Going Lucid (14 page)

“I see
why he likes you so much. This is something he would do.”

“Julius?”
Malakha asked and Nancy nodded a little. “So what were you going to tell me
about him?”

Nancy
sighed, rolling her eyes. “You elitist are always ruining my fun.” Malakha had
the tip of the blade pressing into her neck now.
“Fine.
He’s the prince of Hell! Happy?”

“He’s
what?” Malakha asked, her brain only taking a split second to process what the
woman said.

“He’s
the prince of Hell. Lucifer’s son… well one of them. Not really one of the
important ones, but still a prince.”

Malakha
dropped the scythe from Nancy’s neck and turned to look for Julius in the
crowd. He was nowhere to be seen. Groaning, Malakha made her way through the
throng of people again, not bothering to put the scythe away. People shuffled
out the way as not to be accidentally cut by the weapon, making it much easier
for Malakha to get through than before. When she was outside, she looked around
and huffed when she didn’t find him.

Damn
her for giving in to petty hormones and not paying attention to the subtle
hints that something was a little different about Julius. Damn Julius for being
so distracting and hot that she was willing to overlook it. Damn.
It.
All!

He
probably wasn’t even interested in helping her find the demon that was
terrorizing her school if she were honest with herself. He was probably just
patronizing her, pointing her in random directions as a way to seduce her in a
much more subtle way than his father. The bastard!

She
felt arms snake around her waist and thinking it was Julius messing with her
again, Malakha turned around and shoved the person in the chest. It was after
the person laughed a snake-like laugh (she knew snakes didn’t laugh, but
something about it sounded slick and reminded her of the way a snake slithered
across the ground) that she realized it wasn’t Julius. But she had also heard
the laugh before.

“Deverick,”
she said holding the scythe out in front of her to deter the man from messing
with her. Even with the scythe, Malakha knew she was probably still outmatched
against his demon-wolf form, but it at least evened out the odds a little.

“Relax
sweetheart,” he said in a snake-like voice like his laugh. “Julius made it very
clear that you’re… off limits.”

The
slimy looking man still ran a finger down her cheek in some sort of twisted
admiration.

“Back
off,” Malakha said taking a step back.

“Just… admiring the goods.”

“I
think that’s enough admiring.”

Julius
was back, and he was glaring at Deverick, his reddish yellow eyes practically
glowing. Had Julius’ eyes always been that color and she hadn’t noticed?

Deverick
dropped his hand, looking more than a little put off by Julius’ appearance. In
fact, he looked downright terrified. While some part of Malakha, the part of
her that was an admittedly hot blooded teenage girl, was thrilled and even
dazed by Julius’ display of protectiveness and power, a much bigger part of her
was even more angry as he proved Nancy’s words true.

Deverick
slinked away, leaving Malakha to glare at Julius who turned to look at her with
a grin as though she wasn’t obviously a little ticked off at him.

“Is
that any way to look at your savior?” he asked taking a step closer to him.

Malakha
didn’t allow herself to be swayed. “When were you going to tell me you were the
fucking prince of Hell?”

“Do you
always have to be so difficult?” Julius asked.

Malakha
shoved him with both hands or at the very least tried. Those muscles she had
admired on quite a few occasions weren’t just for show.

“You
could have led me to this demon a long time ago. You’ve just been playing games
with me.”

“What
makes you think that?”

“You
told me to go talk to your father knowing he wasn’t going to be any help!”

“That’s
true,” Julius admitted. “But I needed you to have a reason to come back. If I
told you I could find out who was terrorizing your school, you wouldn’t have
had a reason to come see me again.”

“So
this has all been a little game of seduction to you?” Malakha asked, trying not
to hit herself upside the head for falling for this game and actually wanting
to fall for it.

Julius
chuckled. Then quick as lightning or faster actually, his hands were around her
waist, pulling her close to him as he whispered in her ear, “Malakha, this is
far more than just a game of seduction.”

Malakha
resisted the instinctive urge to shudder and practically melt into Julius’
embrace.

“Could
have fooled me,” she replied.

“That’s
probably true,” Julius said pulling slightly away from her although he still
kept his arms locked around her waist. “This is all about dominance honey. I
want to overthrow my father and take his place as the King of Hell.”

“That’s
nuts,” Malakha said. Julius was bad (in both senses of the word) enough that
Malakha stopped and paid attention. But he had absolutely nothing on the
tempting pull his father had, and she had she had only met the king once.

“Probably.
I mean my dad is pretty powerful. But that’s
where you come in. There aren’t many people like you, who can not only cross
the divide between Heaven and Hell, but can do so at will. With you in Heaven
and me in Hell, we can do what my Father hasn’t been able to pull off in
thousands of years.”

Malakha
had a feeling the task had something to do with Lucifer getting revenge on the
world that cast him out. She could understand why he hadn’t been able to do it
too.
 
Not only were there the religious
zealots, but there were the humanitarians, and philanthropists and other people
who believed in the good of the Earth. Tackling religion was one thing. In
fact, that was the easy part. It was everything else that was the problem, and
Julius was crazy if he thought she was the key to doing it.

“So what?”
Malakha asked. “You want me to be your Hellion
queen or something?”

“What
else would I be proposing?”

Malakha
tried pushing Julius away again and this time he stumbled back a little.

“No
thanks,” she said and began to walk away from him. She had a demon to find.

“You’re
just going to just walk away like that Malakha. Think of everything you’d be
giving up just
to go
back to a bunch of people who
really don’t care anything about you because you’re a little… eccentric.”

Malakha
stopped when Julius appeared in front of her. She sighed, starting to go around
him until he grabbed her arm and pulled her to him again.

“Oh
come on Malakha. Don’t tell me you wouldn’t miss this?”

He
kissed her again before she could get away from him again, and Malakha was
starting to wonder why she hadn’t connected him to Lucifer before now. Like
Lucifer, Julius had a way of making her want to give in to temptation,
consequences be damned, even if he lacked the strange pull that Lucifer
possessed, the one that made Malakha want to give in even though she was
certain that doing so was more to her detriment than anything.

Malakha
managed to push him away though, the blush on her cheeks giving away that she
would very much miss that. Still, her blush didn’t keep her from glaring up at
Julius in annoyance.

“Anything
else you want to tell me that you neglected to because you knew it would piss
me off?” Malakha asked crossing her arms, the scythe dangling from her right
hand.

It was
meant as a joke. Malakha hadn’t really expected there to be anything else. In
fact, she expected him to shoot her a grin before she decided to take off
without him. Then, she predicted, from what little she knew about him, that
Julius would probably follow her and fuss at her for being a trouble magnet
after saving her again. Somewhere in the midst of all that, she might forgive
him, and they might actually find the demon that was terrorizing her school and
getting her exorcised.

The
only part she got right was the grin, except it was devious and if Malakha were
honest with herself, a little scary.

“I’m
the demon you’ve been looking for.”

Chapter
Fourteen

Waking the Dragon

Malakha
wasn’t sure if what she was feeling qualified as shock because more than anything
she felt a strange sense of bafflement at Julius’ words. She
should
have been shocked or even angry
at first, but she couldn’t help but pay attention to how non-melodramatic all
this was; how at the end of the day, she didn’t have to go through a whole
bunch of hoops and hassles to find the demon she wanted when she finally put
her mind to doing it. There had been no dramatic build up or suspense before
she stumbled across some clue that would point to Julius as the culprit she had
been looking for all along. She hadn’t even suspected Julius after she found
out he was a prince of Hell. If Lucifer had better things to do than terrorize
a school in the middle of nowhere in the northeastern part of the United
states, why wouldn’t his son?

Malakha
opened and closed her mouth several times in confusion before asking, “How?”

“Why do
you seem so shocked? It’s not like I lied. I warned you ahead of time.”

Malakha
began to point out that at no time had he warned her that he was a prince of
Hell and terrorizing her school for the last week. Then she remembered that
though he hadn’t outright told her he was dangerous, he had warned her.

“Nothing in this world is what it seems.”

…
                  

“And why should I trust you?”

“Because I haven’t tried to
hurt you yet?”

 
“I
know that. But you’re the one who told me that nothing here is what it seems.
So what are you really?”

“What do I appear to be?”

“You want me to be honest?”

“Otherwise I wouldn’t have asked.”

“Well, you seem like a really nice guy,
despite the fact that you seemed pretty pleased to stare at me naked earlier.”

 
“Well
then there’s your answer.”

“Why?”

“If it
was any other time, I’d just say it was for the fun of it, but to be honest,
except for amusing some of my dad’s lower minions, messing around with your school
was nowhere near as amusing as some of the other stuff I could have been doing
on Earth. I already told you what I was
doing
 
though
. Everything I did had
everything to do with you.”

“With me?”
Malakha asked.

“Of
course,” Julius said.
“To think that I found you by accident
when some of my father’s minions were peeking across a crack in the divide at a
priest at your school performing an exorcism on that girl.”

“She
wasn’t possessed.”

“Oh she
was ‘possessed’,” Julius assured. “But those exorcisms don’t do anything to
ward us off. They can’t break the connection and seal a crack in the divide. It
wasn’t even that funny until the girl started going into those crazy hysterics,
going mad at the voice across the divide that was telling her to beg and cry
and plead. And then I heard you, telling us to stop laughing, to stop mocking
her. I don’t even think anyone else even noticed at first. I didn’t even really
pay any attention to it until you said it so loudly, so forcefully it echoed
across the divide. Not many of your people have the power to hear across the
divide, let alone send a message across as clearly as yours came across.
Needless to say, I was a little curious. And then as luck would have it, you
found a way across the divide.”

“And
you decided to keep an eye on me?” Malakha guessed.

“No.
Actually, at first I wanted to kill you. Why do you think that girl attacked
you in the bathroom? I had been pestering her since you came across the divide
and somehow convinced her that the voices would stop if she killed you. But she
didn’t want to do that. She almost killed herself and that was at least mildly
amusing. But you heard me, and I have to say the way you beat that girl
impressed me. It’s usually pretty difficult to beat a person under the
influence of a “demon.” That’s when I decided to keep an eye on you.”

Malakha
huffed. That explained why he always seemed to find her every time she came to
Hell.

“And the boy who had the seizure?”

“He
resisted the suggestion and I got a little frustrated,” Julius said with a
shrug. “I don’t understand it really. Why do you feel the need to protect your
school when you hate it anyway? Everyone thinks you’re fucking psychotic.”

“I’m
beginning to think that’s not all my fault.”

“It’s
not. Some lesser demons have a good time making it hard on people like you in
places like a boarding school. Normally, something so trivial is beneath my
notice. But you made it worth my while. It was interesting to watch you. To see
how you resisted the brainwashing of what your people call religion even after
growing up in it.”

“How do
you know all this?” Malakha asked.

“I told
you. I’ve been watching you for the last few days. We’ve built a connection
Malakha. And let me tell you, you’re practically a Hellion that was born on the
wrong side of the divide.”

Malakha
raised the scythe to his chest this time, fury beginning to overtake her
confusion.

“I’m no
Hellion.”

“Could
have fooled me,” Julius said circling her, not at all deterred that she was
using the scythe to follow him. “You say I was mocking your people when that’s
all you do. Mock them and roll your eyes at how ridiculous you think all their
stupid rituals are.”

“I
don’t mock them,” Malakha said, even though she had to admit she did roll her
eyes and think some things were a little ridiculous.

Julius
shrugged.
“If that makes you feel better.”

“It
does,” Malakha said still following him with the scythe. “And you’re going to
stop messing with my school… Wait a minute. Not just you. You’re going to stop
and you’re going to stop any other demons
who
see fit
to bother it from across the divide to make my life hell.”

“You and what army?”
Julius asked laughing. “You think just
because you can cross the divide and stole a scythe from my dad that you could
stop me if you wanted. Be serious. There are better ways to spend our time
together.”

He
moved a hand to cup her face, but Malakha swiped at it with the scythe while
taking a step back.

“Back
off,” she said.

“You’re
really serious aren’t you?” Julius asked, something flashing in his eyes as he
took a step towards her for every step she took back.

“I mean
it.”

“You
don’t want to fight me Malakha. It would be easier to just let this be water
under the bridge while we negotiate the terms of our contract.”

“There’s
no contract between us.”

Julius
continued to advance upon her. He wasn’t smiling anymore, his reddish yellow
eyes seeming to glow.

“Don’t
be like this Malakha. It’s starting to irritate me.”

Malakha
was against the pole of one of the streetlamps now feeling a little like she
had the first time she ran into Deverick except she knew fighting off Julius
was not going to be easy. He was upon her now, smiling down at her in a way
that made her heart race for more than one reason and she shuddered when he
blew on her ear, even as she used a hand to try to push him away while her
other hand went into her pocket.

When
she took her hand out her pocket, she didn’t hesitate. She released the knife
on the pocketknife Julius probably had forgotten he gave her and stabbed him in
the shoulder blade with it.

Julius
cursed, jumping away from her while reaching behind him to pull the knife out
his shoulder. Malakha jumped out the way as Julius let out a cry, but not in
the deep smooth voice she had grown accustomed to, the one that wooed her. His
cry instead sounded like the voice that created the laugh that had been
haunting her for the last week.

“So now
you decide to show your true self,” Malakha said backing away in apprehension.

“You
haven’t even begun to see my true self,” Julius said in the voice that Malakha
had spoken to on the roof of the school, the one that reminded her of Bowser.
“I was trying to be patient with you, but now you’ve made me angry.”

A loud
roaring sound came from Julius and he began to shift into a large beast, one
that was much bigger than the wolf Deverick transformed into. It was long like
a snake with black scales, but it was more dragon-like in its appearance, at
least by the head, reminding Malakha of the long legendary serpent dragon from
one of the
Pokémon
video games she
used to play as a child. It let out a shrill roar, alarming not just Malakha,
but the entire block as it rose, rearing back so that half its body was raised,
showing off short (at least in proportion to its body) scaly arms coming out
the side of its chest.

Everything
in the vicinity, even some of the music, came to a grounding halt. So this was
what it took to draw attention in Hell. No wonder no one had blinked when she
put a scythe to Nancy’s throat.

Julius
roared again, bringing Malakha back to the task at hand.

“Fuck
shit,” Malakha said for it was the only thing she could think to say that came
even close to what she felt about this situation.

There
were only a couple of things she could do. The much less dangerous thing to do
was go back to earth now, but seeing as she had effectively pissed Julius off,
he would probably only terrorize her school more and force her to come back to
Hell. The much more dangerous thing to do, but probably wisest in the long run
if she came out alive, was to stay back and find some kind of way to not just
fight Julius, but make him and anyone that he knew who was terrorizing her
school to back off and leave her and her school alone so she could get a little
peace of mind.

Maybe
if she left now and told her parents that she had been exorcised, they would
take her out the school, and she could try to forget about all this. But she
had a feeling Julius would only find her again because of the connection he
claimed they had.

Still,
Julius really wasn’t going to attack her was he?

“Julius,”
Malakha said cautiously, hoping that there was some semblance of a human
conscience in this beastly form, that it wasn’t consumed by irrational anger
directed at her.

His
response was a roar and then the serpent dragon began to dive down to where
Malakha was standing. Malakha dived out the way, ducking her head under her
arms to protect herself from the bulk of the debris caused by the head of the
dragon crashing into the ground.

Malakha
didn’t wait to see how long it would take the beast to recover, just ran as
fast as she could back into the building she and Julius had just left out of.
Maybe the fact that there were a bunch of people, no matter how beastly they may
be, would pierce into the conscience of the dragon (if there was a conscience
left) and he’d calm down.

Malakha
was halfway through the dance floor when she heard the other occupants of the
place begin to scream. Malakha didn’t need to look back to know that the dragon
had crashed through the wall, the music having muffled the sound. She then ran
up the stairs of the metal spiral stairs that led to the loft where the DJ had
been mixing music before breezing past Malakha to escape the dragon. Malakha didn’t
even wait for the man to be down the stairs before she used the scythe to cut
through the metal railings that attached the stairs to the loft. One clumsy
hack cut smoothly through the first side and another cut the second side.
Malakha had never been more grateful for metal weapons that sliced through
anything as she was for the scythe that did.

The
stairs crashed to the floor just as the dragon got to them. Malakha began
backing down the long metal bridge that led to the other side of the loft while
keeping her eyes on the dragon who roared and began to slither below, looking
for a way to get to her. Malakha ran across the bridge then. On the other side
of the loft, there was a doorway with a broken exit sign above it. Malakha went
through the doorway and then climbed the stairs to another door that led to the
roof. Malakha closed the door behind her before leaning against it to catch her
breath. She barely got a few gulps in when she heard the dragon roar before a
black blur shot into the air off the ground.

“It can
fly?” Malakha asked aloud as the beast roared again.

Malakha
barely began to even process what she could do when the dragon crashed into
roof. She only just managed to grip the edge of the hole to prevent
herself
from falling. Seeing her disadvantage though, the
dragon launched itself up toward her. With the scythe that was still in her
hand, she swiped at the dragon, cutting the edge of its mouth and causing it to
fall short of her dangling legs.

She
used the scythe to help pull her back up onto the roof and began crossing it to
the edge. It was a long jump down to the ground, but the one to the next
building was a shorter drop. Malakha took a deep breath and then backed away
from the edge to get a running start. When she was far enough, she ran toward
the edge of the building. Then she stepped onto the ledge and flung herself off
the roof.

Her
landing was clumsy, and she fell on her hands and knees before rolling over a
few times and stopping on her stomach. She stood up, starting to look for a way
to the ground when a strange painful ache in her shoulder caught her attention.
She raised a hand to touch it and groaned. It looked just like the wound she
had gotten from Eliza.

The
background noise in head briefly got clearer for a moment and she heard Sabrina
say,
“Oh my God! Her arm! Malak! What’s
going on?”