The woman tried to block Shrazz’s next punch with her uninjured arm. It exploded on impact. His next punch went through her face. Green blood poured out of the wound onto the concrete.
“I knew it couldn’t be human.” Shrazz smiled as the woman’s body shed its disguise.
What was left of her head grew. Her chin and ears elongated, and her body doubled in size. Her skin became scaly and crimson. Horns protruded from the top of her head and spines curved from her arms and back.
Shrazz stared at the demon’s body.
A darbas. I wonder why she didn’t transform. If she had, I probably would have had a problem on my hands.
“But that doesn’t matter!” he yelled out. “There’s nothing more exquisite than darbas.”
Should I just absorb the energy? Or do I have time to savor it? Shrazz chuckled.
“Is that really a choice?” he asked himself.
Shrazz pointed his palms toward the demon’s body and blue flames erupted from them. The alleyway reeked of burnt hair and flesh.
He walked over the demon’s body, pulled one of her long, clawed fingers from her hand and tossed the claw aside. He bit the finger in half and savored it.
This is the most exquisite meat.
He took another bite, and something strange happened. He had the urge to say a blessing.
God, thank you for this meal. I will not let one morsel go to waste.
He saw a red parchment on the smoking corpse, brushed the ash from it and revealed a seal he recognized to be Satan’s. His flame had not scarred the parchment in the least. He unfolded it, read over it and smiled.
Sorry, God, looks like my thanks was misplaced.
Satan had appointed the darbas to assassinate Shrazz. He had told the demon that transforming would not be necessary and to do so would forfeit her payment.
“So you were the ‘representative’.”
Shrazz’s smile changed to a grin. Satan upheld his word. Leoran was only a test then. Now, all Shrazz had to do was uphold his word and he would: after he ate.
Chapter 15
Drean stepped out onto the gray, wood floorboards of Riell’s apartment.
“That was much more pleasant than my trip to Earth. Just like passing through a doorway.”
“Thanks I guess,” Riell said.
“So why did we use the enchanted key to get here if you could have opened a portal at will?”
“Because I didn’t want to be seen by any one that might want to get at you. Or me for that matter.” Riell released a loud sigh and removed her boots and socks.
“Because helping me would be a traitorous act,” Drean said. “I’m sorry.”
“Don’t apologize.” Riell dismissed it with a wave of her hand. “We made it to my quarters, so it doesn’t matter now. I control who is admitted.”
Riell’s bare feet made the floorboards creak as she walked to the couch and sat next on her sofa. She motioned to Drean.
“Please, join me.”
Drean removed his docs and sank into the white micro fiber cushions of her sofa.
Several filled bookshelves surrounded them. Pictures of houses from the Orient, Europe and the Middle East were on every wall.
Drean wanted to question Riell about these, but something more intriguing caught his attention.
“What’s that black cube?”
“A television,” Riell said. “It’s an old one. I don’t watch it very often.”
“Come again?”
Riell laughed and picked up a remote control from her coffee table, which looked like it had been made from black drift wood.
“I’ll show you. Now, watch the front of it.”
“It’s a black mirror,” Drean said and gazed at his reflection in the TV screen.
Riell pushed the power button on the remote control, and the TV blipped on.
“There are people inside the television!”
“No, no. There are people on the television.” Riell tried to suppress her laughter.
“No, they’re trapped!”
Drean jumped up and tried to get to the TV. Riell pulled him back down.
“Wait, wait,” Riell chortled. “Before you do anything rash, let me try to explain it.”
“You’re holding them captive in the television!” Drean accused.
Riell laughed harder.
“The people you’re seeing aren’t in the television at all!”
“Then where are they?” Drean asked.
“See this, that’s on now?”
“Yes?” Drean nodded.
“Humans recorded these images with machines, and now we are watching a replay of those images.”
“Recorded images?” Drean rubbed his head.
“Hmm... maybe I shouldn’t try to explain it to you.” Riell was losing her patience. She thought for a moment. “Machines are sophisticated tools created by humans.”
“I understand the concept of machinery. God makes use of if it in Heaven.”
“Okay. Good. So about the images... remember how I was able to view your memories?”
“Yes.”
“These images we’re watching... these recordings, are like the memories of those machines, and the television enables us to view them.”
Drean nodded in understanding.
“But what is its purpose?”
“Well,” Riell flipped through channels, “news from around the world can be shown to humans in many different locations instantaneously.”
“An amazing tool indeed.”
Drean stared at the television in awe.
“It also has entertainment value.”
“There are recorded images that can entertain? How?”
“It’s going to be easier to show you than tell you. We’re going to find a movie to watch so we can relax a little.”
Drean smiled at Riell.
“Thanks for understanding me.”
Riell stopped flipping channels, set the remote down on the couch and smiled.
“This movie’s supposed to be really funny.”
“What is it?” Drean asked.
“It’s called Bruce Almighty.” Riell smiled. “You should get a kick out of it. And I’m Riell,” she said and held her hand out.
Drean remembered the gesture from when he met Greg. He took her hand: it was soft and warm.
“I’m Drean.”
His hands are so delicate...
She held on to him longer than she should have and drew back when she realized it.
“Your name has a nice ring to it,” she said and took a deep breath.
“Why is your face turning red like that? Did I upset you?”
She instinctively cupped her blushing cheeks.
“No, no. I’m not upset.” She laughed.
“Then what’s wrong?”
“Nothing.” She scooted as far away from him as she could. “Let’s just watch this movie and take a breather.”
* * *
“God isn’t like that at all!” Drean said after Riell had turned the movie off. “I admit that these movies are impressive works, but that one was completely untrue!”
“Well, do you think humans have witnessed God in His entirety and actually know what He’s like?”
Drean shook his head. “Well, no but if they know nothing about God maybe they shouldn’t make a movie with Him in it.” Drean folded his arms and leaned back onto the couch. “They could offend somebody.”
Riell laughed. “Are you offended, Drean?”
Drean gave her an angry look. “No.”
Riell pushed Drean’s shoulder and kept laughing.
“Come on... it’s just a movie.”
Drean tried to smile but couldn’t. Riell stopped laughing and the momentary silence between them helped Riell’s mind refocus itself. She needed to learn what she could about him while he still trusted her.
“Will you share the rest of that memory with me?” she asked.
“I don’t know if I can right now.�
�
“I need to know that I can trust you, Drean,” she said. “This is the only way.”
“You’re still unsure?” He shook his head and got up from the couch. “Just send me back.”
“What?”
“Send me back to the bar. It seems that we have to be on different sides.”
“No, we don’t,” she said. “Sit back down. Please?”
Drean sat. He closed his eyes and tried to open himself up to Riell.
“Thanks, Drean. I just have to be sure.”
Riell had reassured herself during the movie that allowing Drean in her apartment had been a precautionary measure and that invading his mind again was essential to her mission, but in truth, she had merely wanted to.
“Answer me this before we start,” he said.
“Ok?”
“Are you doing this because you cannot trust me? Or because of a personal reason?”
“I...” she started.
Riell stared past his eyes at a photograph on the wall: a beach near her home in England. Usually it soothed her and tempered her. She could not close herself off any longer. It was impossible.
“I just feel like you’re keeping me at a distance for another reason,” Drean said.
“It’s both,” she admitted.
“I won’t press you about it. I just wanted to know,” he said. He closed his eyes again.
Why does he make me feel so vulnerable when I’m the one poking around in his head?
She closed her eyes and dove into Drean. Unparalleled euphoria spilled into her again. It was agonizingly pleasurable. She could not guard herself as she had before because she did not want to. Her surrender made it all the more enjoyable. There was no more guilt, only desire: the need to feel more. She drifted into his memory.
* * *
Drean looked anxiously out into Heaven’s sky and tried to see past the cloud of smoking feathers. When it cleared, no angels could be seen. Lucifer’s side had won but not without repercussion.
Long claws extended from their hands. Horns jutted out of their heads and down their backs. Their corruption had even stained their armor which had darkened and refused to reflect any light that touched it. Deep red, green and black scales covered their bodies, and their wings had become bat-like.
Riell recognized the demons from books she had read.
Bal’droh, the green demons, were emaciated versions of their angel selves. The reds, which had grown larger than before and had glowing scales, were bal’dir. The blacks, the bal’duz, dwarfed the other races with their bulbous muscles, height and over-proportional wings.
They all turned in unison to The Sanctuary and flew toward it.
“I have never seen demons like these before... these are not Hell’s demons. I do not understand,” Drean said to himself.
Yet, he knew his comprehension was irrelevant. The Sanctuary was in danger. It was time to fulfill his duty.
“Dominations, prepare yourselves!” he yelled. “We may be few, but the Lord is on our side! Repel them!”
Drean dropped to his knees, closed his eyes and concentrated. The Sanctuary’s emergency defenses needed his will to activate.
Demons chattered amongst themselves in the guttural language of demonic. Each of the bal’dir screamed as if they were tortured by unseen hands and burst into flame. Their screams drew his attention away.
He thought they been incinerated, but he could still hear their shrill cries, and their burning wings still held them aloft.
Drean concentrated and every noise outside The Sanctuary faded to a silence, like he had fallen into the depths of a deep chasm. Seconds after, he heard a low hum as his will connected with the defensive technology of The Sanctuary. He heard a bell’s ring waver in harmony with the hum and knew it was responding.
Celestinite cogs whirred to life and brought thick, celestinite doors down from the ceiling, closing off every entrance.
Atop The Sanctuary, four large turrets sprung from the roof. Drean could see through each of them and manipulate them as if they were a part of him.
He took aim and unleashed God’s eternal light upon the demons. Demons grazed by the blasts were seared and maimed. Those struck directly were instantly disintegrated.
The turrets had slain thousands of demons within the first minute of their activation, yet Drean could not relax. Lucifer’s army was vast, and he knew he would have only a short time to diminish it.
He heard Lucifer roar over the clamor and knew his window was closing.
“To The Sanctuary!” Lucifer cried.
Lucifer’s army swarmed the building.
Dominations hold them at bay. The Sanctuary amplified his thought and it boomed as a deep resonate voice.
The dominations in front of The Sanctuary engaged the demons and tried to wrestle them back, but were quickly overwhelmed. Drean did what he could before bal’duz smashed the celestinite machinations one by one.
Drean steeled himself, gripped his celestinite long sword’s silver hilt and drew it from its sheath. He held the sword at a salute and assumed a defensive stance.
Demon’s pounded on the doors of The Sanctuary, bending and warping them until they collapsed.
A group of demons flew for Drean, screaming unintelligible battle cries.
The diminutive bal’droh barreled for the seraph. Green, foul smelling liquid seeped off of them. They split away in the midst of their dive, flitted about The Sanctuary and growled at each other.
Drean looked from demon to demon and his eyes latched onto the bal’dir. The demon’s red scales constantly moved over its body, like magma.
He growled at Drean.
The sound was low and resonated throughout The Sanctuary. It grew into piercing intonations as Drean watched him. The scales on the demon circulated rapidly and expelled flames that billowed above the demon’s head.
The bal’dir nodded to the enormous bal’duz, which swooped down upon the angel while his comrade bode his time. The bal’duz opened his mouth and roared with glee. Drean stood and waited in the shadow of the coming demon, though he could see it could swallow him whole twice over.
Drean leapt into its face and extended all three pairs of his wings at once. A pulse of brilliant golden light beamed from his wings for a moment, blinding the demon. Each and every feather of his wings became a tongue of golden flame. Drean gripped the hilt of his sword tightly and propelled himself with his wings, decapitating the gargantuan demon with one stroke. Drean landed and watched the bal’duz turn to ash.
The bal’dir shrieked a command. The four remaining demons surrounded the angel and bore down on him. Drean jumped into the air to meet the demons, and stretched his wings out. The demons squealed and raised their blackened weapons to claim his wings. Their blades came an inch from his wings before their flames roared higher, disintegrating their weapons and scalding their scales.
Overcome by bloodlust, the demons forgot all strategy and fell upon the angel. Drean spun, became a scorching tornado of fire and did not cease until he could hear the demons’ wails over the rushing air and fire. He removed their heads from their charred bodies and settled back onto the ground.
“Well done,” a harsh voice said from behind him.
Drean turned to see Lucifer with an entourage of thousands of demons, and partially changed angels with black wings.
White scales had replaced his skin. Muscle bloated his body, which had grown to a height of twelve feet. Horns curved out of his head and spines jutted out of his back. Dragon-like wings draped behind him. A long reptilian tail swished from his backside. Lucifer rested the back end of his sword on his shoulder: the once sleek, heavenly weapon had been corrupted like the rest of him. Its black blade was slightly longer than Lucifer was tall and no longer emitted or reflected light.
“You have betrayed us all, Lucifer. No, I will no longer address you by your Heavenly name, demon. Our Father has given us so much. Soon you will know what it feels like to have Him take away,” Drean s
aid.
“You know nothing of what he has given or taken from me, seraph. Stand aside. My qualms are not with you.”
“I will not. Prepare for the ramifications. I know not what the Lord has in store for you, but you can be assured...”
“We knew our actions would have consequences! We are all prepared for them!”
The demons cheered in agreement.
“Maybe he is right, Lucifer,” one of the black-winged angels said.
Lucifer turned to him. “What do you mean by this?”
“Maybe we have gone too far.”
“Tear his wings off,” Lucifer commanded.
Demons obliged him. Hundreds of black-winged angels retreated.
“Leoran! Take a group and follow them.”
Lucifer looked for Leoran and could not find him among the ranks. He growled in frustration.
“Dispose of them. And bring Leoran to me!” he screamed.
A large group of demons gave chase.
Lucifer turned back to Drean. When they made eye contact the seraph attacked.
Lucifer grabbed Drean’s blade in his free claw and held it. His scales hissed as the sword dissolved them. Drean’s flame erupted, towering over him: the rush of hot air sent demons and angels sprawling, but Lucifer stood firm with a confident smile on his face.
“Celestinite may have adverse effects on us now...” Lucifer clenched the sword tighter and snapped it in half; it vanished from Drean’s hand in a bright flash of light “but even a celestial such as you cannot equal my power.”
Lucifer struck him: his blow shattered Drean’s chest plate, doused his wing’s flame and left him on the tile breathless.
Lucifer’s army jeered Drean and cheered for its general.
A light that shone with every color and no color at all appeared above the throne of God.
“This has gone far enough.”
“Greetings, Father. Come to relinquish Heaven to us?” Lucifer turned and faced the Light of God.
“Not quite. You and your kind are not welcome here any longer. You desire to think freely and partake of this violence? So be it. But do so elsewhere.”
Lucifer howled and writhed before a conflagration exploded from his body. Fire obscured Drean’s sight, and his vision dimmed to black.
* * *
Riell removed herself from Drean’s mind and found herself hyperventilating. She had crushed one of the arms of her couch. Sweat permeated her clothing. She could not calm down. Drean stared at her and did not know what to do.
From Heaven To Earth (The Faith of the Fallen) Page 10