I studied the circle of runes, gritting my teeth. At first, I had thought they were angelic, but the closer I looked, I realized they weren’t just angelic. They were a smattering of all sorts of runes.
My shoulders tensed in alarm.
The Omegabet. Dracula had trapped her with the Omegabet.
As I stared at them, they seemed to come to life in a way, shimmering and flaring as strange words filled my mind. I quickly clamped my eyes shut, shaking my head. Without knowing exactly what they were or what they did, I didn’t dare risk trying to study them.
I had some kind of natural understanding of the Omegabet, but that was more dangerous by far. The Omegabet was deadly.
Although…
I could always ruin just one of the runes—like I would any angelic rune—pretending I’d never even heard of the Omegabet. Because it really was just an angelic rune mixed in with others to make something greater. But if I destroyed only just one angelic symbol, would the spell drop? That still left me with the chain, and even if I had my magic, I wasn’t sure I could break something strong enough to restrain a demon.
At least I couldn’t be trapped inside with that ring of runes broken.
I decided to give the demon a choice. “Show me what I want to know, and I’ll break the circle. I don’t know what to do about the chain, though,” I admitted.
She scoffed incredulously. “Lies. You can do no such thing, little girl. You have no power. Even if you could do such a thing, Dracula and his Beast would hunt me down before I managed to leave this room. No one escapes Sanguina.”
I smiled. “Sanguina is currently taking a nap, and I’m planning on killing Dracula. So if you know all these secrets, why don’t you tell me where Dracula’s Bane really is. I don’t think it’s in the Infernal Armory. That’s too obvious—”
She froze, looking like a bowling ball had just struck her between the eyes. “What did you just say?” she whispered in a strange, almost fragile, tone.
“Sanguina is taking a three-day nap—”
“No. Dracula’s Bane,” she said, leaning closer, her eyes seeming to burn with need. “Who told you about that?” she hissed, her eyes darting back and forth in an almost frantic or terrified manner.
I considered telling her, but remembering Samael’s potential feud with her, I shook my head. “Agree to help me—”
“TELL ME!” she roared, her jaws spreading wide as she railed against her manacles. “I will agree to anything for this answer!”
“Fine,” I said, holding up my hands. Demons were usually much better negotiators, so this was definitely a first. “You agree to answer all my questions truthfully and not try to kill me or my associates?” I asked, trying to cover every loophole. She nodded eagerly, licking her lips with a tongue as long as a cobra—unlike any crocodile tongue I’d ever seen.
I glanced at Xylo and he shrugged slightly, but he did look surprised by her sudden swell of emotions.
I turned back to her and let out a breath. “Samael told me I would need Dracula’s Bane in order to truly kill Dracula, and that I could find it in the center of the castle, in the heart of the Beast—”
The badass crocodile demon abruptly collapsed to her knees like a puppet with cut strings and began to cry and laugh at the same time.
Xylo and I shared a long, confused look. I shrugged, not having any idea what the hell was going on here.
Through her tears, I heard what sounded like a demon praying for the first time in eons.
“Love is patient…love is kind…You came back for me, Samael…”
And the hair on every inch of my body suddenly tried to stand straight up on end. She was reciting First Corinthians chapter thirteen—the passage about unconditional, non-judgmental love.
That was the same passage Samael had mentioned when I had asked why he originally agreed to become my godfather and work for my mother.
I had thought he was trying to tell me that he had loved my mother.
But I had apparently been very wrong. He’d been talking about lady crocodile, here.
“Wait a minute. This is a goddamned love story?!” I demanded incredulously.
Which was also technically accurate since they were both fallen angels.
She looked up at me, tears streaming down her face. “Yes, child. Yes. Those words—Dracula’s Bane, and that it was locked up in the Heart of the Beast—was a code phrase Samael promised I would one day hear, and that it would mean my freedom was at hand. I am the Heart to Samael’s Beast, you see.” My mind reeled in disbelief, but she continued on excitedly. “When you first walked in here, I thought you looked familiar, but I assumed my eyes were playing tricks on me after spending so long alone. Tell me your real name, dear. Show me your real name,” she said, her voice almost feverish.
I hesitated, slowly reaching into my pocket for the Seal of Solomon.
As I pulled out the demon prison, it caught the light of the flickering torches, and the demon began to laugh gleefully—something no demon should have done upon seeing a device designed specifically to trap them. “It seems I get to fulfill my promise to your mother after all, goddaughter.”
If Xylo wouldn’t have grabbed me at the last moment, I would have fallen straight down on my ass.
Chapter 27
I stared at the demonic crocodile, trying to organize my scrambling thoughts. Goddaughter? What kind of acid had my parents self-medicated with back in the day? Choosing not one, but two demons for godparents.
My soul was doomed.
“How am I supposed to believe any of this?” I asked, shaking my head. Just because it sort of made sense in a demented way didn’t mean that she wasn’t manipulating me, using my emotions against me.
The demon sighed empathetically. Then she cleared her throat, staring at me. “You were to be orphaned on the steps of a place called Abundant Angel Catholic Church. You were to be given the Mark of the Beast to make Dracula underestimate you. You were Named after Excalibur—literally.” She cocked her head quizzically. “Although I do not sense it within you. Has the King risen already?” she asked. Then, under her breath, “I’ve missed so much!”
I stared back at her woodenly. Hardly anyone knew those things, and most who had known were dead.
She took my blank look as a suggestion to try harder. “Qinglong promised to guard your mother’s laboratory in the event of her death.” I flung up a hand to stop her, feeling tears come to my eyes for some reason.
It wasn’t necessarily even heartache. I was just fucking overwhelmed. My life had been like a recipe for a cake, and I was only just learning how many chefs had been in the kitchen.
“Enough,” I whispered. “Please. Just stop.”
“Of course, Callie. I didn’t mean to be inconsiderate. I’ve been waiting for this day longer than you’ve been alive, and I’ll admit that my hope had turned to despair,” she said in a soft tone, not emphasizing the words—which meant there was something she didn’t know about me. Then again, becoming a Horseman had been my idea, not part of my mother’s scheme.
I nodded, wiping at my eyes. Xylo was glaring at the demon like my own personal guard dog. I let him continue.
I finally looked back up at her. “How could you know any of those things? You’ve been locked up here for a hundred years, right?”
She nodded. “More or less.” She waited a moment. “I can tell you as much or as little as you wish to know.”
I waved a hand, remembering we were on the clock. I didn’t have time for this crap, and I’d missed enough opportunities for answers that it was refreshing to have someone trying to convince me of how much they knew about me, for once. “Hit me.”
“Samael and I have secretly been in love for centuries, but I foolishly became trapped here about a hundred years ago, my own arrogance getting the best of me. Your mother learned of these things—she never told me how—and approached Samael, who had been unsuccessful in his own attempts to save me since he couldn’t risk letting any
one know how he truly felt for me or else Dracula would have executed me on the spot or used me as leverage against him, giving Dracula a Greater Demon in his pocket of tools. Your mother was determined to kill Dracula and his Beast, so she made a deal with Samael. Constance would do everything in her power to help save my life if Samael first promised to become your godfather and look after you in the years to come.”
I felt like a piece of glass, riveted to the floor as I listened, unable to move for fear of shattering.
“Samael agreed, willing to do anything to get me back, even though it was foolish to meet his end of the bargain before she met hers. Men,” she muttered.
“Love,” I retorted, smiling faintly.
The demon smiled back, nodding. “But Constance was unable to defeat Sanguina. She only succeeded in stealing her eyes. She was forced to flee before she—and you—became trapped here for good. Like me.”
I frowned. “Wait. That means she was already pregnant with me when she came here,” I said, all sorts of horrified to hear she had come here—of all places—with me in her belly.
“Irresponsible,” Xylo murmured, looking thoughtful.
I glared up at him. “Don’t tell me you were a part of this, too,” I warned.
He shook his head fiercely. “I was in the bottom of the well at the time.”
The demon blinked at him. Then she burst out laughing. “That was you?” she roared, crying crocodile tears. “Everyone knows that story! Even me! Did you ever get your balloon back?” she hooted.
The black smoke in Xylo’s eyes shifted warningly, and his embers and sparks abruptly brightened. “No.”
The demon turned back to me, wiping at her eyes. “Before Constance escaped Castle Dracula for good, she came to visit me. She believed she had a solution, but that it would take time to come to fruition, and that she couldn’t do it alone. She promised to one day save me in exchange for my help with her plan and that I would become her unborn daughter’s godmother once I was free.” The silence stretched out. “And with you here, now, it seems her plan has gone off without a hitch.”
I grimaced at that last part. I could think of one or two hitches I’d had to navigate, but I knew what she had meant.
It was hard to deny my mother’s capabilities at planning long cons.
I was Exhibit A.
“I really hope she told you the part of the plan that involves me defeating a Beast that no one can apparently defeat,” I muttered. “And all without my magic, since Samael so cleverly branded me with the Mark of the Beast.
She waved a claw. “You are blood bound to Samael, yes?” she asked. I frowned but nodded. “Then you can remove it yourself. I will show you how. You’ll have your toys back in a snap.”
I blinked at her. “Just like that.”
She nodded. “That’s the beauty of it. You two are blood bound—like family. Only Greater Demons can utilize the power in the Mark of the Beast.” She smiled devilishly. “And look who is blood bound—family—to a Greater Demon. You, sulfur-sugar. You.”
I grimaced distastefully at that pet name, preferring that it was never again used to indicate me. Xylo somehow let out a long whistle through his teeth. I frowned, glancing over at him, having never heard him do it before. He looked just as startled by his reaction as I was.
“But your powers won’t help you anyway, just like they didn’t help your mother. You see, you cannot defeat the Beast. That is the entire point—and where your mother failed. No one can defeat Sanguina—or any other Beast,” the demon continued, grinning feverishly. “Only a Beast can defeat a Beast.”
“This is such a great plan,” I said with false cheer, turning to Xylo. “Right?”
He looked back at me dubiously. “No. This is a terrible plan.”
I shrugged, turning back to her. “I would have preferred a much more optimistic godmother, you know.”
She grinned wickedly. “How many godmothers do you know who would eat their goddaughter’s foes?” she asked, licking her lips.
I grimaced. “Okay. Fair point.”
She nodded primly. “Sanguina is the entire source of Dracula’s power. With Sanguina in play, Dracula will live on for eternity. But your mother surmised a way for you—and only you—to win.” She leaned closer, as if to verify I was paying attention. “You can only dominate a Beast, not defeat it. They are parasites and need a strong parental hand to keep them in line. You are quite literally the only person in the world strong enough to dominate Sanguina—who is probably the strongest Beast I have ever seen.”
I stared back at her numbly, not feeling encouraged. “I’m not great at guessing games, and time is running out.”
“You have Sanguina’s Silver eyes within you, do you not?”
Xylo gasped. “The Eternal Metal?” he rasped.
My heart skipped a few beats. I had considered that my mother had hidden Sanguina’s eyes somewhere, but to hear that they were the source of the Silvers inside my own body…
Maybe I had experienced too much shocking news lately, because I just felt numb at the revelation. If the Silvers were Xylo’s Eternal Metal, why hadn’t everyone freaked the hell out when I’d used them to fight all those skeletons in the Feast Hall?
Xylo leaned close, and he was staring at me like I was a Goddess. Apparently, he’d read my thoughts. “Dracula was startled to see your claws of Eternal Metal. Samael reassured him that they were gifts your mother had given to you. Then when they broke, Dracula dismissed them as unimportant.” He glanced down at my katana thoughtfully. “Is that…” he trailed off wonderingly.
“Yes. Is this the Eternal Metal you’ve been going on about?” I asked.
He touched it with a finger bone and immediately shuddered. “Yes, although I never would have known had I not touched it. Something is different about it.”
The demon interrupted us. “Biology is funny like that.” We both glanced up, frowning. “Your mother believed that it would either grow stronger within you or weaker, but there was no way to tell which. So it is not as distinguishable as the purest form of Eternal Metal from Sanguina.”
I nodded. That…actually made a lot of sense.
But it also perfectly reiterated a point. My mother had crafted me like a bacterial culture in a Petri dish. Mixing up all sorts of spiffy ingredients to make me.
I considered all of this in silence, trying to process everything. Then I looked up at her. “The Beast and I are bonded,” I breathed. “We share life essence.”
The demon grinned, snapping her claws. “Bingo. It’s still going to be a fight, but you’ll be more or less on equal footing. Your will against hers.”
I nodded stiffly, climbing back to my feet. That hadn’t gone so well for me during our first tussle, but I’d learned a lot since then. Gotten a lot angrier. Had obtained many more personal reasons to hate Dracula and everything he stood for.
And I had a Xylo.
And my Horseman Mask.
And apparently—although she’d told me it wouldn’t be of any use—I was about to get all my powers back. Still, if I dominated Sanguina, I might still need my powers to fight Dracula.
“Dracula is going to be very upset,” Xylo said, sounding amused.
I smiled back. “Fuck Dracula.” I started to lift my hand for a high-five, but Xylo stepped back suddenly, looking alarmed that I wanted to hurl a bolt of lightning somewhere. I winced, lowering my hand. “Yeah. Good call.”
“Where is Samael?” the demon asked impatiently. “I need to see him.”
I slowly turned to look at her, my stomach churning nauseatingly.
“We need to get you out of your prison. He might need your help.”
Her face darkened. “Oh?”
Even though she was brand new at this godmother thing…
she had the fucking glare down pat. I even wanted to say a couple Hail Marys just to be on the safe side. Or would that be Hail Unnamed Demon Ladies?
I had an inkling that this little sulfur-sugar was
about to get blessed out by her demonic godmother when she mentioned the Coliseum.
Chapter 28
I studied the demon warily, wondering if I should instead keep her locked up while I told her about Samael and his stint as Spartacus.
Then again, maybe I wanted her to go rage out all over Castle Dracula. Give her a head start before I woke up Sanguina in case the Beast was able to multitask and deal with both of us simultaneously.
“Yeah. Let’s release you first. Trust me.”
She clenched her jaws angrily but didn’t argue.
I walked up to the Omegabet prison, singling out the lone angelic rune and studying it meticulously.
I paused, frowning up at her. “Why does no one here know your name?” I asked curiously.
She studied me over her snout, unblinking. “Bad connotations. You can call me Lily.”
My forearms instantly turned to gooseflesh and I instinctively wanted to run away screaming. But I managed to keep my face blank, exuding a cool, calm and collected demeanor as I nodded casually.
The smile on Lily’s face told me I had not succeeded in convincing her how brave I was, and that she was amused by it.
“Lily,” I mused. “Short for—”
“Just Lily,” she interrupted authoritatively. “No other name should be used. Especially not here.”
“Right. Pretty name,” I said, still trying to play it cool. Xylo was turning from Lily to me with a frown, trying to figure out what was going on and why it was important.
“The rune, Callie,” Lily reminded me. “My lover is waiting on me.”
“Of course,” I said, focusing back on the rune and trying not to hyperventilate. Was my godmother Lilith? Pretty much the worst of the worst—that was like saying Lucifer was your Uncle.
Xylo cleared his throat and we both looked over at him. “The chain is marked just like the circle,” he suggested, pointing to a spot I couldn’t see from my position. “Perhaps the circle powers the chain?”
Godless: Feathers and Fire Book 7 Page 17