Infernal Father of Mine (20 page)

I grabbed a satchel with food and dragged it
into the fog. My stomach rumbled nervously, or maybe it was just
sick of all the granola bars and cheesy poofs. Locking down my
nerves, I opened my incubus senses. A shock of delight ran through
me the moment I found the newcomers—not because I knew them, but
because two of them were female. I sensed at least five men. Most
of them seemed in good spirits—all except for one woman who seemed
immensely sad. Her mood matched mine. I couldn't imagine how anyone
could be happy in this hellhole.

David suddenly appeared next to me.

"Is that dried blood?" a man said from the
direction of the arch ring, he and his companions hidden by the
dense fog. I realized with a shock, the man sounded like one of the
two who'd come for us in the church right after we'd
arrived.

"My god, I think you're right," replied one of
the females in a disgusted voice. "It's real blood."

"Poor soul," said another woman, her voice soft
and compassionate. "How awful."

Another man sighed. "Calm down, Theresa.
Probably another newbie who killed himself with a dream
apparition."

"Not the first time," suggested the first male
voice.

"So much blood," said Theresa. "I hope they
didn't suffer."

Someone shouted. "I found the body. Looks like
something bit his head off."

"I don't want to see it," Theresa cried
out.

"Enough of the drama," a gruff male voice said.
"We've got a quota to fill."

"What's on the list, Jarvis?" the other female
asked. Her voice sounded deeper than Theresa's.

"Two more Arcanes and a vampire," Jarvis
replied, his rough voice easily discernible from the others. "Set
up the ripper."

I heard scuffling and a squeaking
noise.

"When are you going to learn to dreamcast a
cart that doesn't have a bad wheel, Gavin?" the other female said
in a chiding voice. "Do you know how annoying it is listening to
that thing?"

"Carts always have squeaky wheels," replied one
of the men whose voice I recognized from the church—presumably
Gavin. He had a deep southern accent. "Besides, Pat, don't you
always need something to complain about?"

"I knew you did it just to bug me," Pat
grumbled.

I heard grunting and the clang of metal on
stone followed by more grunts and a grating sound.

"It's ready," Gavin said.

"Test it," came the gravelly voice of Jarvis
through the fog.

Ratcheting clicks and a low-pitched hum
emanated from the direction of the arch. "As usual, it's working
fine." Gavin sounded disgruntled.

"All right. Turn it off and get ready," Jarvis
said.

Light suffused the fog from ahead. David
touched my arm. "I'm going in for a closer look. Wait
here."

"Are you crazy?" I whispered.

"We need to know what this ripper thing is, and
what these people are doing." He moved forward in a
crouch.

While I waited, I decided to experiment. As of
yet, I hadn't had the typical demonic hunger pains that usually
occurred when I needed to replenish the essence my infernal side
required for supernatural activities. Either the Gloom repressed
the hunger, or since I hadn't been able to use my super strength or
healing, I simply wasn't hungry. Extending my essence like a
snaking probe, I found one of the women about thirty feet away. I
almost flinched when I realized how close she was. After calming my
emotions, I gently tapped into her.

Immediately, I noticed something different
about the way her soul essence felt. It was noticeably muted, as if
something was damming up a portion of it. From what I could tell,
she was a normal human, or nom, as the supers called them. She
seemed sad and upset. If I had to guess, this woman was Theresa,
and not Pat.

I also noticed a lack of response from my demon
side. It usually jumped at the chance to feed, but now I could
hardly sense it. Vallaena had taught me the souls of demon spawn
had two halves—a fact which made all the more sense given what
David had told me about how our species had come about.

The demon side resided in the Haedaemos while
the human side resided in Eden. My demon side lusted for power and
would try to overpower my control if I didn't work hard to keep it
contained. This was usually a factor in feeding because unchecked,
the demon half would arouse extreme lust in my targets. That half
usually surged against my control every time I fed. That wasn't
happening now, as if an extra barrier were separating us. Even so,
I felt a very faint pressure deep inside.

I drew on the woman's energy. It felt weak,
like watered down fruit juice. I felt the energy enter me in a
trickle. Not daring to open the throttle wider, I fed slowly for
several minutes. By this point, I should have felt a surge of
energy. Instead, I felt only a mild boost. The pressure from my
demon side swelled slightly, as if it could smell the soul essence
but couldn't quite get to it.

David returned just as I disconnected from the
woman.

"They're looking for particular people every
time the arch opens," he said. "They have some kind of device right
in the center of where the arch would be. It looks like a U with a
wide, flat base, and two diagonal prongs with orbs on either end."
He drew a shape in the air with his hand.

"What does it do?" I asked.

He shrugged. "They haven't reactivated it
yet."

I told him about my attempt to feed. "Something
isn't right with her soul," I said.

"Maybe she should go to church more often." He
quirked an eyebrow.

"This isn't the time for dad jokes," I said. "I
don't think it's her, though."

"What do you think it is?"

My mind ran over the oddities I'd encountered
and settled on a theory. "I think the Gloom is causing it. It's
like part of me and part of her is stuck behind a thin barrier and
can't quite break through."

The glow from a forming portal suffused the
fog. David pointed a thumb at himself and pointed ahead. "Be right
back."

He crept away. I decided I wanted to see this
strange device for myself and eased to my feet, gritting my teeth
against the pain in my back. I couldn't afford to take another
pill. Loopy as those things made me, I'd be a sitting duck. I moved
forward, careful to keep my tread silent as possible. Without
warning, I stepped into a bubble of clear space and saw the group
of Gloom people staring intently at the portal. Before they could
notice me, I stepped back behind the curtain of aether fog, and
cautiously poked my face through.

"That's an Arcane," said a short woman with
close-cropped red hair. She sounded like Pat.

"Duh, you think?" said a stocky man whose voice
identified him as Gavin. "Maybe the robes gave it away?"

"I hate this part," said a willowy woman with
long brown hair.

Gavin glared at her. "It's our job, Theresa. I
don't know why—"

"Shut your mouths," a pudgy
man—Jarvis—said.

I paced the perimeter of the bubble of clear
air until I could see inside the portal. A lanky man in dark blue
robes, a compact staff hanging from a holster on his side, and a
thick sheaf of scrolls bound by red ribbons beneath one arm, walked
toward the group.

Jarvis drew a thick cigar from his shirt
pocket, and put it in his mouth. "Grab him."

Pat and Theresa went to either side of the
U-shaped device David had described. Two thick prongs with spheres
at the end jutted upward at slight angles. Each woman stood to the
side of the prongs, waiting as the Arcane approached. A few steps
before he reached the portal in the real world, the women pulled
the prongs like levers. The rods clicked apart at a wider angle.
With a throbbing hum, silver light flashed between the orbs,
coalescing into a ball of energy. The portal shimmered, rippled,
and split.

Energy roared into me. I felt my demonic half
jerk awake, as if the barrier between my souls had dissolved. A
grim lethargy I hadn't even realized was there lifted from my
shoulders. I sensed women on the other side of the portal. I felt
their vital burning energies beckoning me. The burning pain in my
back receded and strength swelled within my muscles. It felt like
I'd just escaped a burning building and tasted sweet fresh
air.

The Arcane stepped through the portal. He
looked up from an arcphone and glanced at the group of grim people
standing around him. The women pushed the prongs toward each other.
The silver energy winked out and the rip in the portal closed and
winked out.

My body felt like it turned to lead. The
vibrancy in the air vanished, and my strength along with
it.

"Where am I?" the Arcane said. "This isn't
Queens Gate."

"Welcome to your new home," Jarvis said.
"What's your name?"

"New home?" The man jerked away as two of the
other men approached him threateningly. "Leave me alone. I'll have
you know I'm not defenseless." He withdrew the compact rod at his
side, and shook it out to a full-length staff. His eyes narrowed in
concentration, then widened with confusion. "What are you doing to
me? Why can't I cast a spell?"

One of the unidentified men chuckled. "I always
love this moment."

The two men closed in and grabbed the man by
his arms. One of them administered what looked like a hypodermic
needle to the Arcane's neck. The prisoner slumped, and they loaded
him into a cart. The portal in the real world vanished, and fog
rolled back into the area, obscuring it from sight.

I made my way back around the perimeter and
nearly ran into David. He gave me a confused look.

"Why didn't you stay put?"

"I had to see what they were doing."

He pulled guided me away from the portal
staging area. "When they ripped open the portal, I felt normal
again."

"Me too," I said, stretching my sore back. I
paused, arms extended overhead. "My back isn't killing me
anymore."

He pulled up my shirt and looked. "It's almost
healed. I'd still take it easy for now."

I breathed a sigh of relief. "I felt normal
too. That ripper thing seems to open the barrier between the Gloom
and the real world. Do you know what that means?"

"It's our ticket out of this place."

Hope burgeoned inside me. The ripper was the
answer to our dreams.
The way home.

"They're getting more people," I said. "That
means they'll be using it again."

David nodded. "We'll have our powers back when
they open the window. We can overpower them and run back
through."

I nodded enthusiastically until I remembered
the captured Arcane and the menacing kidnappers lurking in the
Gloom. Who were these Gloom people, and how many people had they
abducted? I felt my smile fade.

David's eyes narrowed. "What's
wrong?"

"We can't just leave that man there. We can't
let these people continue to take people like this." I reached my
arm around at an awkward angle to scratch my healing back. "We
should follow them and find out what this is all about."

David put a hand on my shoulder and looked me
directly in the eyes. "While that's very noble of you, I think it's
also very shortsighted."

I poked him in the chest with a finger. "Maybe
you don't care about saving people, but I do. I'm going to do this
with or without you."

He rolled his eyes. "That's not what I'm
saying, Justin."

It was my turn to narrow my eyes.
"Explain."

"These are the people who came for us back in
the church, and they're the same ones that kidnapped
Timothy."

"Obviously."

"They're working for Daelissa." David pointed
in their general direction. "We don't know what kind of operation
these people have. We don't know their numbers or their
capabilities. For all we know they're masters at dreamcasting
creatures like Gloria Richardson and could quickly capture or kill
us." He pointed his thumb over a shoulder. "Those people might be
just the tip of the iceberg."

"I'm not suggesting we plow in without recon."
Elyssa had, on occasion, accused me of leaping without looking, but
I'd learned my lesson. "We'll follow them and watch."

"Again, you're being shortsighted. We aren't
experts at extracting people from the Gloom. We're not equipped to
take on these people. You, however, know Templars who are, and you
have access to large numbers of them."

"Oh," I said, letting the O drag out a bit to
indicate a light bulb had turned on inside my thick skull. "We
should escape now and bring back the cavalry."

"Exactly."

I waggled my head side-to-side. "That could
work. I guess all those centuries of wisdom are finally paying
off."

He snorted. "Here's what we do. We wait at the
edge of the fog bubble when the portal opens. Right when those
women activate the ripper, we charge in, take out the group, and go
through the portal. If possible, we'll bring the ripper with us so
we can use it from the other side."