by Tom Keller
"Don’t you know where that is?" I asked, gasping for air as my mouth filled with the coppery taste of blood.
"Only the Moira have that knowledge. Not until Death's kiss falls upon your lips will it be revealed," she replied, placing her hand on mine. "It is curious, but whatever the Demon may have said, I do not believe your Soul is his to take. I would not have heard your call were it otherwise. Do not be afraid, Robert Hoskins of the human realm. I will stay with you until Death arrives." She knelt down and stroked my cheek, then spoke softly into my ear. "Should you fear his coming, I offer you a choice."
"What would that be?" I spluttered.
"While the Fates alone weave the thread of life, you must already know which direction your path will most likely take. By your actions, you have proven your worth to me. Should you desire it, I will forestall your death so that you may serve me in the afterlife. It is a much more pleasant alternative than the one the Demon offers, should that be the path the Fates have decreed."
"I appreciate the offer," I said, hearing the sounds of sirens in the background. I gathered up what strength was left and squeezed her hand before placing it back on my wound to slow the blood flow. "But I'll have to decline, you're not getting out of our deal that easy."
My hands fell away from my wound and I coughed again, spitting up even more blood. Then there was only silence as my vision faded and everything turned to black.
Chapter 8
I opened my eyes, a feeling of dizziness hitting me as I squinted in the brightness. I tried to focus on the ceiling above me. The lighting seemed harsh, but maybe it was just more than I could handle at the moment. Anyway, the important thing is that when I finally did focus, I saw ceiling tiles and a fluorescent light fixture. I must have survived, then. I doubted Hell was so equipped, and I knew Hades wasn't. Sluggishly, I moved my hand to the spot where the Demon's tail had speared me. There was a bandage there, but it felt dry. I started to sit up but then thought better of it. I had no idea if a Fae Healer or a human doctor had worked on me and although I wasn’t in any pain, I was obviously still human, with no way of knowing the extent of my injuries. Whatever the case, being alive still beat the alternative.
"Good to see you awake, Lieutenant," a cheery voice said. I moved my head to see a thirty-something dark-haired woman in a white lab coat walk up to the bed and check the tubes in my arm. "I'm Dr. Nguyen. I've been taking care of you."
"What day is it?" I rasped, my mouth dry. I watched as she removed the bandage from my stomach. I felt her hands press against the area but there was no pain. Then she reached over to the bedside table and picked up a glass, placing a straw into my mouth so I could drink from it.
"It's Monday afternoon," she replied, stepping back when I was finished. "They brought you in late Saturday night. The injury to your stomach has healed. How are you feeling?"
"A little woozy," I said. "Other than that, not too bad. Thanks for patching me up, doc."
"I wish I could take all the credit," she replied, opening up what looked like my chart. "A Fae Healer stabilized you at the scene and another closed and healed the wound. As for any lightheadedness, that is most likely an aftereffect of the sleeping spell. It should pass quickly." She shuffled in the chair. "Do you feel up to a few questions?"
"Ask away."
"I've reviewed your medical records," she began. "I'm trying to identify if you have any Fae in your bloodline, perhaps someone far enough back that a simple blood test wouldn't catch. Based on the gaps in your file, I'm assuming that if that is the case, that information was left out intentionally. Do you know anything about that? I assure you that anything you tell me will remain confidential."
I had to think about that one. As far as I knew, Gaea dumped me here in Robert's human body. Had I missed something? I decided to stay in character and try to find out. "Sorry to disappoint you, Doc," I replied. "I'm not aware of any Fae in my family tree. What makes you think there are?"
"Your wound," she replied, scrolling through my chart. "Accelerated healing in humans such as you have experienced is normally only found in those that carry Fae genes. While not unheard of, it's very rare for a Healer to have such success on a human without them, especially with an injury as severe as yours caused by dark magic. Elithia just assumed you must be part Fae." She put the chart down and stood up. "Very unusual, if I say so myself. You are either very lucky or there is someone in your line you are not aware of. Whatever the case, she can discuss it with you if you have any questions. As long as she has no objections, you should be released to full duty later tonight. In the meantime, if you feel up to it, I see no reason you can't have visitors. There have been several people already trying to see you. Your daughter, of course, and a representative of Gaea's temple was allowed in. The others were told to wait. Although, I must tell you that the Druid is being especially persistent. Your Captain, I believe?"
"That'd be him," I said, propping myself up a bit. "You said the Fae Healer that worked on me was named Elithia. Is she a Dryad?"
"I believe so," she replied. "Why? Do you know her?"
"Heard of her," I said, leaving it at that for now. I did know a Fae Healer named Elithia. In my world, she'd been killed on Olympus during a battle with the dark Fae. "I'd like to see her and tell her thanks."
"She'll be in soon," Nguyen said, moving toward the door. "You're on her schedule, but I'll make sure she knows you asked for her."
"I appreciate it," I replied. "Mind sending in my daughter first, then I'll deal with the rest."
"As you wish," she said on her way out.
I laid my head on the pillow. Now, what did all that mean? Was I just lucky or was something else going on? I didn’t have any Fae powers that I could manifest, and I certainly felt human enough, but if that was the case why wasn't I dead? Not that I'm complaining, but it just didn’t make sense. Beelzebub had expected this Robert to die. According to the medical files Dr. Nguyen reviewed, this Robert was human, and there was no doubt in my mind that the Demon had planned on dragging Robert to Hell until Kyras showed up.
In the short time I'd been here, I'd already figured out that Robert was a bit of an asshole. It didn’t take much to see that we were different. Okay, maybe not that different. I'll admit, I'd built up a pretty decent body count myself, and I certainly wouldn’t say I was all prim and proper back home. But I wasn't an asshole, and I'd like to think that even if I hadn't been a Fae, I sure as shit wouldn’t have been on Hell's BBQ list.
So if Kyras was telling the truth about my Soul calling out to her, then even without powers, the body I was in had to be the real me and not the other Robert's, or at least I thought it was. How else would my Soul call out to the Keres? Unless it just tagged along… but then it would still be me, right? Either way, Gaea hadn’t told me everything. That was nothing new. That's not to say that Gaea didn’t want to teach me a lesson. No, she definitely wanted to do that. But knowing her M/O, there was something else going on. Not that I knew what that was, of course. Damn it! That was so typical of her. But what could her endgame be? I needed answers. But to get them, I'd need to get out of here first.
My train of thought was interrupted when Nikki came in. I'd be a liar if I said I wasn't happy to see her, not to mention the clothes she brought. I also shouldn’t have been surprised when she told me that both she and Kathy had been here several times to check up on me. Jay was still trying to get up here and Kathy had gone back to LA only after they'd been told I was going to be alright. That was reassuring. Nikki wanted to stay longer but she knew O'Malley was biting at the bit to talk to me, so after convincing her to take a few of the flowers and cards on the table with her, she left to go get him.
"The man that cheated Death," he said as he took a seat in the chair by the bed. He looked directly at me and raised his eyebrows. "I don’t know how you do it, being human as you are. You're either the luckiest son of a bitch out there or someone upstairs has your back. I'm not sure I want to know which… but I'm glad yo
u survived. Anyway, thought you might want these back." He pulled my gun, badge, and the religious dagger from his belt and handed them to me. "Your car is at the station. Let me know if you need a ride when you get released."
"Thanks," I said, placing the gun and badge under my pillow while holding the dagger in my hands. I examined it closely, noticing that the blade had been cleaned since I'd used it.
"The blade of Monk Magnus," he said, pointing at it. "I remember when your grandmother gave that to you. The day you graduated from the academy. I think about her often. She was a good lady."
"Yes, she was," I replied, sliding the knife next to my gun. I tried to recall where I'd heard that name before. Then I remembered the place from my grandmother's stories. It was from the Basilica Mariä Gebut in Mariazell, Austria. A famous pilgrimage site that contained a Shrine to the Virgin Mary. She'd talked about a woman she'd known, a human woman in her 40s, who'd gone there to pray to the Virgin Mary to ask for help in having a child. She later conceived and a girl was born. But the monk wasn't a warrior in my world, instead, he'd been sent to minister to the people there.
"Which means she'd be as pissed as I am. Risking your life like that! What were you doing in Demon town without backup? Shit, Rob, you know your reputation down there. Between that and everything else, I have half a mind to order you to take along bodyguards from now on."
"What can I say?" I replied, not knowing how to answer. "It was a dumb move, and please, no bodyguards. I can handle myself."
"So it seems," he muttered, shaking his head. "As to the bodyguards… fine, it's your call. You'd probably just slip away from them anyway. By the way, I spoke to the priestess… Hero of Gaea, my ass! But I'll admit, maybe there's something to it for you to come out of it in one piece and smelling like mistletoe. We can discuss it later, but for now I need details. The investigation so far says that you killed at least three Demons. We ID'd the locals, they were just Cambion shitheads. But the third… Well, there wasn't much left except ashes but everything points to the Demon being something nasty. What was it?"
"It was one of Beelzebub's Demons," I said, figuring it didn’t matter at this point if he knew. "He sent an Executor after me. Luckily for me, I had the religious dagger." I wasn't going to tell him everything. I certainly didn’t need that headache. "Not sure what I did, but I must have really pissed him off to want me dead. I think I screwed up his plans when I beat his Demon and didn’t die. But I still had the dagger and he took off when the sirens got close."
Cambions were only half-Demons, the children of a union between a Succubus and a human. But an Executor was a full-fledged Demon from Hell. Seldom seen, they were soldiers. Warrior Demons fighting at the direction of higher level Demons. Not Satan, of course, but he had a lot of Princes. Demons are fond of fighting each other for power but they don’t usually waste their time fighting humans. They have easier ways to deal with them. But if a Prince of Hell really wanted you dead, that's who they'd call in.
"Beelzebub!" he said, shooting out of his chair. The few tattoos visible seemed to writhe when he spoke the Demon's name. "Damnit! He must have thought you were involved. It's a good thing you had the blade with you. I can’t think of anything else that would have taken down an Executor. Even if you did have to get up close and personal to use it." He paced for a second then sat back down.
"What's the matter?" I asked, surprised at his reaction.
"I couldn't tell you before… Sheriff's orders," he said, giving me one of those looks daring me to question him about it. "Besides, you were busy enough with everything else going on as it was. But this Hero of Gaea thing might work to our advantage. Screw the Feds anyway. I told him we needed our best people involved."
"Involved in what?" I asked.
"The Church has a high-level meeting scheduled with one of Lucifer's representatives," he replied. "Some kind of exchange. They're having it here because it's considered neutral territory. The Sheriff got pressured by the Governor into letting them bring in the EAB. They have their own teams, but they still need us to handle a few things. Last week they got word of a possible threat to the negotiations team. I'm meeting with their advance people this week to discuss the matter."
"An exchange?" I repeated, somewhat confused. "Since when does the Church negotiate with the Devil? I've never heard of such a thing."
"They aren’t saying," he replied. "But my contact in the Vatican claims it's over some relics. Both sides have something the other one wants back."
"No surprise there," I said, amazed that they even talked to each other. "I suppose you can tell me why they don’t want me there?"
"Hades' beard, Rob," he said, laughing. "What do you think? It's with the Devil's direct representative! For Zeus' sake! You're not exactly on friendly terms with Demons from the Underworld and you know the Feds don't agree with the way we do things here. How many Demons have you sent back to Hell? Let's face it, with your body count, they probably figure having you involved is too risky. But this beef with Beelzebub changes things. Intel says there's another power grab going on down there and he's behind it. Looks to me like he's already trying to pave the way to start some shit. Might give me the excuse I need to bring you in on it. At least as an advisor. If you're up to it, of course. Doc says you're all healed up. When are you supposed to be released from here?"
"Sometime tonight," I replied. "They're just waiting for the Fae Healer to talk to me."
"Okay," he said, getting up from the chair. "I'll call you when I have this worked out. But Rob, no more Audie Murphy stuff. You gotta stay low profile if you want in on this."
"Audie Murphy?"
"I thought you were a history buff. He was a human war hero," he said, standing by the bed. "Held off an entire German company in WWII by himself and then counter-attacked even though he was out of ammunition. Sound familiar?"
"Got it," I replied. "Took me a second to understand the reference. It would have been easier if you'd have just said John Wayne."
"John Wayne?" he barked, looking confused as he moved toward the doorway. "Never heard of him. Get your shit together, Hoskins!"
No John Wayne? Say it isn’t so! I got up and headed for the bathroom. Any lightheadedness I'd felt earlier was gone and after finishing, since I was still in a hospital gown, I grabbed the bag Nikki gave me. I started to open it but was interrupted when I heard a noise. Taking it with me, I stepped out, realizing that someone else was already waiting in my room. It had to be one of the priestesses from the temple. Her white gown was almost identical to the one that Erato had worn. She looked up as I closed the door behind me.
"Good day, Lieutenant," she said, pulling back the veiled hood from her head. "The Captain said I could come up."
She was older than Erato, with lighter colored hair. Her brown eyes had a hint of green around the iris and she smiled when she addressed me. Interestingly enough, I recognized her as another Dryad. This one was of the Meliae, the Nymphs of the Ash tree. Which kind of made sense as they were supposedly born from the drops of blood that fell when the Titan, Cronus, overthrew his father at Gaea's direction.
"Not a problem," I said, moving to the bed and set down the bag of clothes. "And you are?"
"Ligia, High Priestess of the Temple of Gaea," she replied, folding her hands in front of her. "Let me begin by saying you are not what I expected. What are you, Lieutenant?"
"I'm not sure what you mean," I said, pulling the robe around my legs in a vain attempt to look dignified.
"It's a simple question," she replied. "I have been here a very long time. It is not hard to know things about you. One cannot ignore the stories in the press or the rumors on the street. There is no question you are a great warrior. But those stories do not fit the man that the Priestess Erato spoke with. Nor do they fit the man who I saw on the temple steps the other night."
"You were there?" I asked, wondering what she might know. She was, after all, a High Priestess of Gaea. Although I wasn't sure exactly what that meant i
n terms of her relationship with the Goddess in this world. Oh, I'm sure she was as committed to her religion as anyone could be, but that didn’t really answer what I needed to know. If Gaea didn’t get involved here, then how close to the Goddess could anyone really be? But I did need to keep them happy, especially after the fight at the temple. Besides, you never knew when Gaea was listening. So, if I had to talk to someone, it might as well be a priestess from Gaea's temple. If I could trust her, that is. But then again, sometimes you just had to roll the dice, not that I was going to tell her everything, of course. I doubt she'd be too receptive if I told her that I pissed off Gaea and she stranded me here and now all I wanted was to go home.
"I was," she replied. "Once Erato told me what had occurred, we returned immediately. We found you in a pool of blood, leaning against a pillar near the front door of the temple. When we discovered that you still lived, I tended to you until a Healer could arrive. But you have not answered my question."
"Tell me something, High Priestess?" I asked, leaning forward. "Are you any good at magic?"
"Excuse me?" she asked, looking somewhat confused. "As High Priestess of Gaea, I am skilled in the arts."
"Excellent," I said, moving back. "Place a privacy spell on the room. A strong one… and I'll need your oath that anything we discuss stays between us. Swear to it in Gaea's name. Then we'll talk. Oh… and call me Robert."
"Very well then, Robert, and what oath will you swear by?" she asked, tilting her body toward me as I settled on the bed.
"As my witness, you have my oath on the waters of the Styx that whatever I tell you is true," I affirmed. "That work for you?"
"An unusual oath… for a human," she replied, a smile slowly coming to her lips.
"But binding, nonetheless," I responded.
"So it is," she said, then waved her hand in the air and I felt the spell descend over the room. "I swear in Gaea's name and by the roots of my ancestors that whatever we discuss shall remain between us."