Nephilim Rising: The Complete Series, page 91
part #0 of Nephilim Rising Series
"Do we even know what this drug is supposed to do to people?" Frank said as they neared the docks, the salty sea air penetrating into the car.
Leia shook her head. "No, but I'm sure it can't be good."
"You all right? You look troubled."
"It's hard not to be."
He nodded. "I know."
He kept driving until they got to the road that ran alongside the harbor. Then he stopped the car next to an empty warehouse building, a few hundred yards away from Carconi's drug factory. Which wasn't actually a drug factory, but an industrial launderette. The drugs were made in the basement. Everyone knew that; the cops included. But it was Freddy Carconi, so he got away with it. He had most of the city officials in his pocket anyway.
"Looks like everyone is here," Leia said.
A number of vehicles were parked around the converted warehouse, including a large black van that a few individuals were loading boxes into. Drugs most likely; Diablo. Frank also recognized Josh's red Evo. "Your brother too. I see his car over there."
"Guards around the building as well."
"I see them."
Men with automatic weapons were patrolling the perimeter. Frank counted four of them; probably Carconi's men. There was no sign of Josh or Deacon.
Probably inside.
"Those guys aren't just going to let us walk up to that factory," Frank said. "They'll shoot us on sight."
Leia took the Glock out of her leg holster and released the clip. Satisfied it was full, she slammed it back in again. "Then we'll just have to take them out first."
Frank shook his head. "Just like that? Four heavily armed guards?"
"When did you get so cautionary?"
"When did you get so gung-ho?"
"Since I went to Hell."
"Yeah well…you still can't stop a bullet from killing you."
Leia sighed. "All right," she said. "How do you want to do this, Frank?"
Her tone was a little sharper than he would’ve liked, but he let it slide. She was under a lot of stress, which was all the more reason to make sure she didn't do anything stupid. "I have a plan, but you may not like it."
"Why?"
"It involves you acting as bait."
"As bait? How?"
"I'll tell you. But first I have to do this."
Before Leia could say anything else, Frank punched her hard in the nose, wincing when he heard the crack of her cartilage. "What the fuck Frank?!" Leia exclaimed, clamping her hands over her broken nose to stop the blood pouring from her swelling nostrils.
Frank threw his hands up. "I had to do that. If you're going to be bait, we have to sell it."
"Shit...a little warning would have been nice."
"Would you have let me do it then?"
"No."
"Didn't think so."
Leia looked down helplessly, as blood continued to pour from her nose, dripping all over her top. "Now what?" she asked.
"Rub that blood over yourself. Rip your clothes a bit." Frank smiled. "I hope you're a good actor."
36
My nose was bloody killing me, no thanks to Frank, whose impromptu punch to the face was the cause of my pain in the first place. But, he was right. If I was to catch four armed soldiers off guard, then I had to sell my performance. Before I left the car, I took off my two leg holsters and kept one of the Glocks down the back of my black jeans. Then I ripped my top, so most of my breasts were showing, tousled up my hair a bit, and rubbed blood over my face and neck. "You look like a character from the Texas Chainsaw Massacre," Frank commented. "Good job."
Getting out of the car, I began to walk toward the factory a few hundred yards away, keeping my eye on the still patrolling guards, and also the men who were loading up the vans. Frank had also exited the car to make his way through the surrounding buildings, so he could circle to the other side of the factory without being seen.
About half away across the concrete expanse, I began to stagger my movements, walking along like someone who was injured and in desperate need of help, bending forward so that my breasts were almost spilling out of my top. Nothing like a set of tits, however bloodstained, to distract a man's attention. Even an armed man. Or four.
"…Oh God, oh God..." I started moaning as I drew closer to the factory, and the men standing around it. "Help me! Oh God help me!"
About a hundred yards away from the building now, and I see one of the men break away from the others to investigate the noise coming their way. A moment later, all four men rushed toward me at once, their automatic rifles raised and pointed at me. "Don't move!" one of them shouted.
"Help me!" I cried, forcing tears from my smudged eyes as I fell dramatically forward onto my knees.
I hope you're watching this, Frank.
"Stop! Stay where you are!"
All four men were upon me now. When I looked up at them, their faces dropped when they saw I was covered in blood. "Please, you have to help me," I said. "A man...raped me!" I fell forward, wailing like an injured dog in the night.
"Jesus," one of the men said. "Look at the state of her."
The men lowered their guns slightly when they decided I didn’t look like a threat.
Big mistake, boys.
Through blurry eyes, I could make out a shape rearing up behind the men.
It was Frank.
"I'm sorry…" I cried, still playing the damsel in distress, wiping the tears from my eyes so I could see, "…to have to do this…"
"Do what?" one of the men asked.
"This…" I said, closing my eyes as grace exploded out of me, beaming like a supernova for just a few short seconds, but long enough to temporarily blind the four men with guns standing in front of me, all of whom started screaming as they frantically groped at their eyes. As my grace faded, I shot to my feet and punched the man nearest to me, my fist connecting with his jaw, knocking him out cold. As I turned to the next guard, Frank used the butt of his gun to knock another of the gunmen unconscious, while I thrust forward and kneed one of the other guards in the head. Frank then kicked the last guard on the leg, bringing the guy down to his knees before going around behind him and choking him out. After just seconds of furious action, all four guards lay on the ground unconscious.
"Like fish in a barrel," Frank said.
"They won't be down for long," I said, taking out my Glock as I looked over to the factory, the other men there still loading the vans with boxes.
"Let's go then."
Frank and I moved quickly toward the factory, Frank taking the lead with his MP5. As we moved into the light surrounding the edge of the building, the three men loading the vans saw us and froze for a second. Frank rushed forward and shouted for them to get down on the ground. One of them went to reach inside his jacket. Frank shot him in the leg, screaming once more for them all to get down on the ground. The wounded guy was already down. The other two followed suit straight after.
While Frank kept his gun trained on the men by the vans, I turned the corner into the factory, which was full of laundry machines, the whole place smelling of stringent chemicals. At the front loading bay, there was a pile of boxes, probably full of drugs, next to which was Josh and Deacon. Josh, dressed in dark jeans and T-shirt, did a double take when he saw me, his face hardening in anger. "What the hell are you doing here?" he asked.
"I could ask you the same thing, Josh," I said. "What's in the boxes? Your new drug, Diablo?"
"You're interrupting our business," Deacon said, stepping forward, his eyes flashing a deep purple. He shot his hand out and flicked it to the side, a movement which coincided with the Glock flying out of my hand and skidding along the concrete floor away from me.
"Leia!" It was Frank coming up behind me, his MP5 aimed at Deacon. When Deacon shot his hand toward Frank, attempting to disarm Frank of the gun, he double tapped Deacon in the chest, sending the demon staggering back a few steps as a red stain spread across his white T-shirt.
No one moved for a few tense seconds as Deacon examined the holes in his chest. Then he looked up at Frank. "I can't believe you fucking did that," he said in his English accent.
"Move again and the next two are going in your head!" Frank said.
"You think you can kill me, Watcher?" Deacon spat.
"No," Frank said. "But I can make a mess of that pretty meat suit you have on. I don't think your boyfriend there would want to kiss you after that."
Even I felt the sting of that last comment. Josh's face twisted up in rage as a sphere of reddish light formed in his hand, which he then blasted at Frank. The ball of dark red energy hit Frank in the chest, taking him of his feet as surely as if he had been blasted by a shotgun at close range, propelling him back through the air, after which he slammed against a brick wall, before pitching forward to the floor in an unconscious heap.
"Frank!" I shouted, running over to him. "Frank!"
He was out cold, and the back of his head was bleeding from where he hit the wall.
I shot Josh a look, hating what he had become. Our stares locked for long seconds, and in that time, I hardly recognized the old Josh at all. The person staring back at me had nothing but dark intent in his eyes, and seemingly nothing but contempt for the members of his family, especially for me. It was like I offended him on every level just by being who I was. I realized at that moment that there would be no getting through to Josh, and that there would be no mercy on his part just because I was his sister. The very fact that I was his sister only seemed to fuel his contempt even more.
"What the hell is wrong with you?" I shouted at him. "You could have killed him!"
Josh laughed. "You’re the one here with guns, Leia, not me."
I glared at him. "What is this drug going to do to people? Is it going to kill them?"
"Nothing so unimaginative," Josh said as he walked toward me. "Although death will play a role in the city tonight, but only after people get in touch with their dark sides first. It's going to make people turn on each other in ways you couldn't imagine. It's going to bring this city to its fucking knees."
"Why?" I asked shaking my head.
Josh stopped a few feet from me, seeming bigger somehow, almost monstrous in his demeanor. "I wouldn't expect you to understand my reasons."
"Because they're bullshit, that's why."
"Bullshit?" Josh said through gritted teeth. "You have no fucking idea what you're talking about. None!"
"Josh wait—"
That's as far as I got before I felt a terrific pressure on my neck. I started choking, no longer able to breathe. My eyes fell frantically on Josh, his hand outstretched as he used his power to force me to my feet, coming to a halt with his face just inches from mine. I didn't know how he was doing what he was doing. Deacon had taught him some new tricks obviously.
"I don't think I want you in my life anymore, sister," he said in the measured tones of a sociopath. But my brother wasn't a sociopath. Or was he? "Our paths no longer align, if they ever did in the first place."
His hand squeezed tighter, and I felt the pressure around my throat. My lungs burned as they screamed for air that didn't come.
"Sadly, sister, you've become a thorn in my side."
Josh's hand squeezed tighter, and Deacon came up behind him with a broad grin on his face. My vision was darkening, but I could still see the pleasure in Deacon’s eyes as he watched me being choked.
"Goodbye, Leia," Josh said, nothing in his eyes; no emotion; certainly no love for me, his twin sister. Inside me, Demon Leia screamed to be let out, but I held her back.
It's not your fight…Sister...
Blackness took me a second later.
37
"I thought you were going to kill her."
Deacon was sitting with Josh in the VIP area of a nightclub called Technoir, located not far from their new penthouse apartment. Deacon had a beer in his hand, while Josh was downing shots of whiskey like it was going out of style. There was half a dozen other people in the lounge, most of them young women who were currently gyrating to the dark techno music blaring through the PA system. Deacon had already given them free samples of Diablo, including the two men in suits who sat with the girls. The drug was kicking in by the looks of things. Everyone who ingested it had wide smiles on their faces, as the initial rush kicked in. It wasn't unlike Ecstasy in that way, except the feelgood vibes wouldn't last long before the other feelings came rushing in. Deacon had already tested the drug on human guinea pigs during development. In the tests, the drug took about an hour before taking full effect. It was just a matter of sitting back and waiting, although Deacon would have preferred if Josh had been in a better mood. The encounter with his sister and uncle had gotten to him, though Deacon didn't know why. It was clear that Josh didn't want to know his sister anymore, so why was he so damn mournful? Human emotions were irritating to Deacon; they were pointless things that made them weak.
"I said I thought you were going to kill your sister back at the factory," Deacon said again as he watched two of the girls, a blond, and a brunette, dance against each other with sloppy grins on their faces.
Yes, enjoy it while you still can, my darlings.
"I heard what you said," Josh snapped back.
"So why didn't you?"
Josh downed another whiskey and slammed the glass on the table. "Because she's my sister."
"And?"
"Leave it."
Deacon stared at him a moment. "Fine. You want to be miserable about things on this momentous night, go ahead. Me, I'm settling in to watch the chaos ensue." As if to prove it, Deacon crossed his legs and swigged from his bottle of beer.
Beside him, Josh continued to pour himself shots of whiskey, as he too stared at the two girls dancing, their hands all over each other; kissing now, beckoning for the two guys in suits to get up and join them. The two suits smiled at each other and bounced up, separating the girls, taking one each to dance with. "Fuck it," Josh said eventually, turning to Deacon. "You're right. This is a momentous night. I should be enjoying it."
Deacon stared at him a moment, unsure if Josh meant what he said, or if he was just saying it to please him. Either way, it didn't matter. When it came right down to it, Deacon didn't give a fuck about Josh's feelings toward his sister. She would be dead soon enough anyway if Deacon had his way.
Josh poured another two shots and handed one to Deacon, which they slammed back. A carnal smile appeared on Deacon's face, and the demon leaned in to kiss Josh. Josh responded with increasing lust before Deacon broke it off. "Let's enjoy the show," Deacon said. "Which should be happening right about...now."
As Deacon and Josh sat with triumphant looks on their faces, the blond girl seemed to be having a moment, as she stepped back from the suit she was dancing with. An increasingly dark look came over her pretty face, as though her mind was being flooded with darkness, and with it, a torrent of dark thoughts. The young suit frowned at the blond girl, but still with a smile on his face, because he was now feeling the initial rush of the drug himself. Diablo had kicked in proper for the blond girl, though. Deacon could almost see the darkness forming in her mind, blackening her soul in the process.
Then, without warning, the blond girl shoved her glass into the young suit's throat. She did so with so much force that the glass broke on impact, long shards penetrating the suit's neck, puncturing the major veins. When the blond girl retracted her arm, she tore most of the glass out of the guy's neck, shredding the soft flesh in the process. Blood gushed from the ragged holes in his neck. The blond girl stood watching with an almost fascinated look on her face, tilting her head to the side as she watched with interest the blood as it jetted from the guy's neck.
Deacon smiled.
And so it begins…
The brunette girl screamed at first when she saw what the blond girl had done. The other suit was aghast as well. They both looked like they were about to run out of the place, until just like the blond girl, their faces started to change as the darkness unveiled to them by Diablo sprang forth like a sleeping tiger into their minds. Their eyes deadened; glassed over. Their faces were impassive as they looked at each other. For the fun of it, Deacon reached inside the brunette girl's mind and read her thoughts. She was deciding what to do to the suit standing beside her, running through her options. Does she glass him the way the other one was glassed? Does she gouge out his eyes with her sharp fingernails? Does she bang his head on the table until it cracks open like an egg? Or does she bite his face off?
The suit was cycling through similar options in his mind. But by the time he decided he wanted to rip the girl's intestines out with his bare hands, the brunette had already decided to bite the guy's face off. She launched herself violently at him before he could react, and savagely sank her teeth into his nose, clamping down and viciously shaking her head like a terrier on a rat, until she had bitten his nose clean off. The guy didn't even scream. As the brunette went to work again with her teeth, the suit got to work clawing at the girl’s exposed abdomen, somehow finding the strength to tear into the flesh so that he could begin to rip it open, spilling the girl's intestines out onto the floor, just as she bit another chunk off of the guy's face.
"They can't feel any pain?" Josh asked.
"They can," Deacon replied. "They just ignore it, though."
Despite having lost half his blood through the wounds in his neck, the suit that was glassed was attacking the blond girl with a metal chair. His expression, far from seeming aggressive or violent, was serene as he systematically battered the blond girl with the metal chair, over and over again as she lay on the floor, her face barely reacting to the pain, as her bones broke and her flesh got pulverized. When Deacon jumped into her mind, he saw she was only thinking about one thing: going home and killing her five-year-old daughter; that's if she survived getting beaten with the chair.
