Echoes of the Past (Demon Squad) (16 page)

Inside was Henry McConnell: The Gray.

I grabbed the edge of the box to stop from falling over.
McConnell was dead
. He’d been killed buying us time against the
Nephilim
and vampires that tried to invade Heaven. I’d seen his corpse carried down from on high by angels, but here he was.

Just like all the other people in the room, McConnell looked like a ragged zombie, but there was no loss of meat on him. His skin was a pale gray, matching his namesake. The flesh of his substantial frame split and peeled from the bone. Unlike the rest, The Gray was submerged inside the runoff of the greenish-yellow liquid, which ran from their bodies. His massive chest sat still. No motion disturbed the translucent fluid. His eyes were closed, but steady flutters of magical current wafted from him.

I wondered if Baalth was trying to bring him back to life. Without a necromancer on call, I could imagine the demon lieutenant doing whatever he could to keep the services of McConnell. Though only human, the wizard had stood against angels and demons alike and had conquered more times than not. He was a powerful force of magic with a less than moral bent, which was just perfect for the things Baalth needed of him.

It all started to make sense. It also explained why Baalth appeared to be under control of his power again. He’d given me a small taste of his magic in trade for dealing with Reven,
Karra’s
necromancer pet, but it hadn’t been nearly enough to take the edge off, so to speak. I glanced around the room, at all the bodies that had been through hell, and had a pretty good idea they were part of a filtering system that channeled the demon’s energy into the pool. Having realized his blood and energy could heal, somewhat like Lucifer’s could, it didn’t surprise me he might think he could resurrect the wizard. It was pure ego to attempt it, but I’ve learned to never put anything past Baalth. You didn’t become a lieutenant in Lucifer’s army without balls.

I glanced up at the orb above and watched its swirling energy for a moment. It was mesmerizing. The emerald energy danced and shimmered and cast its eerie glow across the room. Wondering what else was I might find, I tore my gaze from the orb.

I cast one last look at McConnell. He was staring back at me. My heart sputtered. His ice blue eyes were encircled in red, but they weren’t the black pits of the rest of the people in the room. He also didn’t seem immune to the torture being visited upon him, now that he was awake. His face was lined with deep creases, his lips curled into a pained sneer above his full white beard. He looked like Santa Claus in a bad bondage flick.

Bubbles roiled from his mouth as he tried to speak, the thick fluid preventing the words from forming. He thrashed about, his movement limited by the narrow confines of the case. Apparently too weak to break the surface of the liquid, he reached out with a hand that fought to get nowhere.

As much as I hated the bastard, I couldn’t handle seeing him stuffed inside the torture box. He’d gone out on his shield—whatever his reasons for doing so—and it didn’t feel right for him to wind up as Baalth’s science project.

Without any thought to what might happen, I braced myself against the edge and reached for him.

“I wouldn’t do that, Frank.” The quiet voice stopped me before I hit the surface of the tank. The calm words carried weight. I looked to see Baalth walking toward me. He looked haggard, not at all like the last time I’d seen him. “Step away from Henry, and whatever you do, don’t touch the liquid.”

I stood there defiant, my hands dangling over the edge.

“It’s for you own safety, Frank. If another living being were to come in contact with the solution, all of the power collected inside its atoms would be released into the unfortunate thing that touched it. It would be like having a thousand nuclear bombs going off inside your chest. Messy, and quite fatal. So, unless your last wish is for me to scoop up your remains and return them to Longinus’ daughter in a Ziploc, I suggest you take my advice.”

I glanced down at McConnell and mouthed an apology, pulling my arms away from the tank with exaggerated caution. Baalth might not be telling me the truth, but I damn well didn’t want to test him on it. I stayed quiet until I was down the stairs, leaving The Gray behind.

“What the hell are you doing to him?”

“What must be done,” Baalth answered, coming over to me. His eyes narrowed. “How did you find your way down here?”

Not wanting to get Poe in trouble, I lied. “I was searching for more information about my mother and Lucifer and stumbled across your little hidey-hole.”

He didn’t look like he believed me, but he also didn’t bother to argue. For once, he didn’t look like he had it in him. “I think you should leave, Frank.” The room trembled slightly. It was a reminder of just how fragile Baalth’s control of his newfound power was.

“Why? What are
you
doing here?”

Baalth glared at me. “You’ve never wanted anything to do with the politics of Hell before, so why are you so interested now?”

He was right. I’d only cared when it affected me. Despite all that was going on, I wasn’t sure this particular problem had anything to do with my life, but that felt like a cop out. I couldn’t be quiet and let him torture McConnell after what the old bastard had done for the world.

“I’ve spent my whole life trying to avoid shit like this, but it’s never done me the same courtesy. It’s damn clear I’m never gonna be free of the Demonarch and its bullshit politics because I’m related to fucking Lucifer!” I could feel my cheeks starting to heat up. “With everything going on from aliens to
weres
to vamps to the damn government, I think it’s time I paid a little more attention to Hell’s politics, especially, since I’m always in the middle of them.”

Unexpectedly, Baalth smiled. “Lucifer would be proud.”

“Fuck him,” I answered. “He’s the reason I’m in the middle of all this.”

Baalth’s smile widened. “Lucifer would pat you on the back for your rebellious stand, Frank, right before he knocked you through the wall for daring to blaspheme him.” He chuckled, holding his side.

I grinned in response, thinking he was right on the money. There’d been more than a few lessons I had to learn the hard way.

“So, Frank, do you truly want to know what I’m doing?” He waved his arms to the room.

The old Frank yelled at me to scream and run away. Nothing good could come from digging into Baalth’s business. “Yes. Tell me.” Apparently the new Frank liked taking it up the ass, which is all that ever happened when I got involved in Demonarch politics.

Baalth nodded and pointed up at the orb. “Like you, I have also spoken to Lucifer since his departure.”

That caught me off guard, but it made a twisted sense. Baalth had disappeared during the Heaven fiasco. Just like
Hasstor
had used the storms to cover his arrival near Earth, it was reasonable to assume Baalth could have done the same to leave the dimension and seek out Lucifer. Not only did that mean he knew what was going on in Heaven and didn’t care, but it also meant he’d probably always known where my uncle was. It was just another kick in the ass to my presumed importance. Lovely.

Baalth waited a moment, as if letting me work it all out, before he continued. “
Hasstor
told you about the war?”

I nodded, but kept the part about the tome to myself. If Baalth didn’t know about it, it wouldn’t matter. If he did, he would understand why I kept it from him. If it was important to his plans, he’d bring it up.

“It would seem God’s other creations have been busy in His absence. They have grown and evolved far beyond what He believed they would. Worse still, they have become defiant, believing themselves masters rather than servants.”

A theme that is apparently rampant in every world. I bit my tongue to keep from illuminating the hypocrisy he’d so poetically stated.

“A number of universes have banded together and set out to conquer the rest, and ultimately, God himself.” He grinned at their audacity. “The most frightening aspect is that they may well succeed in their quest.”

“Is it possible?” Hearing it put so plainly scared me.

He nodded. “For all that He is capable of, God has spread his energy over His immeasurable lifespan, crafting universes again and again and again, expending the effort to maintain them. It’s quite an impressive feat. However, while still a power far beyond anything you or I could imagine, He has perhaps spread Himself too thin. Not content to create beings as simple as humans, God has crafted beings far closer to His image than any of us could hope to be. Given free will and the ability to evolve as a species, these creations have come unto their own as deities. This is what your uncle fights against.”

And here I was thinking I had it bad.

Baalth pointed to McConnell. “Though I am loath to torment such a faithful servant as Henry, the price of his resurrection was to sacrifice himself to the cause of defeating the enemies of God before they fall upon us and lay waste to our universe.”

That’s one hell of a trade. I felt sorry for McConnell, but maybe it was fate’s way of paying him back for all the wrong he’d done in his life; and then some. He was probably building up some serious supernatural karma, not that he’d ever get to spend it. “So, what does all this stuff do?” I gestured to the room and McConnell’s tank.

“It’s a portal to the universe where Lucifer now resides.”

I heard the words but they didn’t make sense. “It’s a what?”

“A dimensional rift, which leads directly to your uncle.” He ran his hand along the side of the tank. “It is kept available and shielded from detection by The Gray’s reserve energy. He is, in essence, the key to the portal. Henry holds it in stasis so its energy remains constant and off the radar of those who might be searching for such things, like your companions in DRAC.”

I didn’t bother to tell him I was on indefinite vacation and I didn’t know shit about what they were tracking. “So, it can’t be detected?”

“Only from within this room. I’m sure you felt its power when you walked inside.”

I nodded, but I still didn’t understand the purpose of a portal going to Lucifer when the bad guys were there waiting to come to Earth. “What’s the point of keeping it open? Aren’t you worried the aliens will use it to come here?”

“Not at all, as it isn’t actually open, just available should it be needed. The portal is connected to Lucifer and is carried on him at all times. It’s attenuated to allow no one else to use it. Were he to die, the portal link would shut down.”

I still didn’t understand. “Then why have it at all?”

“Because Asmoday had no idea what he was unleashing when he empowered Glorius.” Baalth clenched his fist and his power welled up. He stretched his arm toward the tank and let loose a burst of power that damn near singed the hair on my balls. The power swirled into the tank and disappeared. McConnell thrashed and I was glad I couldn’t see more than just his shadow reflected against the sides. After a moment, Baalth willed his power to settle and turned back to me. The Gray slowly settled. While Baalth didn’t look fresh, he looked like he’d taken a load off. “The soul transfer with Glorius not only gave me his powers, magnified beyond imagining, but it also passed along the mutated piece of his angelic existence, which absorbed all the power Asmoday fed him.”

 
Baalth strode slowly down the line of bodies set into the walls. I followed alongside, staring up at the people. I suddenly felt ill again.

Baalth turned his head to look at me, as though he could tell what I was feeling. “Do not worry your human sensibilities about them, Frank. They were dead before I brought them here. It is only the surge of magical energy through their bodies that gives them the semblance of life.”

That was something, at least. I nodded and asked him to continue telling me about Glorius.

He did. “Thanks to God’s plan that his Angelic Choir forever be empowered to defeat those who challenged him—little did we know why we would need such abilities—angels evolve as they absorb power through a soul transfer. The new energy level becomes the base level, their bodies adapting to maintain the balance. We demons had such useful talents removed from us at the Fall.” He chuckled to himself. “When I inherited Glorius’ power, increased beyond even what he could naturally handle, I also inherited the strange adaptation, but not in the way I would have preferred. Quite the opposite, in fact. Asmoday’s meddling had broken Glorius, forcing an even greater evolution upon the angel. So, rather than gaining the ability to normalize my power no matter its level, my magic constantly multiplies and grows, but I have no way to keep it contained.”

“So, sending the power into the tub helps relieve the pressure?”

“It also provides a pool of accessible energy to be used by God and Lucifer, which cannot be detected. The impact on the war effort is quite impressive. It allows them to open the portal from their end and draw upon a reserve of magic while their enemies weaken over the course of battles. It also serves as a bit of surprise boost when necessary, allowing them to catch their foes off guard.”

I pulled my gaze from Baalth and set it on the orb. My mind instantly started to wonder what answers I could get if I confronted Lucifer directly. “Could I use the portal to travel to my uncle?”

Baalth quickly waggled a finger. “You could, but you would not survive the trip. The gate is not intended for travel, only the transportation of energy. You would be broken down into your base components to become a part of the power flow.”