by Hanna Peach
Yes. The Elders had lied to Alyx.
“She would never lie to me,” Israel said firmly.
Adere cocked her head. “You care about her, don’t you?”
“Leave her out of this.”
“She’s a Seraphim warrior, Israel, an immortal. She will stay young and beautiful forever and you will only get older. It’s only a matter of time before she leaves you. Then you’ll be alone. Old and alone.”
Alyx already left without me.
“We are meant to be together, Israel. Us. We two are alike. We are both broken, damaged souls, but we can grow old together. If you change me back I promise you, I will never leave you.”
Israel felt a beautiful ache through his body when he thought of Alyx, felt a sea of fire through his soul when he remembered her lips on his body. Her perfect lips on his scarred body.
“She doesn’t need you, Israel,” Adere whispered. “I do.”
Alyx doesn’t need me.
Adere was right. How long until Alyx grew tired of him? How long until she realized exactly how damaged he was? How long until she left for good?
“You owe me this, Israel,” Adere said, her voice getting a hard edge. “You owe it to me.”
The memories of the night Adere became Darkened came back to him in a twisted wreck of guilt. They had been screaming and arguing, he couldn’t even remember about what. He remembered the crashing of the plates against the wall near his head, the cursing from her mouth. He remembered the things he yelled back at her. Unforgiveable things. In her anguish, the demon took over.
It was his fault. They were trying to get to him through her. He didn’t warn her about them. He didn’t think she would believe him. It was his fault that she was now Darkened. If he could save her, then he owed it to her. “What do I have to do?”
“That’s my boy.” Adere’s face broke into a triumphant grin. “You can’t tell Alyx. She would never understand what you’re trying to do. Sneak out tonight and meet me. I will trick the demon into going out alone. Capture the demon and release me.”
“How?”
Adere glanced about the room, fear suddenly in her eyes. “I can’t explain now. Just meet me at the place we first kissed.” She set her gaze back on Israel and smiled. “You remember our first kiss, don’t you?”
“Yes.”
“Promise me you’ll meet me there. Midnight. Promise me.”
“I promise.”
“I have to go. I’ll see you soon and then, then we can be together again, my love.”
Adere pressed her lips to his. Even though his mind was on Alyx, he let her.
Chapter 34
“Israel, I’m back,” Alyx called into the dim warehouse as she yanked up the roller-door and squeezed under it. She moved quickly through the dark warehouse, past the familiar machinery arms and conveyor belts, still as ghosts. Everything was quiet. Too quiet.
“Israel?” There was a small movement within the tangle of sheets in the corner. “Don’t tell me you’re still in bed, you lazy bones.” Alyx walked over to the mattress. She knelt beside Israel and yanked away the covers. His face had black skin and hollow eyes like a skeleton.
“Boo,” the nightmare demon growled. And lunged for her.
Alyx flipped back, catching herself upside down midair and pulling her sabre from its sheath. Two more demons rushed out from their hiding places behind machinery, brandishing swords with black blades, their faces shimmering with green skin and horns underneath like rows of teeth.
The two demons rushed for her. Her sword clashed with the closest green-skinned demon. She knocked his sword down and her blade lashed out. The first demon fell without a sound.
The second demon wouldn’t fall so easily. Their blades clashed several times as Alyx flitted forward and back in the air, in and out of reach of his sword.
She flipped over his head and thrust her sabre forward from another angle. The demon tried to block her. She evaded his blade and hit the underside of his sword, causing him to over-swing. Her sword sliced into the demon’s exposed neck. His sword clattered to the ground and there was a thud as his body followed.
Alyx heard clapping. She spun to see the nightmare demon, now standing up on the mattress. “Well done. They have trained you well, haven’t they?” He stepped forward from the tangle of sheets.
“What have you done with him?” she said, trying to stop her voice from leaking her fear.
The demon paused as if hearing something far away. “What...” his voice started to warble and grow higher in pitch as he spoke, “what have you done with him?”
Alyx couldn’t believe her ears. The demon now sounded exactly like...her. “What is this? Where is he?”
“Where is he?” The nightmare demon repeated in her voice. “What is this?”
They’ve hurt him. They’ve killed him. He’s dead. Her voice repeated over and over, echoing off the insides of her mind. “No!” Alyx screamed as she shook her head, trying to clear the noise. The voices dropped all at once like stones. Suddenly, it was the silence that was deafening.
Alyx blinked. The nightmare demon had disappeared. Holding herself aloft in the air, she listened for him. She floated above where he last stood, her eyes searching the floor and between pieces of machinery. Her gaze fell upon the body on the concrete.
A moan fell from her lips like a single drop of blood. The life ebbed from her arms. In her weakened grip, her sword almost slid from her fingers. It was the very thing she feared the most. Israel’s prone body lay surrounded by a pool of blood. His lifeless eyes were open, staring at her, as if to accuse her.
“Israel. Please. No,” Alyx choked out between sobs, the pain in her chest so crushing she could barely breathe.
She flew to him. Her knees hit the ground hard enough to bruise as she threw herself to his side. Her sword was dropped, forgotten, clattering against the ground. You can’t die. I love you. She never told him. She could have told him. But she didn’t. Now she wouldn’t get that chance.
“Israel,” she whispered, her hands shaking so hard she could barely control them. She unfurled her fingers to touch his face, his lifeless face. To brush, one last time, across the silent scar that would never dance for her again.
Her hands went right through him. What? This wasn’t right. She clutched for him again. Again her fingers went straight through him like he was made of mist.
His body flickered then disappeared. Alyx stared. The concrete floor was bare. No blood, no body.
There was a sound over her shoulder. She rolled sideways. The nightmare demon’s falling sword clipped her arm.
“So touching,” he growled and charged at her again. Alyx darted up towards the roof of the warehouse, out of his reach. “Not fair, little girl. Come down and play.”
Alyx looked down at her injured arm and pushed her focus to it. But the cut continued to bleed. Just like her calf. She turned her eyes to his sword, a black glassy blade. She had never seen such a weapon.
The demon picked up her sword from where it was lying. He continued to taunt her as he jumped around the pieces of machinery trying to get within sword’s reach of her.
Alyx spied a demonsword near the body of one of the fallen Darkened. Could she make it? She sped like a bullet towards it, the nightmare demon leaping after her.
Alyx swooped to the concrete, grabbed the demonsword by the handle, rolling in time to clash her sword against the nightmare demon’s blade, inches from her face. She kicked the nightmare demon off her. “Where is he? What have you done with him?”
She lashed out with the demonsword. But her anger made her heavy-handed and sloppy. The demon laughed as he merely stepped to the side to avoid her blade.
“Silly girl. It is you who brings to life what you’re afraid of. I merely amplify the effect.”
Metal echoed out across the span of the warehouse as they fought back and forth. Alyx could feel the rush of fear start to tremor louder and louder under her skin. The voice began to echo again in her head.
I’m not good enough. He will die because I’m not good enough. I was never good enough. Never…
…good…
…enough…
The demon drew a large breath of air into his lungs and started to chuckle. He seemed twice as big and twice as strong as when she first started to fight him. Alyx could feel her body begin to tremble. She wasn’t going to get out of this alive.
She was driven farther and farther back as the demon hacked at her blade, her arm feeling heavier with each blow. She felt a wave of blackness trying to pull her under. The Guardian-bond was trying to take her into Israel’s mind. It took all her mental strength to push away from the blackness.
It was enough of a distraction. A bony hand clawed around her forearm, pulling her in close, trapping her sword arm between them. Her blade was useless. This close to him, she could see the rotting teeth in his exposed flesh and the crawl of pale wriggling maggots. She could smell the stink of decay. The demon grinned and a piece of his flesh fell off, exposing more pallid bone underneath.
Alyx screamed, the sound tearing out all the air from her lungs. Her body was drained of energy again. The demon laughed and ripped her sword from her hand. He threw her aside like a child throws a doll.
She landed, winded, on a belt of rollers. Pain shot through her arm where she had fallen on it. It felt broken. The demon jumped up after her. Before she could move, the length of his forearm was crushing her throat, his body was pinning her to the steel rollers.
“You Seraphim think you’re so much better than mortals, but you’re not so different,” the demon said in her voice. “You also let your fears cripple you.”
Over the demon’s shoulder Alyx saw the hanging arm of a crane sporting a mean-looking hook. If only she could push the demon onto it. She wriggled and fought. It did little to move the creature looming above her. The demon chuckled at her attempts.
Her eyes fell upon the control panel beside them, to a green and a red button. The hook, this machine − they were connected.
“Goodbye, little seraphelle.”
Alyx kicked out to the panel. She missed.
The demon placed his other hand on her chest. “It’s been fun playing.”
A tearing sensation ripped across her whole body as the demon started to draw the life from her. She screamed. She was dying.
The demon closed his eyes, threw his head back and roared with pleasure. Through her shredding pain, Alyx gathered enough strength to kick out towards the panel one last time. She clipped the green button with her heel.
There was a whirring of gears as the machine crunched to life. The demon, consumed with the ecstasy of her life-force, didn’t seem to notice. Alyx squeezed her eyes shut and waited for death.
She heard a loud wet noise. Then a choking, a gurgling. The pain in her body ceased and the choke against her neck loosened.
Opening her eyes, she saw the demon above her, eyes bulging. The sharp hook had swung through his torso, causing a spread of foul-smelling blood across his chest. His arms were now hanging limp, sword skittering across the concrete, having spun off the machine rollers.
The machine continued to grind as the large hook dragged the demon over her, his moist and rotten skin sliding across hers, causing her to gag. The demon was pulled completely from her and down the machine track, his feet dragging along the rollers.
She kicked for the panel again, this time hitting the red button. The machine shuddered and fell silent. She slumped back against the rollers with a gasp.
Chapter 35
That night Israel stayed in the darkness around the edge of Remembrance Park, the scattered old lamp posts shining moons of light on the grass.
Monique, Adere’s grandmother, had lost her husband during the last Great War, leaving her to raise Adere’s mother alone. When Adere’s mother took her own life after Adere was born, Monique then raised Adere. Adere never knew her father. Monique would only ever refer to him as “that bastard”. During their happier times, Israel and Adere would often come to Remembrance Park. Adere felt it kept her close to a grandfather she had never known.
Israel could see the bench where he first kissed Adere. But he couldn’t enjoy the memory of it anymore. It was tainted.
Adere wasn’t here yet.
There was a rustling above, causing him to jolt. But it was only a hawk landing on a branch. The bird seemed to stare at him. It gave him the creeps. He wanted to shoo at it but he dared not make a sound. Thankfully the hawk leaped off into the air and disappeared back into the night.
Israel waited.
Soon he could hear the Saint Joseph clock tower chiming midnight. Only when the last of the clanging faded did Israel see a figure wrapped in a long black jacket moving through the large iron gates at the park entrance. The figure walked along the main path that wound through the large park. It was too late for park visitors. Was this Adere?
The figure passed under a lamp post and Israel saw her two faces, Adere’s and the demon’s. Adere stopped near the bench, just out of the circle of light.
Israel moved as quietly as he could, pulling the coil of fibrous rope he had brought with him through his hands. He crept up behind her, keeping his feet light and swift. He threw the rope over her slight frame, coiling it round and round her so that she wasn’t able to move her arms. She didn’t put up a fight.
“I knew you’d come,” she said, sounding smug.
Israel winced at hearing Adere’s sweet voice entwined with a deep growling. He knotted the ropes and pulled Adere towards him, pulling a dagger from his belt and holding it to her neck.
“I’m sorry to treat you this way, Adere. I just have to make sure the demon in you won’t try anything.”
Israel started to push her towards the park entrance when her words sank in. I knew you’d come.
The demon wasn’t supposed to know he was here.
Two more Darkened stepped from the shadows flanking the left and right of the park entrance.
“You tricked me,” Israel said, pulling Adere backwards with him.
She laughed. “What did you expect, mortal? I control Adere now.”
Israel’s eyes darted around him as the two Darkened advanced towards him.
Bluff? Run? Fight?
“Stop there or I’ll slit her throat,” he called out. The two Darkened paused, looking at Adere as if to get instructions.
“He’s bluffing. He won’t hurt me,” she said. “Get him.”
“Yes, I will. I’ll kill her.” Israel shuffled back, step by step, and the two Darkened stepped forward, keeping the same distance between them. He pressed his blade a little harder at Adere’s neck. “You tricked me. Tell me why I shouldn’t slit your throat right here.”
“I didn’t lie when I said that there was a way to get her back. If you slit my throat, you kill her. She’s still in here.”
“Liar. Why would I even listen to you?”
“Because you and I both know that if there is even a slightest chance that you could save her, you wouldn’t risk killing her.”
“Damn you to Hell,” he hissed in her ear.
“Why thank you,” she purred.
Run? Fight?
Israel threw Adere into the path of the two Darkened and ran. He aimed for the other side of the park. There was a blown-out gap in the tall metal fence somewhere along there, he was sure of it. His feet stumbled across the even ground but he didn’t slow down, spurred on by the heavy footsteps behind him.
If he could just get out of the park and among the alleys of Saint Joseph, perhaps he could lose them. Or underground, perhaps he could lose them underground.
There. There was the gap. He was almost to it.
A fourth Darkened stepped in front of Israel, blocking his way out. He skidded to a halt. This demon had red reptilian skin and yellow slit crocodile eyes that blinked at him with two eyelids. A greater demon.
“You’re lucky that he needs you alive,” Red said.
Fight.
> “No,” Israel held his dagger in front of him, “you’re unlucky that you need me alive.” He charged.
Red darted out of his way and pulled out his own weapon. “Alive, but it only needs to be barely.”
The air rang with metal as they clashed in close quarters. The demon growled as Israel slashed him across the ribs. Footsteps of the other Darkened were getting closer. This distracted Israel enough. Red kicked at Israel and he flew backwards, falling into another body.
Israel felt a sharp pain at the back of his head. He fell first to his knees then to the ground, everything fading around him. There was a series of swooping noises, a Darkened crying out and metal on metal.
Then nothing.
Chapter 36
Nothing.
How could there be nothing?
Alyx had been flitting back and forth across the warehouse for over an hour trying to contact Israel through their bond. But she couldn’t reach him.
Nothing. Like he was asleep. Or dead. No, he couldn’t be dead. If he died, she died.
Please Israel, where are you?
Her shoulder still hurt from where the Darkened sliced her. She turned to the three demonswords that she collected after the ambush. She had never seen blades like these before. Black and shiny like glass but hard like metal.
Alyx picked up a demonsword and pricked her finger on the end of one. A small bead of blood formed. Then another drop. If she was healing properly, a pin prick would have closed up instantly. A third blood droplet came from her finger. It was clear. These weapons were disrupting her healing abilities. But how? And where did these weapons come from?
Something flickered, catching her eye.
“Israel,” Alyx cried as his face, then his body, appeared as a mist. He looked groggy and he stumbled forward as if being pushed, his hands tied behind his back. He glanced at her for a moment, then dropped his eyes.
Without looking at her, he said, “Does it really take four of you to escort me when I’m already tied up? I must be very important to your Elders.”
Alyx felt the blood drain from her face. The Elders. The Seraphim had Israel. But how?