Nephilim Rising: The Complete Series, page 71
part #0 of Nephilim Rising Series
“Enough!” Seraphim commanded.
I stopped and took a few deep breaths to get a grip of myself again. Alice lay on the floor, the body of the snake demon still wrapped around her. "Alice!" I said and rushed forward to free her from her scaly bondage. Despite the snake body not being attached to a head anymore, its grip on Alice's body was still strong, and it took Seraphim's help to pull the snake body loose enough so I could slide Alice out of its grip. When I got her loose, I lay her gently on the floor and brushed her wild mane of hair away from her face. "Alice, can you hear me?" I asked her. "Alice?"
Alice’s eyes opened half way, the same deadness that I remembered still present in them, but different, like she had been drugged, which she could have been for all I knew. Incredibly, a slight smile appeared on her face. “I knew...you come,” she said.
I tried to return her smile, which was difficult, given how bad I felt for her; how bad I felt for leaving her in the first place. “I’m sorry, Alice,” I said as tears ran down my face. “I’m sorry for leaving you.”
Her eyes lit over my shoulder, and I looked around to see Seraphim standing beside me, looking as disturbed as I'd ever seen her. "Is that mother?" Alice asked, her voice croaky, was though she hadn't drank anything in days, which again, she probably hadn't.
“Yes,” I nodded. “This is—” I stopped when I was about to call her Seraphim. “My mother.”
Alice smiled again. “You...found her.”
“Yes,” I said, tears still dripping from my eyes. “I did, Alice. Thanks to you.”
“Come on,” Seraphim said. “We should leave this place.”
I nodded. “Let’s go, Alice,” I said, picking the girl up. “You’re safe now.”
At least I hoped she was.
25
We garnered a lot of fierce looks and angry stares as we left the House of the Flesh. Quite a few of the punters were clearly not happy about us taking Alice away, depriving them of their depraved pleasure, as they saw it. No one approached us, however. Arackna had obviously spread the word that we were to be left alone. "Are you really going to make that spider-bitch a President?" I asked Seraphim after we had squeezed back through the giant vagina.
It was a double-edged question. What I really wanted to know, was if she was going to back my escape plan. She didn't answer at first, but stared down at Alice, who was standing like someone in shellshock, blinking wide-eyed at her surroundings. Nearly all sense of time had left me, so I wasn't at all sure how long Alice had spent in that den of depravity. It could have been years. That wouldn't have surprised me much at all.
Seraphim finally took her eyes of Alice and looked at me. “I would,” she said. “If I were around for the next elections, which it is looking very likely that I might not be.”
I couldn’t help but smile. “Does that mean you’re with me on the plan?”
She nodded. “What do I have to lose?”
“A lot if it goes wrong.” I had to say it, had to be sure she was with me completely. “We’ll both suffer down here for eternity.”
“And that was not the case before?”
“You know what I mean.”
“You know what I mean.”
I nodded. “In the meantime, what about Alice here? My plan to rescue her didn’t get as far as what to do after I did.”
“You care so much for the girl,” she said, seeming almost confused.
“Yes.”
She shook her head. “I have forgotten what that feels like, to care for someone.”
“You don’t care for me?”
She gave me a weak smile. “Hell has stolen that part of my humanity, leaving only the worst aspects.”
I picked Alice up and walked up to Seraphim. “Look at us,” I told her. “Neither of us would be standing here if you hadn’t cared. I would be in the Depths, and Alice would still be in that place we just came out off. You never lost your humanity, Mom, it just got beaten down and buried.”
“You not devil,” Alice said. “You angel like Leia.”
“An angel?” Seraphim said, taken aback. “I think not, Dear. But my daughter...quite possibly.”
I shook my head. “Let me just echo what you said there...I think not.”
Not with me inside you anyway, Demon Leia said.
“We should go,” Seraphim said after a group of demons gathered around the entrance to the House of the Flesh. “The girl attracts too much attention.”
As we started walking up the street, I asked Seraphim what we should do with Alice. It wasn’t like Eblis would allow the girl to stay at the palace. Not that I would expose Alice to more potential danger anyway. “We will have to hide her,” Seraphim said.
“Where?” I asked.
“The palace.”
Not the answer I was expecting. "Won't Eblis find out about her?"
“You mean if he already doesn’t know?” It was something I hadn’t considered. Eblis was all powerful in this place after all. “We took a chance in even grabbing the girl in the first place.”
“So why take her to the palace?”
“It’s still the safest place. There are places there even Eblis can’t see into.”
As ominous as that sounded, I nodded anyway. “All right. How are we getting back there?”
“By Blood Coach.”
“Blood Coach? What the hell is that?”
“Pandemonium’s taxi service.”
Of course, the city would have a taxi service, given that it was trying its best to emulate some metropolis on Earth. I continued to carry Alice in my arms as we walked down a few more streets, ignoring the looks I was getting from passersby, most of which were focused on Alice. Her body felt too light. She had obviously been greatly weakened by her forced stay in the House of the Flesh. "We're going to get you somewhere safe, Alice," I told her, as we pushed through the crowd to get to one of the main streets.
“Okay,” Alice said, resting her head against my chest.
On the main street, there was a line of black carriages, each carriage having a massive black steed in front. The carriages were like something from Victorian London; something Jack the Ripper would have ridden around in as he looked for victims. Demons in black uniforms sat atop the carriages. Seraphim walked to the carriage at the front of the line, and the driver jumped down from his position. "Where to?" he asked. He was a small, green-skinned demon whose bone spurs pierced his black suit at the elbows and shoulders.
“The King’s palace,” Seraphim said to the driver.
“That’ll be half a pint.”
"She’s paying." Seraphim took Alice from me and climbed into the coach with her, leaving me to stand looking at the driver, as he produced a nasty looking syringe from his jacket. The long needle looked much thicker than it needed to be.
"Arm," the driver said to me, and I held my left arm out, at which point the driver jammed the needle in, piercing the skin at the elbow joint.
“Ow!” I said, giving the driver a stern look as he proceeded to fill the syringe with my blood.
“All done,” he said after he took the needle out again, drops of blood spilling onto the cobbled street. “You can climb aboard now.”
“What, no lollypop?” I said.
The driver frowned at me, confused. Tittering to myself, I climbed into the coach and sat next to Alice on the black leather seats. “You’re paying next time,” I said to Seraphim, who merely smiled and looked out the window.
Pretty soon, the Blood Coach was on the move, and we were heading through the city streets on our way to the palace. The ride, although bumpy at times, was more comfortable than the car ride we took coming into the city. Sitting on the back of an agitated rhinoceros would have been more comfortable than sitting in the back of that car.
Seraphim stared silently out the window, no doubt trying to come to terms with everything I had told her. I knew it must have been hard for her. She had been in Hell for so long, the thought of actually leaving the place probably scared her more than excited her. She would come around, though. She had to.
Alice nestled her head into my side and proceeded to go to sleep. I was sure sleep was something she didn't get much of in the House of the Flesh. Putting my head back against the firm leather interior, I relaxed a little as the coach left the city and sped across the wasteland toward the palace. Once I had made sure Alice was in a safe place, I resolved not to waste any time in my hunt for the portal. To do that, Seraphim would have to take me to wherever Mordred was imprisoned. Then we would have to release the former King, something I knew Seraphim did not want to do. It was necessary, though. Mordred was the only one who could open the portal. And at that point, I just wanted home, especially now that I knew Josh was in danger again. Nothing was going to stop me from going through that portal; even if it meant dragging Seraphim through kicking and screaming, I would do that.
As the coach neared the moat of fire that surrounded the palace, Seraphim put her head out the window and yelled for the driver to stop. “We get out here,” she said.
I gently shook Alice to wake her up. “We have to go now,” I told her.
She merely nodded, her eyes still half closed.
When the three of us were out of the Blood Coach, the driver turned the coach around, and the black steed sped off back toward the city again, leaving a cloud of red dust in its wake. We were about one hundred yards away from the moat, the massive wall of fire reaching high up into the red sky, the heat from the flames searing, even from this distance away. "We need to hurry," Seraphim said, as she started walking to the right of the firewall. "Before we are spotted."
I picked up Alice and carried her, as I followed Seraphim across the wasteland, and around the perimeter of the moat. The flames were so high, the sky so smoky, I couldn't even make out the palace beyond. Seraphim, however, seemed to know where she was going. She eventually stopped by a single dead tree, the trunk, and branches blackened by the fire nearby. I watched as she uttered a few words in a language I didn't understand, and then amazingly, the cracked earth around the tree caved in to reveal a set of steps leading underground. "A secret entrance," I said. "Nice."
“One of many made by Mordred.”
“At least he was good for something, eh?”
I was joking, but Seraphim didn’t seem amused. “Let’s go,” she said.
We followed her down the steps into a tunnel that presumably led into the palace. When we were all down, Seraphim turned and uttered another few words, after which the cracked earth magically knitted itself back together again, leaving us standing in total darkness, until Seraphim produced a ball of grace in her hand. "Grace," I said. "It's the first time I've seen you use it. Bad grace, as Frank calls it.”
Seraphim couldn’t help but smile. “Yes, Frank has a way with words, doesn’t he?”
“He does.” I suddenly missed Frank badly; missed the security I felt when I was with him, even though I felt the same security with Seraphim. Still, I missed him, and I missed Eva as well. I couldn’t wait to see the two of them again.
Seraphim took the lead through the narrow tunnel, her grace lighting the way. It was hot inside, especially with the moat of fire raging above us. I was glad when we eventually came to another set of steps, as the heat in the tunnel was getting unbearable. Seraphim said a few more words, and an opening appeared above the steps, that seemed to reveal a room of some kind. She went up the steps first, and Alice and I followed.
The room was small but warm. There didn't appear to be any door, just rough stone walls. "Where's the door?" I asked Seraphim when she had magically sealed up the hole in the floor. "Another magic entrance, is it?"
“Yes,” she said. “The girl should be safe here. The part of the palace we are in is barely used, except for storage. I’ll arrange bedding, and food and drink for her.”
“Thank you,” I said, hugging her. “For everything.”
“It is the least I can do,” she said, still seeming uncomfortable with any kind of affection. She was first to pull away, which I didn’t mind.
“I stay here?” Alice asked as she looked around the room.
I knelt down in front of her, putting my hands on her slight shoulders. "For now, yes. Hopefully, it won't be for long."
“Then where we go?”
“You remember I told you about my home?”
She nodded. “Safe place.”
“Yes. We’re going there. Soon, I hope.”
“Okay,” she said. “I wait here then.”
Her acceptance of everything still amazed me. “I’ll come back and see you as soon as I can.”
“I tired now.” She went to a corner and sat on the stone floor, drawing her legs up to her chest and bowing her head, her mass of tangled hair falling over face. I stood looking at her a moment, glad to have her back, but at the same time, aware of the responsibility I now had to keep her safe. I couldn’t let her down again.
"Come," Seraphim said, after taking off her cloak and placing it over the still naked Alice "I'll make her comfortable later." She waved a hand over one of the walls, and a door appeared. I didn't want to leave Alice, but I had to. Plans now had to be made.
When we went through the door to the hallway outside, Seraphim made it disappear again. A sense of urgency building in me now, I said, “We have to free Mordred as soon as possible, to get him to open the portal.”
“Not here!” Seraphim hissed.
“Okay, fine. But we need to make arrangements. I can’t wait any longer.”
“You ask a lot of me. I need some time.”
I managed to hold down my frustration. Arguing with her wouldn’t help matters. “All right.”
We started walking up the hallway. Just as we did, a voice arose in me, one that didn’t belong to me or Demon Leia. “I grow impatient, Nephilim girl,” the voice said in a hoarse whisper that chilled my blood. “It is time to act.”
Leonard.
26
As if one voice speaking inside of me wasn't enough, I now had two. As I walked with Seraphim in mostly silence through the palace on our way back to our quarters, Leonard didn't speak to me after he said those first words about taking action, almost like he knew I wasn't alone, and so would wait until I was.
In the meantime, Demon Leia decided to engage Leonard in conversation, for which I silently cursed her. It was very damn distracting to have two people talking inside of you, especially when the conversation wasn’t directed at you. I was glad Seraphim was choosing to walk in silence, for I doubted I could have paid attention to her with the back and forth happening between Demon Leia and Grand Duke Leonard.
“So,” Demon Leia said, like some teenage girl with a crush. “We need to talk about that biting business back at the Keep. How did you illicit such...ecstasy?”
Jesus Christ. She still had not gotten over her first taste of pleasure. It was like she was an addict already.
“My particular brand of death,” Leonard said back. “The twin fangs of pain and pleasure. When mixed right, they are an intoxicating combination. A creature can actually enjoy their own death as I drain the life from them.”
“I almost want to die, just to experience that feeling again.”
Dear Lord. What happened to the fierce demon bitch who killed Abigor and slaughtered scores of demon soldiers? Not gone, I hoped. Just sidetracked with life, perhaps. I hoped anyway.
When we reached the front foyer, Seraphim and I said our brief goodbyes, though I included an almost silent thank you with mine, not just for her help with Alice, but also for being my mother again; to some extent anyway. She walked off, and I went up the staircase and down the hall to my quarters, where I quickly shut the door. "All right," I said to Leonard, but silently, not out loud. "What do you need me to do?"
Leonard stopped talking to Demon Leia about some of the finer points of pain and pleasure, of which there many apparently, much to the delight of Demon Leia, who by now, couldn’t wait to begin exploring her more sensuous side. “I trust Eblis believed your story about Belfrost?”
"He did," I said, pacing around the room, my mind spinning with so many voices and thoughts whirling around inside me.
“Good. Now I need you to release Belfrost from whatever prison Eblis has him locked in.”
“Release him? Right now?”
“Soon. My forces are gathering again. I will let you know when things are ready. I will also need a way into the palace that does not include walking through the front door.”
“I might know a way in for you,” I said, thinking of the secret tunnel I hadn’t long emerged from.
“Good,” Leonard said. “How goes your search for the portal? I trust you verified the information I gave you.”
“I did. Mordred is imprisoned in here somewhere. I intend to free him soon.”
"And soon it must be if you do not want to be around for what is coming, although I do think you may find it all very interesting. Your demon twin certainly will."
Demon Leia remained silent, though I knew she was just grinning like a giddy school girl, for some reason under Leonard’s spell it seemed.
“No thanks,” I said. “There’s other places I would rather be. Anywhere in fact.”
“Suit yourself. Just be ready when I next call upon you.”
I felt his presence in me disappear, leaving only Demon Leia. “What was that all about?” I asked her.
“What?” she asked innocently.
“Have you got some sort of crush on the Grand Duke?”
“A crush?”
“Do you want to fuck him, in other words?”
“I see. The feelings he elicits are...strangely addictive.”
I shook my head. “Well, don’t get used to them. I plan to get out of Hell for good. And soon.”
Determined not to waste any more time, especially now that I had Alice back, I left my quarters to seek Seraphim again, intending to ask her to take me to where Mordred was imprisoned. As Leonard was also pushing forward with his plans to dethrone Eblis, there was little time left to execute my escape plan. It needed to be now or never.
