My attention was consumed, while following a trail of blood. The trail led from the narrow hallway into a wide open hangar type space in the warehouse. Matias was busy engaging with a pack of beasts. I was busy speculating as to whether or not the blood had come from Matias, or the hounds, when I was ambushed by the same winged demon that had accosted me twice before.
I felt the approach of the demon before he arrived to take me from my position. I ducked, rolled onto my back, and managed to kick the demon while he grabbed at me. My foot caught him square in the jaw, but his claws managed to sink into my thigh. Regardless of my efforts, I found myself airborne once more, this time, held upside down by the demon, over a stretch of concrete.
I realized that being this close to Lara, the demon’s objective was likely to isolate me from the fight, and then secure my transfer to Lara’s possession. I knew that was a mistake, and I had a desperate notion of how to overcome the demon’s error.
Looking down, I saw that as I departed from him, Matias was overtaken by the pack of dogs that had been sent against him. His successes and failures appeared to be inextricably linked to the proximity and vitality of our love. I panicked, momentarily, and grew fearful that all of our efforts would have been for nothing. Even as the demon’s claws sank further into the flesh of my thigh, I swore to God, and All That Is Good, that I would not make the same mistake again. There was no way that I could afford to lose faith in either Matias, or myself.
I had to believe in our love, from the bottom of my heart.
As that love grew in my mind, I felt the warmth in my chest overcome the ever-present feeling of chill brought about by the presence of the demon horde. That same warmth spread through my body, and concentrated itself on the tips of my fingers. I felt the pulse of heat stretch from my heart, out toward my fingers, and centralize itself in the palms of my hand. Suddenly, divine light shot out from my palms, and struck the winged demon in the chest. The demon was reduced to nothing more than smoke and shadow, leaving me to fall down fifteen feet to skid on the floor of the warehouse.
Even as I fell, I directed the same force of light toward the pack of hellhounds, releasing Matias from his unfortunate position. I hadn’t expected to wake up with the abilities of a superhero, but if it meant getting Claire back, and setting a few things right in the world, I didn’t mind the responsibilities.
“You’ve found your strength…” Matias gasped.
He looked down at my thigh, and then I looked over his body. We were both beat up for our efforts, but there was nothing that could not be solved through the fire of our love. I kissed him, and ran my hands over his wounds. As I touched him, he healed. Through healing my love, the wounds which marked my body healed as well.
“Yes,” I replied, pulling away and offering him a smile. “I believe I have.”
47
Roma
With a renewed sense of power, we made our way into the back end of the building. We found our path clear at that point. There was little that appeared to be willing to stand in our way, since the power of Love was so obviously on our side. The two of us practically glowed with the strength of God. Matias and I held hands as we walked, and the shadows which clung to the walls of the condemned warehouse retreated as we approached.
We walked up a narrow stairwell, and ended up discovering a metal door with a hex inscribed on the surface. Without fear, I placed my hand in the center of the hex, and watched as the sigil faded, and dissolved before our eyes. The door opened, and we found what we were looking for all this time.
Claire was there, on the roof, naked and tied to a cross. Lara was standing next to Claire, playing with her thigh in a suggestive manner. Obviously Lara was trying to get a rise out of me, as the form she took was my own. It was startling to see a vision of myself involved in a theatrical, sado-masochistic relationship with Claire, but the shock did not last long.
Matias did not wait for any theatrical conclusion to the matter. Instead, he charged forward, into the collection of demons that waited there for our assault. The creatures themselves looked like perverted and disfigured combinations of animals and men. Strange scaled creatures with long teeth occupied the roof, still others were there with long snouts, covered in slime. All of the demons were varied in their own way, and all of them were eager to kill.
Lara gripped ahold of Claire and attempted to draw energy out of her, no doubt for no other reason than to drive me into a state of frenzy. I couldn’t sit idly by while Matias fought on the rooftop, so I joined in the fight. I didn’t have to work too hard to find a willing combatant. While the demons were obviously afraid of me, I knew that Lara would kill just to draw me close.
If she was so eager for me that she didn’t mind having some blood on her hands, I was going to give her what she wanted.
“Lara!” I commanded, setting my intention with the a fierce cry to the heavens.
I broke into a sprint, and created a wake of fallen demons while I charged directly toward Lara’s position. Two discs of light appeared in my palms, and I cast them out into the breast of Lara. My doppelgänger cried out in a mixture of both pleasure and pain. I noticed that as I struck toward Lara, she drew still more energy from Claire. It became clear to me, even after the first strike that there was a psychic and vampiric link between my friend and the dark succubus who fell from heaven’s favor.
Immediately, I worked to edge my way between the cross and the woman who shared my appearance. Her dark eyes held the secret of her soullessness, which served as a dark reminder of my own capacities for evil. One strike, and then another was launched in the direction of Lara, and I managed to wedge myself between the cross, and the villainess.
Still, while I successfully struck Lara, I felt runes glowing on the wood of the cross, and blood being drawn from Claire. A mocking smile spread across the full lips of Lara. She understood that I was killing my friend while trying to fight against her. Fortunately, Matias was keen to the magic as well.
“Cut the bonds!” he cried.
I didn’t need an explanation to understand his instructions, though Lara did not need an explanation either. She redoubled her efforts to keep me on my heels. Her attacks grew more intense, as she used her own dark energy to combat the light which I held in my own palms. I was, suddenly afraid, and outmatched. She seemed to be superior in every way, and I did not have the skill or patience to equal her power.
In a desperate move, I retreated. However, while retreating, I also focused my energy entirely on casting those discs from my hands and throwing them to the bonds which kept Claire suspended on that cross. I was left defenseless in that moment, but the gambit was successful. The discs of light severed the cords and brought the cross down to the ground. I felt a cold incision across the length of my back, and fell to the ground.
The pain radiated from the cut. I could feel the burn from my left shoulder blade, down to my right hip. I rolled on the ground, as an excruciating cold passed through my body. I knew that Claire was free, but I had exposed myself in order to achieve that goal. Matias immediately saw me in pain, and broke three from a cluster of monsters just to come to my aid.
“Your efforts are futile, fallen one,” Lara offered, with a cackle.
“You, one who is despised by heaven!” Matias yelled. “You will pay for what you have done to my love.”
“Don’t be foolish, Angel,” Lara said.
Her words rang through my mind, mixing with the intensity of the pain.
“The only way to access enough energy to reopen your precious gates is to kill the person carrying that energy…” Lara offered. “You think I am some kind of monster, but I don’t think you understand my dedication to the cause.”
“You want the power for yourself!” Matias growled.
I writhed on the floor in pain, and Matias lurched past me to attack Lara.
“Ah, ah ah…” she said, countering his blows with a deft grace she had not offered to me.
“Perhaps you are the
one who has misjudged me…” Lara offered. “If I had wanted her dead, I could have aimed in a very different spot, could I have not?”
Her statement gave Matias reason for pause.
“I wanted to offer you a choice!” Lara announced. “To see, just how strong your love God remains.”
“To save the world, to get back to heaven, the woman you love must die…” she concluded, offering an ironic bow.
I looked up with horror, realizing that all of this had been little more than a game of cat and mouse. Lara had Matias stumped now, and stalked toward him seductively, wishing to play with her prey now that she had him pinned.
“Don’t wait too long…” Lara continued, “She bleeds out divine light even as we speak. Time to decide where your allegiances lie…”
Lara smiled.
48
Roma
“It’s OK Matias,” I cried, understanding intuitively that this is how it needed to be. “I can’t let the world die.”
My tears flowed out from my eyes, but they weren’t for me. My sadness was for the world around me, which I knew would crumble if I did not assent to the death required to re-open the gates of heaven. There was some new element to the wisdom present within my soul. In addition to the ability to direct the forces of light, I also retained some understandings of things which should have been outside of my ability to comprehend.
“As they say,” I offered. “I am a wiser, and sadder woman…”
Though the transformation happened quite overnight, it was clear to me that I could not afford to value myself and my own health over the welfare of those around me. I thought about Claire, and I thought about the Friar and Eli. I even thought about Dale. These people were just the initial splash damage of the downfall. If I didn’t take action, then something worse and more toxic would spread outward from this situation. The world would grow dark, and there would be no hope.
What’s more, is I had the suspicion that Lara would only find some way to continue her sinister plans until she had achieved her aims. The problem, is that none of us truly understood what those aims were.
“You going to tell me why you brought all of this on, Lara?” I asked with a sneer in my lip.
“Why, it’s because I love you…” she returned.
I glared at her in response.
“Hell of a way to show it,” I offered, gasping for breath as the cold drove itself into my body.
“You…” she smiled. “You were always a clever girl.”
There was a pause.
I could tell that Matias was brimming to reach out and slay the woman. His powerful warrior body was ready to strike — to reach out and slay the enemy. Matias wanted to protect me, and by all rights, the impulse was one that I could understand. Yet still, I felt that this must not be the way that things moved forward.
“If anyone is clever, Lara, I think it’s safe to assume that person is you.” I offered.
My voice was low, and it was difficult to form the words and effort necessary to speak my truth to Lara. Still, I managed well enough. Matias kept his distance, unsure of how to move forward. In the meanwhile, I found myself at the mercy of an unspeakable level of pain. The cold was now radiating down the entire length of my body. At the heart of the sensation was a deadness. Toward the edges, the frozen sensation turned into a burning fire. Had I been at a lesser state of consciousness,
All around me were the shadows of coiling serpents. They writhed around my body, and dove into my flesh. I could do nothing but watch them, and brace my mind against their presence. My muscles were nearly paralyzed from the impact of Lara’s weapon. I might have thought I was hallucinating, had I not been through my recent transformation. As it was, I now knew that the entire unseen world of angels and demons was only a step of belief into the unknown. The fact that I lay here dying, in Temescal Canyon, to fulfill some prophecy that was more destiny than decision — that was just a narrative. I resolved myself in the face of my immanent doom, and glared defiantly toward Lara.
“You will… n..n..n..not get what… you… de…s…sire…” I managed to utter, through chattering teeth.
Lara’s response was cool and collected. She had the situation well in hand, and was merely waiting for her glorious conclusion to arrive.
“Silly girl, you just don’t understand what I’m doing, do you?”
I sneered at her, offering what little energy I could toward the expression of defiance. The pain was overwhelming, and I sensed that the end would come soon. Lara was drawing it out, simply for the pleasure of savoring the moment of her victory.
“Do you have any idea what it feels like to be rejected from the only collective that has any cosmic meaning whatsoever?” she asked.
I would have paid more attention to her, but I was busy writhing about on the ground. The pain that rolled through my body had its roots in the deepest parts of Hell. There was only so much I could do to pay attention to anything outside of my immediate sphere of agony. Still, for some reason, when she spoke, her words came through clearly enough. As a matter of fact, it felt as though the pain receded exclusively for her benefit. The sharp stabbing cold, and scorching fires abated themselves to make way for her expression.
“What if…” she continued, walking around my fallen body, “that same exclusive collective was fronted by a hypocrite of the highest order? How would you feel if you were shut out, and sentenced to the Pits of Hell for all of eternity?”
“Blasphemy!” Matias shouted. “You chose to leave, just as you chose to shut the gates of heaven!”
“All things happen for a purpose, my exuberantly righteous brother,” she replied.
“You are no sister to me…” he said.
I could feel the vitriol in his voice.
“And that,” she replied, “Is exactly the kind of exclusivity I’m talking about.”
She sighed, and I could imagine her rolling her eyes through the pain.
“When you die, Roma, I’m going to be very sad.”
Somehow I doubted that statement, but I was in no condition to argue.
“I will miss you, but you understand, that once the energy of God has been liberated from your form, it will pass through the Realm of Death. While the Godhead passes through the Realm of Death, the Gates will open, and I will assume a position in Heaven again.”
Then, she laughed.
“One might even find that our brothers and sisters are so grateful for my assistance, that they elevate my position. Perhaps I too shall become as the Most High.”
“That’s it…” Matias muttered to himself.
“What, my brother, have I gone too far?”
Lara punctuated the question with a cackle appropriate for the heartiest of witches.
“No,” he replied. “I’d say you didn’t go far enough.”
Matias grabbed me then, and brought me into his arms. Through the pain, I could feel him. I could sense that he was directing all of his love toward me. The connection between our two souls was palpable. The way that our hearts joined in synchronization with one another was a physical symptom of a much deeper connection that he and I shared.
“Say goodbye to your love, and yourself. I will kill the two of you if it must be so!”
Matias held me, and I could hear Lara speaking her incantations behind my back.
“What are you doing…?” I asked, breathless.
Matias smiled, and kissed me. Just like that, it was over.
All of the pain I had been feeling was now gone. He had taken the energy into himself, and left me in a state of divine peace and protection.
“It’s okay,” he said. “You were right. God wants me to love, and now I do. She won’t be able to hurt us any longer. She won’t be able to hurt anyone.”
“STOP!” Lara cried out, lunging toward the two of us, seeking to physically do what her magic could no longer manage.
Matias opened himself up, and I fell away from him. I watched as his body became illuminated and cons
umed with divine fire. The energy burned through Lara, and shot up into the heavens. As I watched the two of them dissolve into light, I knew that the gates had been opened, and it was finished.
My love had gone home.
Roma
Three months later.
That morning on the rooftop wasn’t something that goes away on a casual basis. There wasn’t a night that went by that I didn’t dream of him. Of course, I knew that all of the dreaming in the world wouldn’t bring him back. Matias, I’d come to believe, was a once in a lifetime experience. We had a few good rolls in the hay, sure, and we had more than our share of kisses. I had come to the belief that my being grateful for what had come to pass was the best I could do in that situation.
Claire was all right, and I got my life back in a big way.
Of course, all of the damage that had been done was not something that could be brushed under the rug. I had to take real efforts in my life to find a new way to live. I needed to pick a new career, because there was no way that I could stick around in the Clinic. I also couldn’t stand to hang out around the hospital where Dale worked. There were a lot of ‘no fly zones’, if you know what I mean — places where I felt like if I went there, I would just be triggered. I didn’t want some terrible thing to befall me through relapse into alcoholism. I also didn’t want to lose myself to depressions and aimlessness.
So, I did what any woman would do in that situation — I allowed the breath of fresh air to come into my lungs, and tried starting over.
After a bit of haggling, I was able to work out a deal between my savings and a financial aid officer. With a bit more help from a career guidance counselor, I found out that there are certain teaching programs where they will actually pay you to go to school, if you promise to help them out in return.
Legends of the Damned: A Collection of Edgy Urban Fantasy and Paranormal Romance Novels Page 310