Unholy Torment

by Kristie Cook

  “At least they’re free,” Tristan murmured from my side.

  “Now we just need to break the curse and get them back,” I said, still clutching at my abdomen as I turned toward him, Owen, and Vanessa. Their eyes filled with worry when they looked at me. I forced myself to ignore the pain and straighten up. We didn’t have time for them to fawn over whatever was wrong with me.

  “Right now, we need to get our butts to the camp,” I said. “Get those norms to A.K.’s Angels before the Daemoni beat us to them.”

  “And before midnight,” Vanessa reminded us.

  “Do you have enough strength to make a portal?” Tristan asked Owen.

  The warlock nodded and went to work creating an opening.

  “What about them?” I asked, indicating the few remaining Summoned, including Edmund.

  “If they want to convert, they’ll find us.” Tristan took my hand and led me to the portal.

  Once we passed through, though, we didn’t arrive in front of the Norman camp we had seen from the campus clock tower. Rather, we stood on an expanse of marble, facing a light-colored building with a row of arched windows and a series of pillars above them. I craned my neck and stared up at the tall dome of the United States Capitol building, not lit up as it should have been, but a light gray against the dark of night.

  “What are we doing here?” Tristan demanded.

  Owen groaned. “We were rerouted.”

  “And I don’t think we’re getting out of here,” Vanessa muttered as she turned around.

  My telepathy had disappeared again, and I only sensed the Daemoni behind me by the evil in the air and the stench hitting my nose. Slowly, I turned around, hoping against all odds to find that the Summoned had reconsidered. I even held a little hope that they’d come back to tell us how to break the curse because they wanted to join us. But that wasn’t who I found standing on the railing of the balcony against the backdrop of the broken Washington Monument. What felt like enough dark power belonging to a horde of Daemoni waved off of a single man in an Armani suit.

  Lucas.

  Chapter 27

  “Sasha, hide!” I hissed before Lucas made a move for her. She didn’t shrink and hide in my coat, but jumped into the air and flew away. Unfortunately, I knew she hadn’t gone far—she’d wait and watch until she was needed.

  I grabbed Tristan’s hand, using him for strength as I pulled up to my full height next to him, both of us standing with our feet shoulder-width apart and our shoulders squared. Vanessa stepped up to stand next to me, Owen took his place on Tristan’s other side, and we faced the man who, in some way or another, had played a role in creating each one of us. Even Owen, whose father had been possessed by Kali, the sorceress who at once had been Lucas’s pet, acting on his orders, while also trying to overpower him.

  “I seem to remember we already discussed how I feel about others taking what belongs to me,” Lucas said, his icy voice matching his cold blue eyes as he stood perfectly balanced on the marble rail. To each side, a broad staircase descended to street level and the Mall below Capitol Hill. The moon shone down on the reflecting pool far behind him that stretched toward the Washington Monument, damaged buildings of the Smithsonian museums lining each side.

  My sperm donor and my enemy crossed his arms over his chest. One hand twisted and tugged at his snow-white goatee as he studied us. His gaze barely stopped on Vanessa or Owen, but it lingered for a long moment on Tristan, and the blue of his eyes turned a bright red. When they fell on our clasped hands, his nostrils flared, then his gaze traveled up to me. I wanted to recoil, to run away, to escape the evil, murderous look in his eyes. The blackness in him felt so much stronger than it had the last time I’d seen him.

  “You’ve taken my number-one warrior,” he said with a glance at Tristan, and then his eyes slid to Vanessa. “And my daughter, too, although you can have that worthless cunt. And now you’ve taken my soldiers and my favorite weapon against the Normans.” His eyes traveled upward and glanced around, likely searching for Sasha, knowing she wouldn’t have gone far. His gaze came back to me, glowing with a mix of anger and excitement. “I guess my payment’s coming soon, though, in the form of your son.”

  Tristan growled and lifted his hand. A flame flew out of his palm at Lucas. Lucas’s fingers barely twitched, and Tristan’s hand yanked out of mine as he flew backwards. He crashed into the marble wall of the building behind us with a loud crack and dropped to the ground. Vanessa and I ran to his side while Owen shot a spell at Lucas, but again, he easily deflected it, the green light shattering a window to our left. Tristan seemed to be okay, although angrier now as he rose to his feet, shaking off our offers to help.

  “He’s gained strength,” Vanessa murmured under her breath as we followed Tristan back to Owen’s side.

  Lucas laughed. “That I have! You’re actually right for once, but even a monkey guesses the correct answer once in a while. Now that evil outweighs the little bit of good that remains in the world, the Ancients have grown stronger, and they’ve passed that power onto me, preparing me. Want to see?”

  Not waiting for our answer, he lifted his hand above his hand and flicked his wrist as though tossing a ball into the air. A small explosion sounded behind us. We automatically looked over our shoulders. The top of the Capitol, including part of the dome, was gone, looking as though a can opener had peeled it apart. Flames licked at the jagged edges. Lucas gave us a wicked grin when we turned our attention back to him.

  “But fear not,” he said. “I don’t want to fight you right now. I don’t want to annihilate you yet. I don’t really need those soldiers or the Summoned sons anyway. Not anymore. The apocalypse is here, and you, darling Alexis, weren’t able to stop it. And now you’re out of time.”

  He wiggled his fingers, and four figures, two on each staircase, blurred up toward us, then stopped at the landing. They each turned toward Lucas and dropped to a knee, their heads bowed. When they rose to their feet, they remained planted at the tops of the marble stairs, guarding them, as though to prevent us from escaping. Edmund and Rene on one side, and Victor and Cruz on the other.

  Vanessa made a noise in her throat when she saw her brother—our brother—and her body coiled. Owen grabbed her arm and took her hand, stilling her.

  “It’s not over yet,” I said, and while Lucas was distracted with Owen’s gesture toward Vanessa, I shot a powered-up jolt of electricity at him.

  Edmund twitched, as if to attack, but Lucas stopped him, shrugging off my power and returning his gaze to me. The Summoned son, the vampire, and the two were-cats didn’t worry me. The evil man before us did, though. If only my stupid mind worked right, I could possibly pull his plans out of his head. Instead, I could only keep him talking, hoping that in the meantime, Tristan formulated our method of escape. Or better yet, method of attack. It would be awesome to put this whole thing to an end tonight.

  “Even if it is the apocalypse,” I continued, “we have a few years to stop you. Seven, according to the Bible.”

  “Don’t believe everything you read,” Lucas said with another chuckle. “Besides, do you even know how long this has been in motion, young Alexis? Centuries, if you really think about it. I brought on the Four Horsemen years ago. Conquest? My Daemoni army has been walking the world for millennium, conquering the feeble Normans, especially over the last several years. War? Well, when has there not been war? Famine? The wealthy have been oppressing the poor forever, but how much more so in recent times? Even the ignorant humans talk about how the rich get richer while the poor starve at their feet. And now we have Death. Plenty of it, wouldn’t you say? At least a quarter of the human population, just as the Bible says. That part is true. So now it’s time for the final battle. Armageddon. It’s just a matter of me opening the veil and letting Satan and his Demons in. I’m ready for him! And then I’ll watch you bow down to me, like all of my followers.”

  “Never,” I spat, and I launched a stream of Amadis power at him this time. H
e easily diffused it, dousing it with a wave of darkness that made my skin crawl.

  “Oh, you will,” he said as though it were a promise. “The veil is at its thinnest tonight, making it easy to rip a few tears into it. Enough to let the Demons come through first and possess what the stupid Normans call zombies.” He flicked his hand backwards to indicate the walking dead on the Mall. “They’re simply bodies we’ve been keeping functional until the spirits of my lord can come and save this world from itself. Humans are so eager to destroy their home and themselves. He will be a good king over them. The true god who will empower them and give them everything their hearts desire. So I will drop the veil for him, and he will come and take me.” His voice rose, booming with excitement. “And you two will watch, and you will bow down to me. That’s the only reason I’m keeping you alive this very moment. Because I’ve been waiting for this day forever.”

  Tristan shot another fireball at him, and Lucas chuckled once again as he caught it in his hand. He grew the ball of flames between his palms until it became big enough to engulf him. Then he and the fire rose off the railing and into the air.

  “I wonder, Alexis, who you’re going to try to save first this time. Not that there’s a chance in hell that anyone will survive in the long run, but for now, who will you run to first? Your people? The Normans? Or your son?” His voice deepened even more and crackled with the fire, sounding almost demonic. “And don’t fool yourself for a moment that Dorian stayed with the Normans. He’s not that stupid. I’d say he’s reached Noah by now.”

  He rose higher into the air, his eyes glowing brightly and his white-blond hair curling upwards to look more like horns jutting out of his head. And the way he hung there, the way the flames danced around him so that you could almost see the shape of bat wings for a moment, and then a tail the next, he took on the appearance of Satan himself. With a wicked grin, he clapped his hands together, and the sound thundered loudly over the earth. The ground rumbled and buildings along the Mall began to crumble and fall.

  A flash of light shone in the far distance, faint and small from here, but probably blinding up close.

  “There goes Richmond,” Lucas said, his tone sharp, filled with a demented thrill. Another flash sparked to our right. “And Baltimore. See what I mean about the Normans? So eager to destroy. Like I said, you can’t stop this.”

  And then he disappeared.

  Orange glows dotted the horizon all around us, illuminating several mushroom clouds rising into the air.

  “Oh, fuck,” Vanessa breathed.

  “Cruz and Rene, you know what to do,” Victor said as he pierced us with his ice-blue eyes.

  The two women nodded, spun, and launched themselves down the stairs, their bodies exploding into their were-forms before their paws hit the ground. The jaguar and the cheetah ran toward the Mall and the Washington Monument.

  “Who are you going to save, sisters?” Victor asked, saying that last word as though his tongue molested it. “Don’t worry about the humans we have. They’re tucked safely away. Of course . . . there’s your norms halfway across the city. I wonder if they have any clue what’s coming for them. And then there’s the boy and Noah.”

  “Dorian,” I whispered.

  “Don’t worry. Edmund and I will get them.” The words had barely left his lips when a large, white shape swooped down, grabbed him in her mouth and shook her head like a normal dog shakes a toy. Sasha flung Victor off the landing, and his body soared into a tree below. She picked up a shocked Edmund next and flew off with him clamped tightly in her jaw.

  I turned to Tristan. “Do you think Dorian’s—”

  “GO!” Tristan barked at Vanessa and Owen, cutting me off as he grabbed my hand. “Go to the others and take them underground. Hurry! We’ll get Noah—and Dorian if he’s really there.”

  Owen and Vanessa disappeared with two pops, and Tristan led me for the flash. We left the steps of the Capitol building and appeared at the bottom of the stairs of the Jefferson Monument. Balls of fire streaked across the sky and slammed into Earth, sending chunks of dirt and grass flying. What looked like black crystals also shot out of the air. Two crashed into the ground thirty yards away from us and shattered on impact with two creatures exploding from the shards.

  My heart stopped in my chest.

  Their horned heads twisted on their human-like bodies as they looked around, as though orienting themselves. Thickly muscled arms, powerful looking chests, and trunk-sized legs were covered in mottled skin that changed colors, as though they’d been bathing in motor oil. Their glowing red eyes landed on Tristan and me, huge leathery wings rose from their backs, and their mouths stretched open, revealing rows of sharp teeth. The darkest depths of evil poured out of them, as if they’d risen from the pits of Hell itself. I had a feeling they had. Fear wrapped itself around me.

  With two flaps each, the creatures rose from the ground and flew at us.

  “Get Dorian,” Tristan barked, snapping me out of my frozen state, and he shoved me up the steps before turning to fight the Demons.

  Ignoring the warmth of pain still pulsing in my belly, I sprinted up the stairs, and although my telepathy refused to work again, I sensed the two souls inside. When I reached the top of the stairs, a fireball blasted into the domed roof. Chunks of stone rained down.

  “Dorian!” I yelled as I swerved to avoid the falling debris. I ran into the portico. Two bodies stood on the far side, one much bigger than the other. The smaller one, still taller than me, grabbed the other one and launched himself straight upward. “NO! Dorian!”

  He soared over the top of the building with Noah in his arms, narrowly missing a hunk of black ice that slammed into the far side of the memorial. The ground shook. More debris fell. I sprinted across the portico, but new words painted in blood on one of the walls stopped me in my tracks.

  “We don’t belong with you. I have to do this. Don’t try to follow.”

  Oh, no. Oh god, no! Please don’t do this to me.

  I wanted to drop to the ground, to shrivel up and die, but I ran back for the other side. Halfway down the steps, Tristan fought with three Demons as he tried to make his way up here.

  “Dorian!” I screamed desperately at the top of my lungs as I searched the sky for my son, but I knew in my breaking heart that I wouldn’t find him. He was gone. My son had done the inevitable that I’d fought against for so long.

  Sasha landed next to me, the fur around her muzzle stained red.

  “Go after Dorian,” I ordered her, pointing to the sky, but she ignored me. Instead she went after one of the Demons Tristan fought, following it into the sky when it flew away.

  I ran down several steps, shooting electricity at one of the others still fighting my husband. With a noisy flap of wings, it launched itself at me. Its powerful claws grabbed my shoulders, digging into my skin as it flew upward several feet, and then it threw me back to the ground. I crashed into the rotunda and rolled across the marble floor with the impact reverberating through every bone. With a grunt, I pushed myself to my hands and knees. A loud sound thundered overhead, shaking the whole stone and marble building, and I looked up.

  The far side of the roof collapsed, boulder-sized chunks of marble falling to the floor. Cracks splintered across the ceiling and down the walls. I pushed myself to my feet and spun back toward the steps and Tristan. A huge piece of marble fell from the ceiling in front of me, breaking into pieces on impact, destroying the phrase I’d read earlier so only “god,” “hostility,” and “tyranny” could be read. More snapping and cracking in the walls, and the words “all men are created equal” crumbled before me, along with “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”

  The world and everything I knew was falling apart around me.

  I tried to move again, to run for Tristan, but a heavy weight immobilized me—the weight of total failure. My heart and soul broke for all that had been lost, shattering along with the pieces of marble that crashed down around me, knocking me
to the floor. Despair wracked through my every cell, ripping me apart from within. I looked outward at the blazing sky as I collapsed facedown, unable to fight the truth anymore. The sensation that engulfed me was not one I could easily brush my fingers over, drag off and flick away. This girdle of misery was something I’d live with until my dying day and beyond.

  I’d be tormented forever, not by what Lucas had done, but by my own failure to stop him. Because I could do nothing now. Nothing for the world. Nothing for my people. Nothing for myself nor my son nor my husband, who still fought, trying to protect us from evil to the bitter end.

  I’d tried, and I’d failed.

  It took me a long moment to realize that more than the heaviness of my emotions weighed me down. A chunk of roof had fallen, crushing my body to the floor and pinning me facedown. Not even with my inhuman strength could I move it from this position, and I called for Tristan, but my voice came out weak. He’d never hear me over his battle with the Demons. I let my head fall, my cheek pressing against the cool marble floor.

  Barely conscious, I lay at the top of the stone steps with the stately Thomas Jefferson behind me, and gazed over the Potomac River Tidal Basin at the scene of annihilation before me. I tried one more time to scream my love’s name as fire and ice fell from the sky.

  Hell stormed down on Earth, ending life as we knew it.

  Epilogue

  “Alexis! Dorian!” Tristan’s voice carried from what sounded like far away, although I knew he was close.

  I opened my mouth to answer him, but could only scream from the excruciating agony that tore through my back and shoulders. My bones felt as though they were breaking, and my skin was shredding to pieces. Clenching my jaw, I pushed myself to my hands and knees, and focused on trying to breathe as the pain momentarily subsided.

  “Tristan,” I gasped as my muscles tensed, readying for another onslaught I felt rippling from the inside out.