’t care.
My only instinct was to find Abigor and kill him.
After fighting my way through yet more Nephilim demons I finally found Abigor near the back of the cemetery.
He stood in front of what looked like a hole in the ground with two iron gates at either side. A fierce orange light came from within the hole, cutting through the darkness like a laser.
Abigor stood with his arms spread out as he spoke some sort of incantation to open the Hell Gate. He must have sensed me not far away for he stopped chanting and turned around to look at me.
His face dropped when he saw me with black demon eyes and the now glowing Demon Blade in my hand. The blade shone brighter the closer I got to him. Fear tried to rise up in me at the thoughts of fighting the ancient demon, but the power and energy in me left room for nothing else, certainly not fear.
Abigor glowered at me for a second, his eyes burning before he looked towards a tombstone to his left. I followed his gaze and saw Josh emerge from behind the tombstone, sword in hand, his eyes demon black.
My vision changed to normal for a moment, his presence stirring some latent emotion in me. “Josh!” I called, but he merely looked at me like I was his enemy and nothing more, someone he had to kill.
“Kill her!” Abigor commanded. Josh started running towards me, his sword raised. I didn’t move for a second as my brother advanced on me. I was frozen. It was only when I heard Frank shout from somewhere that I snapped out of it and raised my sword just in time to deflect the blow that Josh levelled without mercy at my skull.
I couldn’t help but feel shocked by his viciousness as he raised his sword again and rained down another blow at my head that I barely managed to block with the Demon Blade. “Josh! Please don’t. I don’t want to fight you.”
“Then you’re fucked, Sis, because I’m going to kill you!” He rushed at me again, his sword raised, ready to cut me down.
I sidestepped when he got near me and sliced the Demon Blade across his stomach. He howled in pain as he fell to one knee and looked at me with an ugly mixture of rage and cold murderous intent. I barely recognized him as my brother, so far gone was he.
“Stay down, Josh! Please don’t do this!”
He got up and came at me again. The steel of his sword flashed in front of me as he swung it at me in every direction, trying to get through. I blocked, dodged and parried all his swings but the last one I redirected and his sword came down on my left leg, slashing into my thigh. I cried out in pain as I fell down on one knee.
“You can’t beat me,” he said, smiling as he walked back and forth in front of me, swinging his sword.
“I don’t want to beat you, Josh.” I looked over at Abigor who was busy chanting the incantation to open the Hell Gate. I didn’t have much time.
Josh tried to take advantage of my diverted attention. I looked just in time as he came in with his sword raised high. Instinctively I swivelled around and thrust the Demon Blade out. It pierced his side and went right through, cutting through his ribs at the other side.
I looked on in horror for an elongated moment as my brother just stood there, having dropped his sword to the ground. His face registered a look of surprise, like he thought he would never die.
“Oh God,” I said, my voice breaking as I pulled the Demon Blade out of him. He staggered and then fell to the ground, holding his side.
I scrabbled over to where he lay holding his stomach as blood pumped from the wound in his side. “Josh, Josh…” His eyes had returned to normal as he looked up at me.
He smiled that warm smile that I knew from before he became a demon. “Leia,” he said. “I’m sorry. I…”
“Don’t speak…” I cradled him in my arms as his eyes kept rolling back into their sockets, changing from black to brown and back again before finally staying their normal color.
“You saved me…” Blood ran from his mouth.
“No, Josh, I didn’t, I didn’t…”
He managed a weak smile. “You have to save Mom…” His eyes closed and I slapped his face. His eyes flew open again. “I didn’t want…to hurt you…couldn’t help it…I’m sorry…”
“I know
,” I said and I wanted to tell him it was alright, that I knew it wasn’t his fault, that none of this was his fault, but it was too late. His eyes closed a final time and he went limp in my arms, his head falling to one side as the life finally drained from him.
That was it. He was gone.
The very person I was supposed to save died in my arms. By my hands.
I let out a scream that echoed through the whole cemetery.
I would have sat there, cradling my dead brother in my arms, if I hadn’t have heard Abigor’s voice from behind me.
He sounded like he was still reciting the incantation.
Whatever emotions were in me, I fought back and allowed the demonic power to take over. My vision changed to demon mode as I stood up. I grabbed the Demon Blade again, which instantly glowed bright crimson and seemed to meld itself to my hand.
“Abigor!” I shouted in a voice an octave lower than normal.
The demon stopped reciting the incantation and looked around. “You’re too late,” he said. “It’s done. The gate is open.” He raised his arms aloft like a demonic priest. “Hell is here!”
All around him demon spirits flew out of the piercing orange light and dispersed in every direction. Burning lava flowed from the hole, pooling out on to the ground, melting everything in its path.
Abigor laughed as the lava formed around his feet. He looked up at me, fixing me with his burning eyes. His body seemed to shift and I realized he was transforming into his true demon form. I stood back and watched as he grew in height to nearly seven-feet tall, three thick horns curving back over his head, making him seem even taller. Spurs of bone jutted out of his shoulders and elbows, and his hands formed into great claws. His skin became something like horse hide, taking on a muddy grey color, and large pointed teeth filled his mouth. Standing there, surrounded by burning lava, he looked fierce and unstoppable.
My hand gripped the Demon Blade tighter. I feared I wouldn’t be able stop the monster he had become.
“I didn’t think you’d do it,” he said, his voice guttural, monstrous. “Not only kill your own brother, but demonize yourself. You constantly surprise me. It’s not too late. Join me. Rule with me. It’s over now. There’s nothing you can do. Hell is already here!” He raised his arms as multiple streams of different colored-smoke—demon spirits—flew past, swirling around him before making off into the black sky.