Silverblood Demons (Daughters of Darkness Book 1) (10 page)

“Dad!”

Amber brought my senses back to our immediate situation, but how could I just leave Sin-dy? I promised her I’d
never
do that.

“Kylar!”

“Elektra, I don’t know what to do!”

“We have to get out of here,” Elektra said. “Your daughter needs to stop bleeding, her face is burning up.”

In my hesitation, I had forgotten that Amber was wounded. Turning to look at her I could see her cheek was severely gashed and reacting badly. The beast’s talons were probably poisonous and if we didn’t do something right away it may kill her, but I still didn’t know what to do.

“Dad, we have to get to Jasmine’s house, she lives close by.”

“Kylar let’s go,” said Elektra. “We have to get to safety so we can help Amber and figure out a plan to save Sin-dy.”

“Yes, I’m sorry, you’re both right, let’s . . . ”

As I looked over to where Sin-dy had fought Ophelexa I noticed the glowing pommel from her sword, she had dropped it after being struck by Ophelexa.

“Wait,” I ran over to the sword. “It’s Sin-dy’s.” As I picked it up it stopped glowing. “Let’s go,” The words left my lips but I felt like a traitor. Sin-dy needed us now, more than ever, but we had no other choice, we had to get out, right now.

Elektra and I picked Amber up and flew in the direction that she told us that Jasmine lives in and under her guidance we landed at a formation of rocks that she had pointed out to us.

“Jasmine uses this entrance to get in and out of her house,” Amber was pulling at the rocks and we realized this must be a secret tunnel to her home. The three of us pushed aside the rocks, stepped inside the tunnel and placed them back to cover the entrance again. Elektra ‘glowed’ her body for us to see where we were going as we made the short underground trek to Jasmine’s home.

Amber was in pain and looked as though she was developing a fever from her gash, but she’s a natural born warrior and didn’t complain. “There,” she said. “Pull that rope twice, then once again. It goes all the way to Jasmine’s room, she’ll come down right away, it’s our panic signal.”

In just a few seconds Jasmine was in front of us. She is tall, maybe six feet tall, her skin aglow with a gorgeous milk chocolate color that was reflecting from Elektra’s body light and she had a bow with a quiver full of arrows.

“What is this? Amber, speak to me.”

“I’ll tell you about it later, you can trust them.”

“Amber, your face.”

“She needs help,” Elektra said. “She was scratched by a poisonous animal, can you do anything?”

“Quick, this way.”

We followed Jasmine through her basement, then up into her home.

“My Madame Tutella had to leave in a hurry today,” Jasmine said. “She’s getting old so it takes her a long time to get back from the meetings.”

“Can she lay down over−?”

“What are your names?”

“Elektra.”

“I’m Kylar, can she−?”

“Yes, but you need to tell me what kind of animal, I have hundreds of salves that I can make−”

“It was a beast that was helping Ophelexa fight us,” Amber quietly interrupted. “Its talons gashed my face.”

“I knew something was going on, that’s why I had my bow with me. Wait here.”

“She’s the best,” Amber said. “She’ll take good care of me.”

A few minutes later Jasmine was back with a bowl full of something that smelled like a dead rat, only worse. She dunked a finger in the bowl and extracted a glob of lime colored goop and plopped it into Amber’s gash.

“Stinks and hurts like Heaven,” Jasmine said. “I’m afraid you’ll have the scar forever.”

Amber gripped my hand hard, her teeth clenched, her brow furrowed. But this girl, my daughter, wasn’t going to let the talons of a dead beast break her spirit. If there is any benefit to having a demon as a mother then being fearless must be in her blood.

I began feeling strange, like every gold atom in my body was busy doing something.

“Dad?”

“Kylar, Elektra?” Jasmine echoed Amber’s concern.

Elektra was on her knees and was trying to reach for me. Amber turned and leaned on Jasmine as they watched me and my sister morph into a thousand shapes and colors. We changed from a glowing mist to purple flames, from molten metal to shimmering stardust, and then combined into a fluctuating silver cloud that finally erupted and sprayed both Amber and Jasmine while reforming our bodies.

Somewhere within all the dynamic metamorphoses Elektra and I felt Kira’s presence,
did she just go through the same thing back at the hillside refuge?
I looked at my sister but before I could say a thing, Amber and Jasmine also caught my attention.

“Dad! I, I, Jasmine, you too?”

Jasmine and Amber were translucent and their bodies were slowly ebbing and flowing back and forth until finally they were back to themselves, but not really.

“We’re all different,” Elektra was looking at the rest of us.

“Aunt Elektra, you look like a goddess, you too Jasmine.”

We had all changed, each of us had become a superior version of our former selves, we were no longer just humans with a couple of powers. As time went on we were to
experience
all the incredible transformations that had just happened to us and somehow Amber and Jasmine were affected too, because the silver cloud that sprayed them somehow at some level changed them, not like Elektra and I, but in more subtle ways.

Amber’s wound was healed, I’m not sure if it was the salve Jasmine had made, or if it was the transformation we had all just gone through, but she was right, Amber still had a scar. It was on her left cheek, about two inches long.

“I’m alive, Kylar.”

“What?”

“I didn’t say anything dad.”

“Yeah, you said, wait, you wouldn’t say, Kylar. ”

“Maybe this change we just had is making you a little nuts?” Elektra joked.

“No, someone just said ‘
I’m alive Kylar
’ ”

“Are you saying that Sin-dy is talking to you?” Elektra asked. “Is this a part of our changes?”

“What?” I asked.

“You just heard−”

“Kylar, listen, they’re coming to hurt me again. I need you. Is amber okay? Ask her if she knows where Qirvana’s temple is, quick!”

“Sin-dy!” Realizing I was really bad at this mind communication thing and that our transformation had allowed me to hear Sin-dy, I quickly asked Amber, “Do you know where Qirvana’s temple is?”

“No dad−”

“I do!” Jasmine cut in. “It’s in Sector One.”

“Kylar, Help!”

“Sin-dy, I heard you, be strong,” This time I managed to speak to her using my new powers. “We know where you are, we’re coming!”

“Hurry Kylar−!”

Our communication was lost.

“What did she say Kylar?” Elektra asked. “How can we go there, Jasmine, do you know?”

“I don’t,” Jasmine sadly said. “I’m sorry.”

“Dad, maybe we should head back to the hillside, they’re probably worried about us, they don’t know what’s been going on.”

“I wish I knew how to open up a line of communication with them,” I said. “We have a lot to learn with these new powers.”

“How do we even know how to get back?” Elektra asked. “Sin-dy brought us here.”

“I know the way,” Amber said. “I made mental markers, I did it all the time when I traveled outside of our house.”

It wasn’t long before the four of us set off back to the hillside refuge, guided by Amber’s prudence for having tracked our journey. Amber no longer needed our assistance to fly after their transformation, she, along with Jasmine settled into their flight mode like the bellatrix’ they were.

It was another day in Sarturas, ‘
Paradise in Hell’
So much was hanging in the balance. Sin-dy, the woman I had fallen in love with, somewhere, possibly being tortured for information. Millions of girls on the cusp of unimaginable terror, the possible fall of the Templars along with the Angels of Heaven,
everything
and
everyone, everywhere,
was in danger, has this much
ever
been at stake?

Yeah, we had changed, and at the time I didn’t know it but we had become Elementals, but there was just a few of us, we needed help, lots of it, no, enormous amounts of it. It was time to try and reach out to the Third Millennial Templars.

Chapter 11

“You TRAITOR! I know you were just talking with those humans back at the meeting, Sin-dy,” Ophelexa twisted the knot tighter on my throat and somehow she had discovered my name wasn’t Sceleris. “I’ll kill you quickly
if
you tell me where they are.”

“I’ll tell you, just stop tightening the knot,” I gasped. “Please, I can’t breathe.”

“I don’t trust you, you murderer,” Ophelexa looked as though she could actually cry, but I highly doubted she had the ability. “My sister’s death will be revenged, now speak! Or I’ll rip your heart out and have it for supper.” She slowly licked her reptilian tongue across her lips, then across my face as though she could already taste my heart
.

With my feet shackled I stood there, vulnerable, my clothes shredded and my back against a cold stone wall, my arms were raised and bound high above me.

“Just let me breathe, I’ll tell you,” I said through a raspy voice.

Ophelexa walked away and summoned a demon that stunk of a thousand rotting Durian fruits, plus a thousand Titan Arum plants, just his smell could kill me.

“Loosen her knot,” she ordered. “You
better
tell me what I want to hear, or . . . ” She licked her lips again.

Smelly, tightened the knot another half turn while smirking at me, then loosened the knot against my wind pipe two twists. I immediately coughed and
accidentally
but on purpose spat in his face. Laughing inside of me I thought my spit was probably like cologne for him, compared to his stench.

“Don’t they have showers in Hades,” I looked at him with venom in my eyes. “Bastard.”

I could hear rustling at the far end of the hall we were in, but couldn’t see past the stench machine in front of me.

“Well, Sin-ful, or Sin-ner, whatever your name is today,” Ophelexa sneered. “Revenge is a bitch, and that’s my middle name, and believe me I’m going to extract every letter from your soul. SPEAK! Before I stop being so nice to you.”

There was more rustling as I spluttered, gasping for air and barely able see past the moisture from my eyes. Blinking to clear my vision, I tried to see if it was the grim reaper waiting for me in the shadows. I must have been delirious because all I could think about was the time I asked Kylar on our first date, he almost spluttered at me too.

***

He was taking a sip of his coffee at the bagel shop when I said, “Hey, I’m feeling a little dejected here, how high does a girl have to raise her skirt to get you to notice them?”

It was so funny, he almost fell off his chair. “No, I mean no, you’re gorgeous,” he said. “I just thought you never even noticed me, like I’m not even in your league.”

“Well, you can ask me out for dinner,” I pushed his open mouth, shut. “Because I think you’re kinda cute.”

“Thanks, sorry, I mean yeah I’d love to take you out for dinner, when−?”

“Seven,” at Aquarius I quickly said.

***

“She passed out again, you fool!” Ophelexa had turned her acid remarks at Smelly. I hadn’t passed out, I was faking it to catch my breath before they decided to do away with me for good. The rustling at the back of the hall became clearer, I could hear soft voices, whispers from someone.

“Oh, come in, Qirvana,” Ophelexa whipped around to address the voices. “See for yourself the reason we
have
to go ahead with−”

“Silence!” Qirvana spoke as though she was challenging Ophelexa’s authority. “Who is the focus of your power trip today?”

“This
She Angel
wants to destroy our plans for domination,” Ophelexa hissed under her breath as she pushed Smelly aside and slapped me to bring me out of my feigned passing out.

Beat up and barely able to breathe after being tortured for what seemed like hours, I was somehow able to recall the name Qirvana. Ophelexa mentioned her just before attacking me back at the meeting. She is the leader of the dissenters and doesn’t want to murder Sarturas’ daughters after they’re impregnated. Great, rape is fine, but not murder.

I had to learn more, is she the weakest link? It was time for me to pretend to come out of my pretend passed out mode

Coughing violently, it felt like my guts had been torn out. Blood was streaming down from my nose after Ophelexa had slapped me and I had no idea how I was going to speak. So somehow motioning with my head for her to come a little closer, and as her face lay next to my mouth I said something, the same something I said years ago to my ex-boyfriend, the one that shot me in the chest. He had walked over to me and was mocking me as I was bleeding on the floor. Managing to kick him down, I put my face against his, and in my agony whispered, “Hell can’t hide you and heaven doesn’t want you, if I make it out of here alive, you’re dead.”

“Heaven’s whore!” Ophelexa screamed at me. “We’ll see who dies first.” She grabbed my throat, raising me up off the floor and I could feel the pressure from her Cobra thumb-ring against my larynx. My eyes rolled upward, then, she squeezed harder still. “Kylar!” I was trying to connect with him one last time. “I think I’m dead,” This time, I really did pass out.

Somewhere in my subconscious state I could faintly hear ancient instruments like the lyre, and Pan’s Pipe wafting in the echoes of a musical chamber. I was crying in this tranquil place, finally beaten and without hope.

I was in a state of half-life, somewhere between being dead, yet still clinging to the vestiges of being alive, my mind was still active. It wasn’t one of those seeing the light at the end of the tunnel moments, but it was a time for reflection.

***

I heard a story one time from an old lady. I had recently turned seventeen and was sitting on a garden bench outside my home, waiting for a girlfriend so we could go on a double date. An old lady, hunched over and looking as though she had seen better days stopped and asked me to buy some purple heather from her. I tried ignoring her but she came and sat right next to me. If
eyes are the windows of the soul
then the old lady’s looked like they belonged to a queen, not just an old woman.

This was the old lady’s story. “Once upon a time,” I was thinking OMG, corny or what?

“A young maiden had fallen deeply in love with the man of her dreams, but at the time her love for him couldn’t be fulfilled, she could only love him from afar. He fell in love with another maiden and his love for her was never fulfilled because she had another love.” “Aww,” I said, pretending to be interested. “Time went by,” she continued, “and finally the two of them were thrust together by circumstances, not of their doing.”

I was beginning to get impatient with my girlfriend that I was waiting for, I wished she would hurry up and get here.

“Tragically after a short time together they were torn away from each other and having no hope of ever seeing her love again, the young maiden drew her last breath and died.”

Something about her story finally made me curious, like it was important that I know more, “So what’s the moral of the story?” I asked.

“This is for you,” she said.

Hearing my girlfriend pull up in her car I turned away. “I’ll be right there! I just have to say goodbye to . . . ”

“What are you talking about? There’s no one there.”

The old lady had gone, but when I looked down at my lap, she had left me the purple heather and a note that said, “
There is always hope.
” and it was signed ‘V’

***

Drifting in and out of consciousness I could still hear magikal music playing and water trickling, it was so calming,
maybe I’m in heaven,
and there was a beautiful fragrance in the air. Slowly my eyes began coming back into focus and I could still feel every kick and punch from my ordeal with Ophelexa. So, I wasn’t in heaven after all, but what I was in, was a bathtub shaped like the glass slipper Cinderella had lost. Not like the kind anyone has ever seen, this looked like it might have been carved out of a single hunk of diamond, nothing else could look as beautiful as this. No longer tied up, and free to move my arms, I rubbed my eyes until I could see clearly.

The room was shaped like a cathedral with huge windows rising to the ceiling, the walls were covered by weapons of medieval warfare, and, by purple Heather. It was in the openings in the walls, at the side of my bathtub, and there was a huge centerpiece on a marble table in the middle of the room. ‘V’ was telling me not to give up hope of seeing Kylar again, and I was damned if I wasn’t going to listen.

“I need clothing!” Yelling the best I could, considering my ribs were hurting, it came out more like a raspy half yell. “Is anybody−”

The music stopped and I could hear footsteps echoing in this huge room I was in. “Welcome to Sedah Hall, Sin-dy,” Someone said as they approached me. “My name is Qirvana.”

She waved at a feminine looking demon that brought over a shimmering silver gown. I stepped out of the bathtub and she placed it over my head and let it drop over my body and tied a sash around my waist. Another wave of her hand and several other demons brought in a long farmhouse table and chairs, then covered it with food and wine fit for a queen.

“Don’t think for a Hades minute that I’m going to tell you who I was talking to,” I was surprised after the beating I took from Ophelexa that I still had the courage to speak this way. “I would rather die first.”

“Don’t say anything you don’t want to say,” Qirvana said. “But I do have some questions for you.”

“Where does Ophelexa fit in with this discussion?” I asked, as I sat in front of a large chocolate cake. “She doesn’t seem like the discussion kind of lizard.”

“Please, help yourself,” Qirvana could see me staring at the cake and I didn’t need a second invitation. Pulling the whole thing in front of me I started eating it, well, more like devouring it.

“You need to slow down a little,” Qirvana said. “But I understand, chocolate is a go-to food when humans are distressed?”

“Cut the small talk about chocolate cake
Qirvana,” Somehow managing to sound brave again, I said. “Why don’t you get straight to the point, before Ophelexa comes back and finally kills me.”

“Don’t be concerned about Ophelexa,” she said. “We don’t see eye-to-eye and she has been summoned to oversee the gathering of the girls before the Feast of Fevronia. If you’re quite finished I’d like to ask you something.”

“Well I don’t intend on sticking around here much longer,” I said. “There’s a massacre scheduled, and we’re not−” Damn it, I said
we’re
, so I had to go with it, like I meant to say it. “We’re, not going to let it happen.”

“Let’s start with your use of,
we’re,
” Qirvana said. “To whom or what are you referring?”

I had to lie, and quick, I didn’t want Qirvana to suspect I was talking about Kylar and his sisters. “The Third Millennial Templars,” I said. “We’re, going to stop you and Sarine from overthrowing the Angels of Heaven.”

“It’s too late for that,” she said. “The Impregnation Ceremony begins tomorrow morning, and there will be no liberation for the girls,
Sarine has spoken
.”

Tomorrow morning, how am I going to convince Qirvana that going ahead with their Impregnation Ceremony will do more harm than good to Sarine and her followers?

I had to think of something plausible, but what? “If you go ahead with this nightmare of a plan,” I said. “Then Sarine better get ready for the backlash, I’ve been around Sarturas long enough to know that you, along with many other powerful demons don’t want their childrens hearts to be served up as an appetizer, am I right?”

“Interesting, Sin-dy,” she said, as she began walking behind me. “What do you suggest, or, what do you think, can be done to thwart a daughter of Lucifer?”

“You’re creeping me out,” I said. “Why are you behind me?”

I guess I was getting overconfident in my tone. Qirvana grabbed the chair with me on it and dragged me across the room and elevated herself in a seated position right in front of me. “There, is that better?” Sarcastically, she asked. “Oh, and before you answer my question I want you to know that unless you start to cooperate, I’m not going to be as pleasant as Ophelexa, are we clear?”

Pushing my chair away from under me and finally feeling some of my strength returning,
I also
elevated myself in front of Qirvana. “If that bitch Ophelexa didn’t get me to talk, then there’s nothing you can threaten me with, is that clear enough for you?”

“You may not fear death,” she said. “However, if your intention is to emancipate millions of Cambion of Sarturas, then now would be a good time to elucidate me as to how you’re going to accomplish this, maybe I can help.”

Finally, Qirvana opened up, she is against Sarine’s plan.

“Let’s face it Qirvana,” I said. “The only way Sarine will listen is if she thinks her life is in danger. If she pisses off her daddy by starting a war in Hades between half−”

“Half? Do you mean half of all the demons in Hell?” she asked. “That’s ridiculous.”

“Really? Is that why in the last six months, thousands of demons have been executed for all of Sarturas to see, in the skies?”

I think I was getting through. Qirvana lowered herself to the floor and was pacing as she pulled her long platinum hair out of its rolled up spiral on top of her head.