Balance (The Divine, Book One) (16 page)

My
grip was iron as we started descending, the demons quickly gaining ground. It
was my fault he had come here, so I was responsible for him. I wasn’t about to
let him die without a fight.

“Trust
me,” I said. “You don’t want me to let go.”

He
trusted me when they burst onto the stairs. They had shed their human skins for
their natural forms. At least seven feet tall, with furry humanoid bodies and
long, powerful limbs that ended in sharp claws. They reminded me of werewolves,
but their heads didn’t look canine at all. I could hear them growling and
shrieking. I could hear their claws scraping along the cement. We needed to
move faster, or they needed to move slower.

I
focused my will on a couple of nearby garbage cans, sending them flying towards
the monsters. They danced aside without slowing, the effort not preventing them
from gaining ground.

“Down
the tunnel,” I told Oblitrix, letting go of his arm. “Keep running, don’t look
back. If a train comes, get out of the way.”

He
was too scared to argue. I let him go and turned to face the oncoming demons.
There was no way I could take on all of them at once. I wasn’t even sure if I
could survive against just one. There was no time left to think, just react.

I
held the blessed sword in front of me the way I had seen in the videos, trying
to focus myself on the task at hand. I painted a picture of calm control as I
watched the demons approach unabated, eight pairs of claws ready to rip me
apart. I could hear Oblitrix hop down onto the sunken tracks behind me. I could
hear his messenger bag slapping against his body while he ran.

The
lead demon lunged forward, its body propelled toward me like an ugly rocket. I
fought my flight reflex and held my ground, trying to keep my mind relaxed so
that my subconscious sense of self-preservation could guide me. Time slowed
down for me then, and I had a clear view of the oncoming demon. I could see the
vector of its body towards mine, the angle of its limbs as it brought its claws
to bear. I could smell the pheromones it was pushing off to enhance my sense of
fear. I could taste the sickly sulfurous air that surrounded it, leaving a
burnt iron residue on my tongue.

I saw
its left arm flex and begin a movement intended to sever my head from my torso.
I stood firm and stabbed forward with the sword, catching the demon under its
collarbone. I combined its momentum with my own to deflect it away from me,
sending it tumbling off the platform and onto the tracks. I could only hope
that the wound was enough to be fatal.

The
other three demons came in together, only a fraction of a second behind the
first. Their howls were deafening as they sensed the kill. I put up the sword
again, but I may as well have been holding a toothpick. I managed to block the
first two attacks through either fast reflexes or dumb luck, but first one
strike slipped through my defenses, and then another. Pain blossomed throughout
my abdomen as their claws ripped flesh from bone and tore into my innards. I
didn’t know how much damage I could take, but with no way to stop the assault I
had to assume they would just keep clawing until I stopped moving.

I
dropped to the ground, my eyes losing focus as I struggled to put up some kind
of a fight. In desperation I tried reaching out for the power of the Great
Were, but even it had deserted me. For all my desire to fight for mankind, I
was the guy throwing rocks at tanks.

I
knew the demons were mangling my body. I could feel their claws digging into my
flesh like it was just another piece of meat. I could hear their satisfied
growls while they tore me apart, their bloodlust in full control. My vision was
blurring, and I was starting to feel really warm. I didn’t know what would
happen to me or where I was going, but at least I knew I wouldn’t be in any
more pain. I welcomed the warmth with open arms, beckoning the end.

I was
vaguely aware of the deafening pops that followed. I wouldn’t have known
anything had happened at all if the rending pain hadn’t ceased, replaced with
the warm, wet, stinky feeling of thick demon blood splattering down onto me and
mixing with my own. My vision had fled, but I could hear the shrieks of pain as
more pops followed. I tried to move, to get to my feet, but I had no feeling in
my legs. I didn’t even know if I still had legs. I could hear someone running
up towards me,
their
breathing heavy.

“I
don’t know what’s going on here, man,” Oblitrix said between breaths. “But this
is seriously crazy.”

“You
don’t even know the half of it,” I tried to say.

My
mouth must have been in rough shape, because it came out as little more than a
mumbled gurgle. Bullets, I realized. He had shot them. I needed to heal fast,
or we were both screwed. I focused my will inward, forcing the impossible to
happen even faster. My vision returned in a blink, and I could see Oblitrix
leaning over me,
a sheen
of sweat on his forehead, a
Desert Eagle in his hand, aimed in the direction of the demons.

I
opened and closed my mouth to see that it was working, clenched and unclenched
my fists and toes. He watched me with disgusted, frightened fascination.

“Those
bullets aren’t going to keep them down long,” I said, jumping to my feet. I was
surprised to see the demons still on the ground, hunched over on hands and
knees.

“Silver,”
Oblitrix said. “I’ve been doing some digging since I made that video, figured I
ought to come prepared. I wasn’t expecting
this
. You looked like a
mincemeat pie thirty seconds ago.”

“I have
a good health plan,” I replied, bending down and picking up my sword.

I
could see the silver had slowed them, but it wasn’t going to stop them. I
didn’t waste any time, walking over to the first and bringing my blade down on
its neck.

Sensing
their fate, the remaining two demons reared up. I took a step back to defend
myself, but needn’t have bothered. Two more loud pops, two more silver bullet
holes, and they were back on the ground. I stabbed both of them through the
back, this time taking pleasure in the killing strokes. I began to turn to face
Oblitrix when I noticed the black cloud forming around them.

“What
the hell is that?” Oblitrix asked.

Their
souls, I knew, but I didn’t tell him. Josette had never told me how to keep
them away, and now I could feel the darkness trying to find its way into my
body. The cloud began swirling around me, rising up towards my face as its
vortex increased velocity. I tried to close my mouth to it, but the black cloud
began slipping into my nose and sliding down into me. I dropped to my knees and
closed my eyes, focusing inward again to find the encroaching mass of demonic
energy. It was going to overtake me, and there was nothing I could do to stop
it.

“No,”
I said.

I was
quiet and calm while I focused my will against the cloud as I hard as I knew
how. I felt the tug and the feedback of the command blasting against my mind,
imploding at the same time it exploded. The black cloud vaporized instantly,
leaving me standing
there
shaking from the pushback.
The pressure was so tight around my head that I thought it would burst, my
vision went dark again, and I passed out.

In
the dream, I was back at the Statue of Liberty, standing on the small walkway
that encircled the torch. I wasn’t alone. His long black hair was tied back in
a ponytail, his eyes covered by a pair of aviator shades. His expression was
smug.

“Where
were you two minutes ago?” I asked him. “I could have used you.”

“You
mean I could have used you,” he replied. He smiled, revealing a mouth full of
razor pointed teeth. “Sorry man, but I won’t kill my own kind.”

The
whole thing was weird. I knew I was dreaming, or hallucinating, or something.
It felt real enough. The air was cold and crisp, the wind whistling through the
metal structure of the Statue. I could even hear tourists clanging up and down
the steps nearby. At the same time, there was this otherness to it. Something
was just off. I couldn’t place it, but I could feel it. That, and the fact that
the Great Were I had killed was here, laughing at me.

“I
don’t suppose you know what this is?” I asked him.

He
seemed pretty comfortable with the situation. I felt surprisingly comfortable
with him. I knew he couldn’t harm me here.

“I
can’t believe you killed me and captured my soul,” he said with a sigh. “This
is you. Your subconscious, your REM state, whatever the hell you want to call
it. Divine spend hundreds of years trying to get to this place. You don’t even
know what it is.”

He
started laughing again, louder and stronger.

“Why?”
I asked.

He
stopped laughing and looked at me. “What do you mean why?”

“Why
do Divine spend years trying to get into their subconscious?” I repeated. It
doesn’t seem that great in here, present company included.”

“Man,
you don’t know anything. This is the source of all of your power.” He waved his
hand around at the world. “You trapped me here with it, even though you had no
idea what you were doing. I was trying to take your body for my own. You fought
like crap, got me because I was too busy ogling that little white honey. I
thought it would be easy. Let me just say, you’re a blast to hang out with
though. Those two girls were smokin’. And that angel... A little young for me,
and her face is nothing to write home about, but damn she knew what to do with
that sword of hers.”

He
was baiting me, and I knew it. With a thought, I pushed him back against the
railing, shoving him back until he was teetering over it.

“I
know what you’re doing,” I said.

He
laughed again. “Do you? Look around, Landon. Look at the scope of your power.
You have the whole world at your disposal. I’m trying to help you realize your
true potential. We could have Reyzl licking your feet within an hour.”

I
hesitated. Just long enough for him to catch my weakness and seize on it.

“How
many times have you been beaten up already?” he asked. “Aren’t you getting sick
of it? You have the power, and I know how to use it. We can co-exist, and you
can have anything you desire.” His face turned to a perverted sneer. “Like that
angel of yours. Sexy little thing like that, I bet she knows quite a few tricks
after seven hundred years.”

I’d
had enough. My moment of weakness was replaced with pure anger. I gave the
equivalent of a flick with my mind, and the Great Were went flying off the
torch. I watched him fall, getting no satisfaction when his body slammed into
the ground below and dissolved.

His
words reverberated through me.
The whole world at my
disposal.
There was
a seductiveness
to the
thought. Wasn’t that the idea? If the demon couldn’t overpower me physically,
he was going to try to do it mentally. The fact that I was affected by his
words at all was proof that no matter the scope of my power, I was only as
strong as my will. I remembered Dante’s last words to me. ‘Survive and fight’.
It was simple, straightforward, and easy to remember. Somehow I had been
surviving. It was time to start fighting. I turned towards the torch, where the
Great Were was perched once more.

“Ulnyx,”
I called. He raised his eyebrows in surprise at hearing his name. “I’ll see you
around.”

I
flipped him the bird, and woke myself up.

I
hadn’t expected to find myself lying in a hospital bed. I wasn’t even really
human! There was nothing any doctor could do to help me. There was no one to
help me except myself.

Oblitrix
was sitting in a chair next to me, his feet up on the bed I was lying in, an
iPad resting on his thighs. He didn’t even notice that I was awake. I felt a
draft, and grimaced. They had changed me into one of those lousy robes, and
stuck an IV into my arm. I grabbed it and pulled it out, then morphed the robe
into something more suitable. That got his attention.

“Hey
man, you’re awake,” he said, dropping his feet and standing up.

“I’ve
got to get out of here,” I told him, tossing aside the blankets and sliding out
of the bed.

He
put his arms up to block me. “Hold on man, you can’t just waltz out of here
like that.”

“Why
not?” I asked.

He
pointed at the window. “For one, NYPD is out there. They want to talk to you
real bad.”

I
followed his finger. There was a pair of detectives hanging outside the room.
They hadn’t noticed me yet, and they wouldn’t. I focused my will, altering the
room to look undisturbed to anyone outside of it. I couldn’t see the illusion,
but the tug in my mind told me it had taken.

“What
do they want to talk to me about?” I asked.

He
looked at me like I was crazy. “You don’t know?”

“Would
I have asked if I did?” I replied. “I’ve been a little indisposed to keep up
with current events.”

He
laughed. “True enough. I don’t know what was happening to you man, but you
caused an earthquake when you dropped. Took out two of the tunnels.”