by E. A. Copen
No, not a door. A mirror.
I stepped through the opening and found myself in a tiny space full of people of all ages. Women, children, men, even infants. Alexi must have shoved whole families into that room as sacrifices. The walls were lined with tall mirrors, the door too. Looking up, even the ceiling had mirrors affixed to it, somehow making the room feel even smaller.
Reverend Mirren stood on the opposite side of the room in a worn t-shirt and a pair of boxers. He wasn’t wearing his glasses, and his hair was tousled. They must’ve grabbed him from his bed. It looked like that was how they’d taken them all. Everyone was in their nightclothes.
I scanned the room, anger boiling in my chest. Iosef and Alexi were about to brutally murder these people, and for what? To raise some asshole from the pits of Hell and hand some fleeting power to Alexi? Fucking men and their fucking power games. I was so sick of watching people kill each other for even the tiniest amount. If Josiah killed them both slow and painfully, it wouldn’t be good enough for me. I was almost looking forward to presiding over their punishment in Hell. Almost.
I cleared my throat and raised my head to make sure everyone could hear me. “Everybody out!”
No one moved. Mothers shielded their children. An infant in the corner wailed. I stormed through the room and grabbed Mirren by the arm. “Tell them to go.”
Mirren opened his mouth but halted when his eyes fell on the ceiling.
I followed his gaze up, but not because of his hesitation. Because the hairs on my arms stood on end and my skin was prickling with an electric current. Magic. Someone was using a lot of it. Above, a bright red symbol I didn’t recognize appeared in the reflection. When I dropped my gaze, I realized everyone in the room also had a replica of that symbol glowing on their foreheads.
“Get out now!” I screamed and yanked Mirren’s arm, dragging him toward the exit. He stumbled, but I shoved him through the narrow opening. Thoganoth grabbed him and pulled him away from the room.
The symbols glowed brighter.
One woman rose in a panic, screaming, her fingers curled. Everyone remained frozen with morbid fascination, watching as she tore chunks of her own face away. It was almost too late when I realized her whole body was swelling up like an over-inflated balloon.
The woman burst, streaks of blood and chunks of her body coating the mirrors and bloodying the faces of everyone staring in horror.
Then the screaming started in earnest. People charged for the exit, nearly trampling me. Women shoved their children through or tried to crawl out over other women’s children. Men stomped over both with no regard for either. More people around the edges of the room swelled and burst with a wet popping sound, then more and more until I was staggering around ankle-deep in liquified people. How could there be so much blood and still so many people trying desperately to get out?
A woman near the door wailed and knelt in the bloody muck, running her hands through it, screaming someone’s name. She exploded herself not two seconds later, leaving the room in an eerie silence. There was no one left. They’d all either burst or gotten out.
I staggered for the hole we’d made, nearly slipping twice on my way there. When I reached the opening, I doubled over and vomited from the smell of blood and guts in my nostrils. It wasn’t any better outside. A stream of blood ran from the makeshift door out into the yard. The remains of Iosef’s sacrifices pooled in puddles or existed only as splatters against cool metal and dirty piles of car parts.
Bile rose into my mouth. I forced it back down and gripped Thoganoth by the shoulders. “Survivors?”
He said nothing. Just stared at the dirty puddles and the dogs fleeing through the open gate until I shook him. He blinked once as if seeing me for the first time, then pointed.
Mirren huddled in the shadow of one of the junk piles, his head buried in a small blanket. There were two babies in his arms. Two live babies. At least someone had made it out, but how? I marched over to demand answers only to pause when I realized the symbol drawn on their heads had burned into their skin, now black and weeping. Why had they survived while everyone else died?
The priest lifted his head and something in his hand shifted, an amulet of some kind. The stone inside was a dull gray. “I should’ve saved more.”
I put a hand on his shoulder. “You did what you could. I should’ve come sooner.”
Gunfire erupted at the entrance. Thoganoth rushed to my side and helped me get Mirren to his feet. “Manus Dei is making their move.”
Three demons ran out the door, firing back. It was only a matter of time before one of them spotted us. I pulled Mirren away from the stacks of junk. “We need to get you and them somewhere safe, Mirren.”
He nodded limply.
As I led the few survivors away from the gunfire, I glanced over my shoulder at the bloody footprints I left behind, my heart hardening. All this just to summon Remiel. If he made it through, this would just be the beginning. Every street in every town would run red with the blood of innocents and guilty alike. Neither Remiel nor Michael cared about guilt or innocence. There was only the fight for them, their epic clash as foretold in their holy book.
And the killing wouldn’t be limited to Earth. He’d have to slay people in Hell too, my allies. Me. Anyone he thought would oppose him. As bad as Lucifer was, Remiel would be worse.
I couldn’t allow Remiel to claim the throne in Hell, no matter the personal cost. If there wasn’t a suitable ruler, so be it. I’d sit on the damn thing until my ass was sore from it. Anything, as long as he didn’t get it.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
JOSIAH
I wriggled the lockpick in the cuffs, forcing myself to look somewhere other than at Stefan’s limp body in the chair in front of me. Almost there. Once I was free, I’d have to do something, anything to grind the ritual to a halt.
A bright red flash made me wince and turn away for a moment. It’d come from under the door on the other side of the room. The kill room. My blood ran cold as I fought to get a glimpse at Iosef behind me. It was no use. He was angled in just such a way that I couldn’t see him, even if I could hear him. His mumbling rose to a crescendo and power surged in the circle.
Gunfire outside. I turned to look at the door as Alexi gestured for three demons to go out and engage. You’re too late to save the hostages, I thought at Petra, though she couldn’t hear me. At least she’d provide a decent distraction for the backup plan.
How many people had Iosef killed in one move? A dozen? Two? How terrified they must’ve been in their last moments, huddled in that tiny room.
Alexi paced near the edge of the circle, his hands behind his back. He’d long ago abandoned his human form in favor of walking around on his hooved legs. It was disturbing as hell to look at, that thing with the torso of a man and the legs of a goat. Somehow, he still wore a suit as if it were just as natural as walking around on human legs. I wondered if he polished his horseshoes just for the occasion. Did satyrs even wear horseshoes? I wanted to believe they did so I could fantasize about ripping Iosef’s off and hanging them on my wall as trophies.
“Your friends are too late,” Alexi said with a smirk. He paced over to open the door to the killing room. Several gallons of chunky blood flowed out onto the cement floor. “We have all the sacrifices we need.”
“The circle!” Iosef exclaimed. “Mind the circle!” He ran over in a panic, abandoning whatever the next stage of his ritual was to grab a mop. In a frantic sort of dance, he swept the mop at the encroaching blood, directing it toward a drain in the floor rather than his precious circle.
“Niko,” I hissed in a loud whisper. When he didn’t answer, I rocked my chair, trying to scoot closer. “Stefan!”
He didn’t respond.
Cold sweat beaded on my forehead. Christ, did I… I couldn’t have, could I? Maybe the blood was too much. I hadn’t given much thought to how his body would respond to being introduced to demon blood. Maybe he’d gone into a sort of magical an
aphylactic shock. No, his chest was still moving. He was breathing, just unconscious.
Iosef finished with the mop and shook it at Alexi. “You could’ve ruined everything just now!”
Alexi rolled his eyes. “Calm down. Your sorcery is all but complete. All we need to do is move the mirrors into place. What’re you waiting for? Let’s finish this up. I’ve got dinner reservations with the police chief and his wife.” He smirked to himself, clearly unaware that Iosef was fuming.
Iosef stormed off and grabbed a large mirror on a small wheeled platform, pushing it to the edge of the circle. There must’ve been a dozen mirrors waiting around the room on similar contraptions. Made sense. He wouldn’t summon Remiel directly. To do so would destroy the building and kill anyone in the immediate area. Anyone who didn’t die would be blinded just from looking at the former angel in his natural form. That applied to humans anyway. I’d be just fine. Iosef wasn’t doing it for my health though. I’d be trapped in the circle when Remiel stepped through the mirror to claim Niko’s body for himself.
I turned to Iosef while he was arranging his mirrors. “Why’d you even keep him around?”
“Pardon?” Alexi blinked.
“I’m not talking to you, you olive-sucking prick. I meant him.” I nodded to Iosef. “He’s got no reason to keep you around, Alexi. You’re just dead weight.”
Alexi showed me a mouthful of perfect white teeth. “Iosef works for me. He’s been paid very well.”
“Money only goes so far, mate. Especially when you’re a fuckwit.”
“I see what you’re trying to do,” said Alexi tucking his hands into the waistband of his pants. “It won’t work. You can’t turn him against me to stop this. Even if something were to happen to me, Iosef would complete the ritual. You can’t stop it.”
“Iosef is a fanatic, aren’t you, Iosef?” I turned my head to catch a glimpse of him positioning the last mirror.
He sneered at me. “Such a nasty word. You say fanatic. I say loyalist. Isn’t it funny how we can make up words that mean the same thing but have such a negative connotation? Insults are easy to throw around, but it’s the action that counts, isn’t it?”
“Once he’s free, then what, mate?” I twisted the other way to watch him adjust one of the mirrors. More gunfire barked outside. Just under the screams, I could hear Petra shouting orders. It didn’t sound like it was going well for her. “You know even if this lot doesn’t make it inside, you’ll still have Michael and all the forces of Heaven to contend with, plus the various factions in Hell who will oppose Remiel’s rule. Even demons don’t take kindly to the genocide of their own kind.”
Iosef huffed and let out a wheezy spat of laughter. “Oh, they won’t be a match for him. Michael might give him some trouble, but he’s far too confident. That’ll be his downfall. When the dust settles, the universe will be as it was before humans tainted it. No Devil. No God. No Heaven. No Hell. They’ll be one and the same, ruled by a benevolent master unswayed by his love of mortals.”
“Hate to break it to you, mate, but you’re one of those mortals. What do you get out of it?”
Iosef gave Alexi a fleeting glance before answering, “Whatever reward my lord deems his humble servant worthy of.”
At least I knew I was right about the fanatic bit. Iosef was off his rocker. Just once I’d like to run into an evildoer who wasn’t completely psycho, but it seemed to be the one trait they had in common. After all, no sane person would kill so many people and raise a monster like Remiel from The Pit.
Niko suddenly rolled his head and muttered something. I leaned forward to catch what it was while a part of me sighed with relief to know for certain he wasn’t dead. Whatever he was mumbling, I couldn’t make it out.
The gunfire outside stopped abruptly.
“Time for phase two.” Iosef grinned.
“Last chance, Alexi,” I offered.
He frowned at me. “For what?”
“To stop this.”
He smirked. “Why on Earth would I want to do that?”
“Because it’s the only way you’re getting out of here alive.”
Alexi snorted derisively and looked down at his phone, stepping out of view.
Suit yourself, Alexi. I warned you. His fate was his own doing since he wouldn’t listen to me. Fuckwits never did.
Behind me, Iosef began his next spell, chanting in a low, guttural voice. If I shifted slightly to the right, I could see his reflection thanks to one of the mirrors. He stood at his makeshift table, dropping small bits of organic material into a little wooden bowl that sat over a swirling, red sigil drawn on the surface of his mirror. Even with all the elements gathered in front of him, he’d still need one more ingredient to complete his spell.
Alexi wandered closer, straining his neck to watch as the tiny wad of dry herbs sparked into flame in Iosef’s hand. Iosef dropped it into the bowl and coaxed up the smoke with long, thin fingers. The smoke that rose seemed too much for that tiny bundle of herbs, quickly expanding into a mushroom cloud that curved in a dome above his head and crawled back down to the floor. Slowly, the smoke spread through the room, licking at my heels and caressing Niko’s ankles. It entered the circle like a living thing and swelled until there was no way to breathe without pulling it into my lungs. I choked and coughed, gagging on the fetid taste of it.
Smoke flowed into Niko’s open nose and mouth. His head shot up suddenly, eyes glowing. He gasped in a desperate breath like a man drowning. Slowly, he turned his head until he was staring straight at Alexi. “Here comes a man to be baptized as king, but no crown will fit his head. Instead, he wears a chain of silver and dons a purple veil.”
“Not this again,” Alexi spat and turned his back to Iosef. “That’s exactly what he said to me when I went to him last. It means nothing. Nonsense, just like everything else he’s ever spouted.”
Iosef suddenly lowered a silver garrote around Alexi’s neck and pulled it tight. “You should have listened to him.”
Alexi’s hands went to the thick strand of silver wire closing his throat and he tried to pry it free, but it was no use. Iosef just twisted it tighter until it dug into his skin. Blood blossomed in a line around Alexi’s neck, spilling down over his perfect white shirt. Alexi kicked and twisted, trying to free himself, but Iosef held him until his face turned bright red and capillaries burst. Alexi’s eyes bulged and he gave up trying to free himself, reaching instead for something no one else could see. A moment later, he fell limp, foaming at the mouth, his face a brilliant shade of violet.
Iosef grinned and pressed his smoking bowl against Alexi’s chest, collecting the free-flowing blood from the dead man. “Finally!” He pushed Alexi’s body aside. “Now we can begin.”
He turned right into Malphas’ fist. The punch laid the mage out in a dazed mess and cast his ingredients over the floor in a bloody splash. Malphas stepped in to stand over him, fists clenched.
Iosef lay face-down in the mess, trembling. No, not trembling. The bastard was laughing. He threw back his head and howled with laughter. “You want to kill me? Go ahead! You won’t stop it. It’s too late. Look!”
The smoke he had summoned suddenly swirled up, thick enough to obscure my vision. All sound faded but for the terrible sound of claws scraping over glass and the beating of a thousand wings all at once. Red magic sprang from inside the mirrors, bathing Niko and me in the light.
The summoning was complete. Not even killing Iosef would stop Remiel from coming through now.
My skin prickled and I shuddered at the feeling of dark, greasy magic swirling around me. One of the mirrors behind me shattered and a dark mass came screaming through the air, close enough that I felt the wind from it. It slammed into Niko hard enough to knock the chair back and the smoke followed it, flowing into Niko like water.
Silence followed, the only sound my own heartbeat pounding in my ears. I leaned forward and licked my lips. Come on, dammit. Work!
But he just lay there, completely stil
l, eyes closed.
Get up, Stefan. Fight! Push the bastard out. You can do it. I gave you the means. All you’ve got to do is put in the work. Fight him!
Niko’s eyes snapped open again, this time glowing bright red. Wood splintered as he tore his arms and legs free of their bindings to rise. A wicked smile flashed over his face as he looked down at his body, completely unscathed. His eyes shifted up to me. “Hello, son,” he said in a voice that wasn’t Niko’s. “Been a long time.”
“Not long enough.” I nodded to his new body. “Don’t get comfortable in there. I left you a welcoming present. Let me know when you find it.”
“What did you do?” He looked down at his arms. Blisters had sprouted over the bright blue veins in Niko’s wrists.
“Ah, there it is. Let me know how you like that demon blood.”
“You…” His hand went to Niko’s throat as another blister swelled. “How? When?”
“The same way you took out Jesus in the garden. With a kiss.”
Remiel stumbled back a step as more blisters erupted on Niko’s skin. Eventually, the body would break down enough that it couldn’t hold him. It was only a matter of minutes before that happened. I didn’t know if Niko’s soul had survived the initial battle with Remiel when he first became possessed, but I hoped he was still in there, fighting. If Remiel remained much longer, however, Niko’s body would die, and all hope of saving him, along with the rest of humanity, would be gone.
I had to act. Fast.
My fingers twisted the lockpick one last time and the silver handcuffs clattered loudly to the floor. “Sorry about this, mate.” I surged to my feet and socked him hard in the jaw.
Remiel’s head jerked to the side. He looked back at me, flashing bloody teeth. “You care about this body, don’t you? He’s still in here, Josiah. Trying to fight me. It’s almost admirable. All I have to do is wait, let the clock count down, and he’ll be gone. You’ll have killed another lover. It’s such a pity that everyone you touch dies, isn’t it? Ever wonder why?”