Extinction (The Divine Book 7) (2 page)

And while nearly all of this was going on, all I had been able to think about was the Great Were standing beside me, of throwing her onto a bed, tearing off her clothes, and giving in to my darkest side.
 

I had been so close to doing it. I would have done it if Obi hadn't called. Maybe I loved her. Did it matter? Gervais was out there in control of a Fist of God, with Rebecca's spirit trapped inside. Sarah had been falling under the influence, and she had been afraid to talk to me. I was the Diuscrucis, a perfect balance of good and evil. But did I have to be? Did I even want to be?

Ever since I had come back, the war between Heaven and Hell had only escalated. Ever since I had come back, things had only grown more and more out of control.
 

Was it coincidence? Maybe. Randolph Hearst was working to get his teeth into Abaddon almost since the day I returned. Satan had been the one to send Gervais back, in part to punish him, and in part to punish me. Where would the former archfiend be without me to play the foil?
 

The first time we met, Dante told me the universe would always find a way to even the score. Was my presence causing the escalation, or was it holding everything in check? Which came first, the Divine or the Diuscrucis?
 

I didn't know. I wasn't sure if I would ever know. The only thing I had confidence in was that I had failed Sarah in a big way, and now it was my responsibility to set things right. Whether it was for the sake of the balance, for my own sake, or for Sarah's was about as clear as my reflection.

"Landon, you okay, man?" Obi said, snapping me out of my inner monolog.

"Not really," I replied.
 

It wasn't just Adam and Sarah I was worried about, though that alone was more than enough. She was stronger than me in a lot of ways, even with the Beast-mode I had taken. If her evil side attacked me unhindered, she would probably win. And, the longer it took me to get to her, the more in control that part of her would become.
 

On top of that, there was no way in Hell that Gervais wasn't going to try to take advantage of this situation. Adam was strong, but Gervais with the Fist and the help of that traitorous asshole Zifah was a different level entirely. If his worm-tongue managed to convince Sarah to change sides again, it was going to be more than the Divine who were in trouble.

It was going to be everyone, and everything.

I locked eyes with Obi. He knew if I said I wasn't okay that he should probably be worried, and I could see a hint of that in the creases on his forehead. He held my gaze, though, not letting me see him sweat.

"We need to know where they went," I said. "We need to know right now."

Of course, needing something and getting it are never the same thing.
 

It didn't matter how badly I wanted to know where Adam had taken Sarah; I didn't have the power to locate every Divine on the planet instantly. As far as I knew, nobody did.

I did the only other thing I could do. I sent Alyx to watch television in hopes of catching a report on strange occurrences like terrorist poison gas and put Obi on scouring the Internet for news of the same.
 

That process worked well enough for most demons, but I had a feeling it wasn't going to be so easy with Adam. He had worked with me. He knew how I operated. If he didn't want me to find him, and I had a feeling he didn't just yet, he would know to stay quiet until he was ready for the confrontation.
 

My goal was to confront him before that.

"Alichino," I said when the demon picked up.

"Who is this?" he replied.

"Landon," I said. He would have a better memory of me than most, now that he was living in Espanto's former compound with us.
 

"Oh. Landon. Yeah, I should have guessed. Wait a minute, why are you calling me? Last I remember you were here. How long ago was that?"

"Since you saw me? About thirty minutes. I'm not there anymore. I'm in France."

He cackled. "The City of Love. Good call, Casanova. Although I don't think Alyx needs you to wine and dine her first."

I clenched my teeth, my earlier thoughts still fresh. I had let my lust get the better of me. I deserved better, and so did Alyx, even if she didn't know it.
 

"I'm at Sarah's place," I said. "We've got a problem."

"Gervais?"
 

"No. Adam."

"The angel?"

"The fallen angel."

"Right. What kind of problem."

I described the situation to him. When I finished, he whistled.

"Damn, Landon. I don't know how I'm supposed to help you with this. I'm having enough trouble getting a bead on Gervais and the Fist."

"Drop that for now. Gervais will turn up wherever Sarah is now that her evil side is in charge. I'd bet my life on it. I need to know where Adam is hiding."

"Yeah, sure, I'll do my best."

"Are you writing this down?"

"Yeah, of course. What do I look like to you?"

"You don't have a way to contact Dante, do you?"

"I don't have a red phone or a big red button if that's what you're asking. I can pass a message along, but it could be a day or two before he gets it."

I considered whether or not I wanted to bring him into this. He had advocated killing Sarah all of those years ago. He was going to blame me for whatever happened.
 

He also knew more about diuscrucis than anyone. I needed him.

"Do it," I said.

"Okie Dokie. Will do." He paused for a moment. "Hey, Landon?"

"What?"

"How bad is this?"

"Humans and Divine are both going to die. I'm sure of that. How many depends on us."

"That's not an answer."

I ended the call. I didn't answer him because I didn't have an answer. If I were comparing this to the Beast, this probably wasn't as bad as that.

Then again, maybe it was worse.

I made my way from the worse scene of carnage up to Sarah's bedroom. It was her private space, and as a result had avoided the chaos and bloodshed. Alyx was sitting cross-legged on the bed when I entered. I paused for a moment, looking around. The walls were pink, the carpet thick and white. The bed was four-posted wood, elegant and youthful. I felt another twinge of guilt.
 

The television was on across from Alyx. She didn't look my way when I came in. Her eyes were glued to the broadcast.
 

"Do you speak French?" I asked.

"Wi," she replied. "All of the major human languages. Espanto made me learn them because he didn't want to." She made a disgusted face.

"What did you find?"

"Nothing related, I don't think. Two people were shot near the Arc."

"Who shot them?"

"They don't know."

"Probably a demon, but not the one we're looking for."

"Yes."

I stared at her for a moment, tempted to have a talk with her about what I was feeling right then and there. Looking at her made it harder. She was an addiction, and she wasn't even trying.
 

"Have you checked the other outlets?" I asked.

"They're all reporting on this."

I expected Adam to lay low. That didn't mean I liked it.

I felt the other words bubbling up from my chest toward my lips. Did I have to say them now, as if that were more important? If I didn't say them now, would I be able to say them later?

"Alyx, I want to talk to you about something."

She looked at me. "You feel guilty about what we almost did."

I stopped mid-thought. "Yeah. How did you know?"

"I can smell your moods."

"You can?"

"Yes. You wear your heart on your sleeve, Landon. It doesn't only display in body language, but in your scent, too." She smiled.
 

"I just don't want to mess things up, and I don't just mean with you and me. I'm pretty sure I love you. I don't want to treat you like a plaything, even if you want to play, too. I also don't want the world to fall apart because I'm too distracted. If I had been more accessible, Sarah might have talked to me."

"And she might not have."

"Allie-"

"I understand. I do. I want to be with you, Landon. Part of that is conscious desire, part of that is written in what Satan made when he put us on Earth. I can't change that."

"I'm sorry."

"Don't be. I can't change it, but I can control it if it is making your life harder."

"In a lot of ways, it isn't."

"But in a few ways, it is?"

"You're hard to resist, even against my better judgment." I hesitated. "Yes."

"Back in the airport, you asked me to set aside my instincts to help you. I've tried to do that. I've tried to be good when all I have ever come from or known is evil, and I've done that for you." She stood up and walked over to me, putting her face close to mine. "I can do this for you, also. I will not push or entice or tease. When you are ready, you can come to me. I will always be willing."

Then she kissed me. Not on the lips. She seemed to know what that would do to me. Her mouth brushed my cheek.
 

"Now, let us find your sister."

We didn't head straight to Obi. I figured he would find me if or when he found something, and there wasn't that much I could do in the meantime. Adam and Sarah were on the lam, and they wouldn't pop up again until they were ready to cause trouble. Maybe Dante could get me some useful information, but that required that he knew I was looking for him. However Alichino planned to contact him, I hoped the response would be quick.

In the meantime, Alyx and I set about cleaning up the mess. I won't lie and say it was an easy job. It wasn't. Every one of the victims had a family once, before the Beast's power had infected them and turned them into a sort of false Divine. Every one of them had come here looking for a new life with people who were going through the same thing as they were. Outcast from society. Lost and alone.
 

Sarah had been doing something similar the first time I had met her. Caring for the Awake, the people who could see the Divine. That community had crumbled in almost the same fashion as this one, though the fault that time was squarely Gervais'. I could imagine how Sarah might feel to repeat the history. It would only lend to her belief that the death and destruction were destiny and not the work of evil.
 

And Adam was evil. There was no question to that. He hadn't fallen because of me. He had fallen because his soul was turning dark. Everything else was a coincidence. Did God or Archangel Michael know what he and the other archangel had been doing together? I doubted that was allowed in the Kingdom of Heaven. In any case, his true color had shown through.
 

Black.
 

Alyx was a tremendous help in removing the bodies. She wasn't at all squeamish around blood and gore, and she set about picking up the corpses with a workmanlike attitude, shifting to her Great Were form and lifting three or four at a time. Their blood spilled onto her, matting her fur and leaving her looking as if she was coming in from a battlefield. She didn't comment on it, only taking a few minutes to vanish to Sarah's shower once her part of the work was done.
 

In the past, she might have paraded herself naked in front of me after, on her way to grab some new clothes. She did nothing of the sort, dressing in private in a pair of Sarah's jeans and a thick sweater. It was conservative to the point that it was still sexy.

At least she was trying.

I used my power to pull the blood together, cleaning it all from the floors and walls and compacting it into a small blob. Then I pushed it out the window and into the woods at the edge of the mansion's grounds, next to where Alyx had placed the bodies. We stood over them for a few minutes in silent reverence before returning inside.

Obi was waiting at the front door as we entered. He had his laptop in his hand, holding it open a crack, so the screen stayed on.

"That was a nice thing you did," he said.

"What was?" I asked.