“There is a way. I have a plan, Emma, but it’s dangerous and I can’t get you involved,” I stuttered, glancing at Zach.
“You are a demon with powers and magic. Heal him, do something,” Zach said, looking lost himself, squeezing my arm. I fought away the tears. I had to stay strong for both of them. Things in the demonic world were complicated enough.
“This isn’t that simple. Zara’s machete was taken from the underworld. The reversal spell would need to come from there too,” I explained, telling myself that I could make everything work. My soul didn’t matter, as long as Summer and Ricky lived.
Zach’s dark eyes flickered at the corners, and he ran his hand through his hair. I was supposed to keep this quiet from him.
“She really did that to him?” he finally asked, not believing that his sister could have changed so much. I nodded, realising that I couldn’t hate her for what happened. Alexis had poisoned her mind and taken her humanity.
“Who is Zara?” Emma asked.
“Zach’s sister. She had been missing for quite some time. It’s a really long story, Emma,” I explained.
“What the hell are you and those humans doing in here? It’s a private room and you have no right being here,” said a voice that I recognised. Judith Donavon stepped into the room, glaring at me with fury, her energy rising fast. Ricky had introduced me to his sister a while ago, once during dinner in a restaurant. I left before the main course was served. We ended up arguing, both refusing to let it go. Since that day we hadn’t been on the best of terms. Maybe it was a clash of personalities or maybe the fact that Judith was jealous over the fact that I had such a good relationship with her brother. Ricky had tried to reason with both of us, but I never wanted to have anything to do with her.
“We both know that I have every right to be here and have these two humans with me,” I snarled, ignoring the fact that Zach wasn’t supposed to know about demons at all. Judith was a full-blooded demon with crazy red hair and a long face. I had no idea what she did for a living, and I didn’t really care. For as long as I could remember she had never been much involved in Ricky’s life.
“Oh hi, it’s really nice to meet you. I’ve been worrying about Ricky so much in the past few days and Maxine hasn’t been in touch, so I thought that I’d visit him and …”
“Emma, you can spare Judith the details,” I said, cutting Emma off, before Judith lost it with her too. “Ricky is going to be all right. I have a plan.”
Judith laughed out loud, shaking her head in total ignorance. She obviously didn’t believe that I could help her brother.
“He’s dying thanks to you, and the doctors are saying that no one can help him,” she snapped. “So I suggest you get the hell out of here. And take those humans away with you. That one has a relief license, but the man doesn’t. I bet the faction would love to investigate this further.”
I knew that Judith wouldn’t hesitate to report me. She must have heard that my name was on the Watchers’ radar already.
“Yeah, like they would also love to know that you’re copulating with a human man,” I snapped, unable to help myself. Her face fell and I automatically regretted that I mentioned her relationship. She’d escaped hell, and for years she had been trying to create a new life on earth. Despite the fact that we didn’t get on, Ricky had talked about Judith often. I knew that she had been dating a human man for a few years now, ignoring the protocol from hell. “Emma will stay here for a moment. She’s our co-worker and she is very worried about your brother. Zach, come on, I have to show you something.”
Judith shot me a vicious look, but didn’t say anything else. Deep down, she must have realised that I was the only person that could help her brother. She wasn’t stupid. Emma nodded and sat on the chair next to Ricky’s bed.
A sharp pain shot through my chest when I left the room. Ricky had suffered a great deal and he wasn’t going to get better unless Lucifer delivered the spell. I had found the way to get him back on his feet, but first I had to deal with Alexis. Lucifer himself wanted me to take care of her.
Outside on the corridor, I turned around to face Zach. It was time to break the news to him too.
“Zara is in this hospital, Zach. She was brought in along with Ricky,” I said. He exhaled sharply, obviously not ready for news like that. “I didn’t want to say anything more about her condition. You have to see for yourself.”
“Where is she? What do you think happened to her?”
“I have no idea. The charm that she was under must have been broken when Alexis disappeared. She must have gone into a shock.”
Zach clenched his fists as anger embraced his sharp features. In the end of the day he was her brother, but Zara wasn’t the same girl that he knew all those years ago. Earlier on he promised that he would behave.
“I want to see her,” he demanded.
“I don’t think that’s such a good idea. Demonic doctors are trying to put her back together. No one knows what is really wrong with her,” I warned him, thinking about his past.
“Don’t worry. I won’t do anything to that son of a bitch, just take me to her,” he said. I could sense that he was telling the truth. One of the other nurses directed us to the second floor. Nameless had stayed with Zara. He didn’t escape down to the tunnels as I was expecting. He must really love her.
Zach was tense and conflicted. It’d been six years since he’d last seen his sister. He’d thought that she was dead. Until a month ago he also thought that humans were the only creatures living on earth. Maybe I should have waited for the right moment. It was a hell of a shock, even for a tough guy like him.
“Are you sure you want to do this?” I asked when we approached another room at the end of the corridor. Zach nodded, not even hesitating.
I took a deep breath, knocked lightly and then entered. The room was small, and with a large bed and two extra people inside, it felt even smaller. Zara was lying in bed, staring directly at the ceiling. To anyone from outside she would have looked perfectly fine, but I knew straight away that she’d been hit with a strong curse.
“Max, right?” asked the man that sat next to her. It was Nameless Thief, a man that Zach had been trying to track down for years. He looked better than the last time I saw him. The scratches and cuts on his face were still apparent, but he was mostly healed. After all this time I needed to find out how Alexis had managed to disarm him.
Zara was slightly pale, dressed in a hospital gown, staring blankly at the ceiling. Zach moved towards her, determination in his eyes. He needed to understand that it had been six years. A lot of things changed since the last time he saw her.
“She won’t recognise you … she don’t recognise anyone,” Nameless said, standing up. Zach reacted instinctively. He grabbed Nameless and pushed him against the wall. His eyes gleamed with fury.
“It’s all your fault, fucker!” he hissed, taking his gun out and pressing it to Nameless’s head. I should have suspected that Zach was never even planning to stick to our deal. On top of that I had sensed Arthur outside the building. This day wasn’t even over yet, and it was already screwed. I sighed and released some magic, hoping that Zach would get back to his senses and Arthur would disappear. Of course, even I didn’t have that kind of power. I just needed to deal with one thing at a time.
Chapter 6
“Look closely at the steps I’ll take from here to reach the truth that you so much desire, so you’ll know how to cross this on your own.” ―Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy
Nameless was staring at Zach with that detached look on his face. He wasn’t even attempting to use his energy against the man that was ready to blow his head off. Zach had always played by his own rules and I knew that there was no point reasoning with him. It’d been six long years, and a lot of things changed. The sooner he realised that Nameless was on his side, the easier it would be to track down Alexis. After all, she was the reason that he was now reunited with Zara.
“She has only me
left now. She doesn’t remember you,” Nameless stated with no emotion in his voice. Zach bared his teeth in anger; then a second later he punched the wall, his fist landing inches away from Nameless’s head. I had to get him away from Nameless and somehow calm him down. He needed to be reminded that he made a deal with me.
A second later, a sudden dose of anxiety kicked me right in my chest. Arthur was around, and I needed to deal with him too as soon as possible.
“Zach, come on, this won’t change anything and Nameless is on our side. There is no point fighting,” I said, waving my demonic power towards the detective. I could feel his anger in my pores. I wasn’t planning to be kicked out of the hospital, just because these two couldn’t control themselves.
“That son of a bitch ripped Zara away from her family!” Zach snarled, pressing the trigger. I didn’t want to believe he was ready to shoot Nameless in front of his sister.
“She was on the street, high on human drugs. I took her in and cleaned her up. I had no idea that she had another life, a family,” Nameless shouted, not fazed by the fact that Zach was ready to shoot him.
“Zachary, calm down and put that gun down,” I requested calmly. Zach’s chest was rising and falling in rapid movement. His eyes moved over Zara’s blank expression. A moment later he lowered his gun. His pain and anger was too much for me too bear.
“What’s wrong with her?” Zach asked with softer tone of voice.
“The demonic doctor believed that she’s been paralysed by a very strong curse. Alexis had her under her control for so long that now Zara had stopped connecting with the real world,” Nameless explained.
I glanced at the poor girl, wondering how Alexis managed to summon this kind of power and disable Zach’s sister. Zara seemed completely zoned out, lost to this world. The dark twisted energy kept her alive, but barely. She was in the same situation as Ricky. I thought that if I could save one soul, then I could help Zara too.
The detective pressed his lips in a hard line. He was struggling to keep his emotions together. He approached the bed once again and knelt next to her.
“Hey, bumble bee, it’s me, your old annoying brother. Please talk to me,” he whispered, touching her hand.
I couldn’t physically look at them and pretend that somehow she would wake up. I still had to deal with Arthur, who had been stalking me probably from the moment I got into the train in Victoria station.
“I need to go outside for a moment. Try not to kill each other for at least a minute,” I said, knowing that it wasn’t a good idea to leave them alone, but right then I had no other choice. Besides, Zach’s emotions were affecting me even more than usual. I needed to take a break from his mind.
Outside on the corridor, I breathed in and out until my heartbeat was steady. Arthur was alone, without his entourage. He never left the palace without them, unless he wanted to be completely isolated. When I stood in his quarters, the lies came out easily, but now I realised that my own words were going to bite me back. Something was wrong. I didn’t like that cruel determination I sensed in him all of a sudden.
I stood on the corridor for a few moments gathering my energy and telling myself that I could deal with Arthur, the man that I still loved. Maybe my demonic magic wouldn’t affect him, but our emotional connection remained untouched. There was no point putting it off, so I headed over through the corridor and left the building a moment later. Arthur was standing by the street lamp staring down at his phone. He tried to conceal his true identity with an old baseball cap and some over-the-top clothes. To anyone on the street, he looked like a rapper, with oversized pants that hung low on his hips. Surprisingly no one was paying attention to him.
The stream of heat showered me instantly, but I kept my expression neutral. I needed to remind myself that I’d hurt him, and he hated me. This conversation was going to be difficult, and it pained me to see him suffering like that. He was confused and felt betrayed, but he had no idea what I had to go through just to keep that secret hidden, after abandoning Summer like that.
“Are you following me?” I asked, once I approached him. He looked at me startled, tensing his broad shoulders. The lust and love that I saw was long gone. Now he was staring at me with a startling envious look on his face.
“I want to find my daughter, Maxine,” he barked. I didn’t expect him to follow me all the way here.
“I don’t know where she is. I gave her up for adoption almost two years ago,” I lied once again, feeling like a complete piece of shit. We were going around in a circle, but I couldn’t let him believe that he had even a slight chance to get her back.
Before I knew it, he grabbed and shook me with uncontrollable rage. I noticed his bloodshot, tired eyes, and smelled alcohol on his breath. So far, I was the one with the problem. Arthur was always in control.
“Bullshit, do you think that I don’t know what you’re doing?” he snarled. “I’ll find her, Max, no matter what. That piece of shit of a detective might be on your side, but not for long.”
A few humans glanced in our direction. I needed to calm him down; otherwise he would get recognised.
“Arthur, think about—”
“I’ll go public with this, and I’ll expose you. Do you think I’m not capable of something like that?”
His words were hitting me like flying bullets. He was telling the truth, ready for anything. The love that was once there between us turned into hatred. He wanted to ruin me. The faction would never let him go public with something like that.
“Are you ready to destroy yourself and your family? This child was our curse, and she has a much better life now than she would have if I had kept her. Just accept it, please. I’m begging you, Arthur,” I said, reading that my skin was heating up, flaring up with electrifying energy.
Summer wasn’t a cursed child, but I had to make him believe that she was his downfall. A few weeks ago he was in my apartment, telling me how much he loved me. Now we were more apart that ever before. His emotions were shadowed by grief.
“All this time I thought that there was something between us, but you only used me. Do you think I’m stupid and didn’t see what you were doing? You became head of security because you knew you could get close to me. Your motives had always been clear, Max, I finally understand,” he said and his lips curled in a nasty smile. Arthur’s decent soul had shifted. He wasn’t the man I’d fallen for, but had become a stranger. He of all the people should have known that this was never about his position or wealth. The man that stood in front of me had just called me a gold digging whore. I couldn’t accept that.
It took me a moment to make a decision. A second later I slapped him hard. My palm left a red mark on his cheek. He was immune to my magic, but not to pain. The impact made him lose his balance slightly. Anger was boiling my blood, but I didn’t want to show it. The slap was enough, and I automatically felt guilty. I began walking away, knowing that I didn’t really defuse this situation. I probably made it worse.
“Watch out, Maxine. I’m not giving up. Never will,” he shouted, bringing more attention to himself. Some of the humans thought they recognised him from somewhere; others thought that he was crazy.
I ignored him and carried on walking. My hands were shaking when I entered the clinic again. Arthur’s determination was worrying, but I couldn’t keep running after him, trying to make him understand that I had no other choice. Summer was in danger and I had to stop Alexis before it was too late.
When I passed the corridor that led to Ricky’s room, Emma and Judith were still there. Sudden guilt stabbed me at the back again, so I headed to the second floor to see if Zachary had managed to restrain himself from killing Nameless. I spotted him outside on the bench, his face in his palms. My stomach made a funny jolt, reminding me about that day in the tunnels. Zach had easily fallen apart then, and now he was going through the same trauma.
I sat beside him, rubbing the nape of my neck. Small talk, I had never been good at it. Zachary had finally found his s
ister, but she was unrecognisable. I couldn’t bear to know what he was going through.
“How are you doing?” I asked softly.
“I have tried telling her about Cornelia, and Mum. She isn’t responding and I don’t know how to help her. What’s wrong with her?” he asked. I took his palm into mine, aware of the heat that licked my chest. The spark between us was still there, but in a situation like that I was barely able to acknowledge it.
“She has been spellbound by Alexis, and I don’t think anyone in the clinic can help her,” I said.
He lifted himself up and looked at me like he didn’t understand the words that came out of my mouth.
“So we need that witch in order to save my sister?”
“She is the answer to our problems,” I sighed, telling myself that I needed to forget about my deal. Summer, Ricky and now Zara were more important. My soul had been doomed from the moment I stepped into the palace. “We have to find her, before she kills again.”
“Then what are we waiting for? I’m willing to do anything for Zara.”
“I have a plan, but it’s complex and dangerous,” I said, aware that I had to do this on my own. Zach couldn’t get involved. The Forgotten Street, Warlock magic and demons were my problem, not his.
“Count me in, I want to help.”
“Me too, wherever you are going, you must take me with you,” Emma said, appearing in front of me all of a sudden. That look of determination on her face was concerning. Morpheus mentioned that I shouldn’t be afraid to ask for help, but my friends were only humans. I couldn’t put them in danger.
I smoothed my tangled hair and smiled at Emma.
“Don’t worry about it, Emma. I’m not going anywhere. How is Ricky?”
Emma placed her hands on her hips and gave me that look, which said she was done with my bullshit.
Doomed Cases Series (1-3) Demonic Triangle Diabolical Quest Infernal Initiation Page 50