Daimonion (The Apocalypse Book 1)

by J. P. Jackson

  “Aradia, why didn’t my Staunching spell work?” she had asked the Elementalist one evening, taking a break from her studying.

  “Bring the book here, child.”

  Jenae flipped to the spell and set the book down in Aradia’s lap.

  “Ah, yes. This is fairly straight forward.”

  “But then why? Why did it not work?”

  “How did you get the blood from dead flesh?” asked Aradia.

  “I just squeezed some from the steaks that Dati had in the fridge,” Jenae explained.

  “Oh, child, no. Each ingredient in this book must be made by you in order for the spell to work. Obviously an herb is an herb and a rock can be collected. But blood from dead flesh—”

  As she said it, Jenae seemed to understand and her eyes went wide. “I would have had to make the flesh dead and then squeeze the blood from that,” Jenae finished.

  Aradia beamed a huge smile, “Yes, child! You’re a very quick student. Good girl.”

  I glanced at Hemming who sat across the room from me. We both grimaced.

  At least Jenae finally had someone who could teach her the ways of being a witch.

  “No, dear, like this.” Aradia had shown her yesterday, drawing a rune in the air, which shimmered and then slowly eroded as a gale force wind ripped around the two of them.

  Caleb had tried to hang around the two women but was shooed off by Aradia. I felt a little sorry for the big lout.

  Alyx might have gotten a hold on his abilities fast, but Jenae struggled to master her magic.

  “Oh shit! Dati, duck!” Jenae yelled out. A burning sphere of embers and flame ripped past my head, just barely missing me. It hit the wall instead, resulting in a platter-sized scorch mark. I had to wonder whether she would be ready for the ceremony.

  “Sorry.” She grimaced.

  “All of you, out,” Aradia said. “Tomorrow night the moon is full, and it will be the right time to open the Soul Door. Girl, make sure you practice everything I have shown you. If I don’t think you’re ready, you know what I’ll have to do.”

  Jenae nodded. Her eyes were sad and afraid at the same time.

  Once outside, Alyx continued practicing his slipping while I contemplated the best way to finish off Silenus. Hemming hung around Caleb and Riken, keeping the two occupied with learning the ins and outs of shifting.

  Caleb had it down pat and was even able to morph individual body parts. Riken’s dark shadow of a mood hung close around him, spoiling the session that otherwise should have been fun.

  Aradia emerged briefly from her cottage and beckoned the Kasadya into her home. Apparently, it was time for his instructional session. Each of us had been summoned individually, ensuring we knew exactly what to do every minute through the Soul Door ritual.

  The Watcher demon bowed deeply before Aradia, and then the two of them disappeared into the cabin. Moments later, I could hear laughing—an odd thing. I’d never seen even a hint of a chuckle, never mind reason to laugh, and Alyx or Hemming always managed to bring a smile or a giggle to most of us in the group.

  Having been lost in my thoughts, my attention on Alyx was diverted until I caught a glimpse of him vanishing. The telltale smoke seemed to implode when he disappeared and unfurled outwards when he appeared.

  Black wisps manifested behind Jenae and grew like an octopus extending its tentacles.

  I signaled to Alyx to immediately cease and desist. Unfortunately, he didn’t see my signal. Alyx had never experienced his half-sister’s dark spell casting. He didn’t know what Jenae was capable of.

  Alyx placed a hand on Jenae’s shoulder.

  Jenae screamed.

  Her eyes immediately rolled into the back of her head. I leapt up from the chair I sat in, but before I had taken two steps towards Alyx and Jenae, Alyx flew through the air, telekinetically, on a direct collision course with a jagged rock pile.

  Jenae didn’t stop there. The air around us immediately thickened and became electric. Sparks snapped and burst all around us.

  Alyx’s flailing body spiralled towards a stone outcrop. The vapors began to drift off his body, and he disappeared just in time. A breath of a wisp, the last remnants of Alyx’s disappearing act, rolled over the rock pile.

  Alyx bounced beside me.

  “Whew, that was close!” He giggled a little.

  “Scaring your sister is usually not a good idea,” I warned, but Alyx was still chuckling.

  Aradia burst out of the cabin with the Watcher demon close on her heels. She scoured the area until she spotted Jenae. Running over to her, she grabbed Jenae’s hands, comforting her and getting her to breathe deeply.

  The electrical current, palpable and audible, dispersed as quickly as it happened. Colour returned to Jenae’s irises, and in no time, she appeared less witchy and more human.

  Hemming let out an audible sigh of relief, then gathered up Caleb and Riken and took them out to the forest for more Shape-Shifting practice.

  Aradia turned and stared at me. She gave me a dirty look.

  It was then that I was summoned into Aradia’s cottage.

  “I really do not want to do this. She does not like me,” I confided in Alyx.

  “You don’t really have a choice.” He grabbed my hand. “I’ll stay with you if you want.”

  I glanced at Alyx’s alabaster fingers wrapped around my swarthy and rough skin, and then gripped his hand tight.

  “I don’t think I’ve ever held hands with anyone before,” I whispered. “Amazing how reassuring it is.”

  Alyx gave me a smile.

  As we walked into the cabin, the Watcher demon passed us on his way out. His gaze shifted furiously as he gave me the oddest look. He was evaluating my timelines, the possibilities of my future. I hated when he used his abilities on me without my permission. The Kasadya grinned with a thin smile that stretched across his face.

  A shiver ran across my shoulders, raising the hair on the back of my neck. Like every other demon, I didn’t trust him. Not in the slightest.

  Inside the cottage, the table had been cleared of all items and was being used as a makeshift operating surface. A folded blanket rested on one end. Aradia tapped the table, indicating where I was to be.

  I sat and waited as Aradia pulled together a barrage of items. Alyx never let go of my hand.

  “Lay down, beast,” she said.

  I complied. I really wasn’t overly eager about the impending procedure, especially after hearing Jenae and Hemming’s hollers. But my desire to be rid of Master’s evil little minions meant I was willing to put up with a great deal.

  I put my head on the folded blanket. Above me, there were two other sealed glass jars suspended by rope from the ceiling. Each container was squirming with the fattened bugs that had gorged themselves on blood from Hemming and Jenae. I cringed.

  Aradia came to the table with a bucket full of items, on top, a glass exactly like the ones that hung suspended above us, but this one was just for me.

  “Demon, you expect these things to crawl through your shirt too? Off with it.”

  I took off my T-shirt and resumed my vertical position. Aradia watched me carefully.

  “I don’t like you, and I don’t like your kind. As far as I’m concerned, you and yours should all be manacled like the slaves you’re supposed to be. I am doing this for the boy and his sister. If it was up to me, you’d leave here with these things in you. I don’t like you,” she repeated.

  Great, this really is going to be very painful.

  “Look at this, hair everywhere.” She made a gagging sound.

  Aradia whipped out a knife, placed the blade up against my skin just underneath the ribcage, and dragged the sharpened edge down to my belly button, taking the hair with it.

  Using a rag—which was far from clean—she wiped my freshly shaved belly and nodded in satisfaction. I looked like a freak, missing a weird patch of body hair.

  Reading my mind, Alyx whispered, “It’s okay. It’s just hair. I
t’ll grow back.”

  Aradia grabbed the glass jar and placed the open mouth side onto my newly shaved skin. The mouth had some unknown goo slopped onto the edge and a different deep-red substance plastered all over the inside of the vessel. The slop on the rim was cool as it touched my skin, but it quickly warmed. Then it burned.

  That was my first scream.

  The edge of the jar burned so hot that it began to sink into my flesh. There was no mistaking why the others had yelled. The pain was excruciating, and the sight of the container sticking out of me made the situation worse.

  Alyx gripped my hand tighter.

  Finally, the jar settled as blood wept out from the fresh wound it had created. The burning sensation ebbed slightly, but it still felt like someone was holding a branding iron to my midsection.

  Aradia sprinkled some herbs onto the flat surface of the inverted vessel. Singing some words in a language I had never heard, she increased the pitch and speed of her chanting until the scattered herbs caught on fire.

  The flames licked the surface of the glass and swirled around the vessel for several minutes. If I thought the edge of the glass had been hot when it melted my skin, I was mistaken. The flames swirling around the jar heated up the glass enough for the sticky red substance inside of the jar to bubble and melt. Drips like hot wax splashed onto my exposed and sensitive bare abdomen.

  That was screech number two.

  The goo hissed and bubbled and burned, blistering the skin. I let go of Alyx, clenched the side of the table, hands morphing into demon claws, and raked the wood. Aradia slapped me.

  “If you damage my table any more, I’ll stop this and you can leave with the things still in you, with the trap jar still stuck in you.”

  On each spot where the bloody red wax had dripped onto my skin, silver spikes erupted from inside of me. Fat blood-filled bodies tore and ripped flesh as they exploded out of my torso. Blood burst and splattered the inside of the glass trap. I tried to focus and divert my attention away from the pain, but the ringing in my ears and the fog in my brain damn near had me passing out.

  Alyx, staying clear of the demon talons, put a firm hand on my shoulder.

  “It’s okay, Dati. I’m here. It’s almost over.”

  Having one parasite rip itself out was traumatizing enough. But five of the little Hellions was too much.

  The last one extracted itself with a pop as it burst through the skin, and scream number three happened. That one went on for a very long time.

  “It is done. You tell no one I have these, and you tell no one you ever had them. Take this salve, and you rub it into your wounds. By nightfall, it won’t hurt, although if it were up to me…”

  “Yes, I know, you’d let me suffer,” I finished for her.

  “No. If it had been up to me, I would have chained you to the wall and watched when your time ran out. You’re a filthy breed.”

  She yanked the jar out of my midsection, slapped a metal lid on it, and tied a piece of rope around the neck of the bottle, hoisting it up into the rafters with the others.

  “Now find the others and tell them to all be here in the cottage by nightfall. The ceremony will be tomorrow night. Everyone needs their final instructions,” she commanded, and in a gust of wind, she disappeared.

  “You okay?” Alyx asked. “I had no idea you could scream so loud.”

  “I’ll live,” I said as I opened up the bottle of salve Aradia had given me. It smelled like rotting meat.

  After seeing my hesitation, Alyx took the bottle from me, scooped out some of the salve, then very carefully rubbed the potion into each of the five wounds and into the circle laceration made from the glass jar. He was gentle, but it still hurt like Hell. I clamped the edges of the tables with black demon talons and screamed a final time.

  Amulets and Portals

  DATI

  Alyx and I rounded everyone up that night as the sun set and the mountain air chilled. Our little mob of demons entered into the stone cottage.

  Aradia was sitting in her usual spot, reading from a large tome and scribbling notes onto a piece of parchment. The paper was worn and stained but full of script.

  As we gathered, shoulder to shoulder in the small room, Aradia closed the book, tucked it under her arm, and reached for a satchel that was lying on the bed. She fished in her bag and pulled out several necklaces, each one sporting an amulet.

  “Boy, you will wear this, along with your beast. Skin-changer, you too, and the bear-man.” Aradia passed a necklace to each of us, the amulet a crude twig man, like a little doll, made out of wrapped vines. A heavy rock was the chest, and a tuft of dried grass was its hair.

  “What about the rest of us?” Riken asked.

  “You will wear this. Different, because your beast inside is different. Horses are not predators. Neither is the clairvoyant.” Aradia presented Riken and the Watcher a solid amber gem, very similar to the necklace that Jenae wore permanently.

  “What about me, Mistress? Do I get one too?” Jenae asked.

  “You already have one, child. Yours is much more powerful. You have done as I asked and placed the stone with your grimoire into your sack?”

  Jenae nodded.

  “Good. Tomorrow night when the moon is full, it will be the perfect time to open the Soul Door.” Aradia took a step closer to Jenae and glared into the soulless witch’s eyes. “Child, you have done well in the short time you have been here, and you would benefit from spending more time with me. I wish you had had more time.”

  Aradia held out her hand. The skull-capped staff leaned next to her bed wobbled from its sedentary position, then flew across the room settling neatly into Aradia’s hand. She used the walking stick, tapping it on the ground three times, right at the base of Jenae’s feet.

  “I don’t think you are quite prepared yet for what is to come. But this should assist.”

  In radiating circles from where Aradia’s staff had hit, the floor of the cabin rippled, like it was water. Jenae looked confused.

  “But, Mistress, I’m strong enough. I can do this without—without… I did everything you told me to!”

  “You have, my child. We needed a little more time. Forgive me.”

  “Forgive you? For what?” I asked Aradia.

  She ignored me and continued. From the point of impact where the ripples emerged, the floor turned black, encircling where Jenae stood.

  It appeared as if she was standing in black water. Jenae’s eyes widened in panic—an emotion we had all seen too often. She attempted to step away from the ripples but only managed to bring her heel off the ground. Strings of black tar stuck to her shoe, then pulled it back into place.

  Jenae started sinking.

  Caleb lunged to help her, but Riken held him back. I wanted to help, but I wasn’t about to interfere with Aradia’s magic again—she’d only fling me against the wall.

  “But I’m scared, Mistress.”

  “I understand, but it is necessary.”

  “No!” Jenae cried, “I’m sorry. I’ll do more.”

  Caleb roared and shoved Riken aside like a domino, toppling over onto Hemming, who in turn stumbled into Alyx. Caleb grabbed onto Jenae and yanked on her, but there was no pulling her out. If anything, the tar swallowed her faster.

  The sinking was quick; the black spot on the floor had already consumed her up to her knees.

  Hemming, who had ended up in a pile on top of Alyx, pulled himself up only to turn and yell at Aradia.

  “What the Hell is going on? Why is this ‘necessary’?” But his shouting was in vain. Aradia was gone.

  Caleb yanked and pulled Jenae’s arm as she whimpered. Her eyes had rolled white, although it didn’t seem to help her this time. The candlelight in the room flickered and dimmed quickly as Jenae sank further.

  “Come on everyone,” I said. “Grab a limb or clothing. Together we should be able to pull her out of this.” I moved in to get Jenae out of the sinking hole, Alyx was right behind me.

&n
bsp; “Stop!” The Watcher demon put himself in between Jenae and I. “You have not—must not interrupt the process. You heard the Mistress. This is required.”

  “Screw what is required. The girl doesn’t look like she’s enjoying this!” I yelled at the Kasadya.

  Jenae sank up to her armpits, and the whimpering became a steady panicky whine. Her arms flailed as she reached out and grabbed for anything that would stop her descent. Her eyes were still white, the lit candles in the room erupted into tiny torches, but the rest of the cabin went pitch black.

  “The Mistress informed me. The girl has not—is not mature enough in her abilities. The pool will still her mind and remove her willpower, allowing Mistress Aradia to control her completely. It is the only safe way to open the doorway without destroying the girl.”

  Black sticky goo covered Caleb’s arm as he valiantly tried to grab Jenae’s body and heave her out of the quicksand tar. Caleb kept up the fight; Jenae lifted her chin, trying to keep her head above the liquid.

  The great bear-man was lost. His brute strength was no match. He leaned over and kissed Jenae.

  “I’m sorry. What do I do? Tell me what am I supposed to do? I can’t—I don’t know…”

  Alyx stepped in closer to me. Watching Jenae sink and her obvious discomfort and Caleb’s inability to assist was gut-wrenching.

  A gurgle was all that Caleb got as a response. I was struck with horror as the pitch covered Jenae’s nose and slowly climbed over her solid white eyes.

  The circular pool rippled a few more times. A bubble rose to the top of the pool and popped.

  And then as quickly as the floor had opened up and swallowed Jenae, the floorboards reappeared and nothing was left of the scene, except for Caleb who was still covered in sticky tar. He was motionless. Black liquid dripping off of his arm, making a small mess on the floor beneath him. His mouth quivered as his eyes went glassy and filled with tears.

  “I knew we couldn’t trust any of these—” Hemming started.