Infernal Father of Mine (25 page)

"But Jeremiah was working with Daelissa." I
scrunched my forehead. "You gave her to the enemy."

"And Daelissa taught Ivy well." David's mouth
quirked into a smile. "As I've said, demons are masters of
manipulation. What better way for Ivy to hone her Seraphim skills
than with the enemy we thought she was destined to one day
defeat?"

"I suppose Mom benefited from Daelissa's
training as well."

His smile broadened. "Keep your friends close
and your enemies closer."

I frowned. "Your plan almost didn't work,
though. Ivy could very well have killed me and turned into
Daelissa's puppet. Jeremiah practically brainwashed
her."

His grin faded. "Your mother saw the danger
signs. When we realized Jeremiah was using Ivy for his own agenda,
she knew it was vital she take a firm hand in Ivy's
development."

"Jeremiah is one twisted old man."

"The truth about him might surprise you." He
opened his mouth to speak but the cell door opened.

Two pale mannequins entered, Jarvis behind
them. "Well, looks like I don't have to throw you in the pit just
yet. Serena wants to see you."

David and I looked at each other. We stood and
headed out the door for whatever fate awaited.

The sentinels walked just behind us with Jarvis
leading the way. As we proceeded, he pointed out signs of his
genius intellect, such as chokeholds in the fortress, and traps set
to contain any would-be invaders. We entered a circular room with
eight passages extending in all directions.

"This place right here is the hub," our
kidnapper said. "If anyone gets this far, the doors seal them." He
clapped his hands together as if squashing a fistful of roaches.
"Then we annihilate the bastards from up there." He pointed to a
second floor where inert sentinels stood like statues. "Not that
they'd get this far, of course."

"This place is a certified deathtrap," David
said. "You must have studied military strategy."

The man nodded, a smug look on his face. "Ain't
nobody storming this castle."

"I'd bet you even have the doors locked down
with some kind of complex recognition spells, too," I
said.

"Nah, we have something even
better."

"Better?" I asked.

He returned a smug smile. "You'll find out soon
enough." Jarvis motioned us onward.

I memorized the corridors we took just in case
the information came in handy later.

After a few more twists and turns, our guide
led us through a wide doorway. I stopped listening to Jarvis as we
entered a large rectangular room filled with all sorts of odd
apparatuses. One device on the far right was composed of rings
within progressively smaller rings. A silver orb the size of a
cantaloupe rested in the center. Each ring had an independent axis,
presumably so they could spin in different directions. A Tesla coil
hung from the ceiling above, a thick metal rod with a pyramid of
discs spaced down its length with the smallest at the top. I
noticed several more of the coils arranged in a hexagonal shape on
the floor around the ring device. None looked active.

We passed a large silver box a little larger
than an old-school phone booth, something that looked like a seesaw
with circular saw blades along its length, and even an iron coffin
filled with metal coils. There were so many bizarre contraptions, I
couldn't take them all in.

This place is a certified mad
scientist's lab.

David nudged me. I followed his gaze and
gasped. A ring of at least five minders circled around our former
cellmate, Wax. The man stood frozen, eyes wide as the tentacles of
the disgusting creatures writhed around his head.

"What are they doing to him?" I
asked.

Jarvis chuckled. "You remember when I said we
had something better than spells controlling the doors and
sentinels?" He nodded toward the creatures. "Meet the
brain."

"The brain?" David asked.

I remembered Theresa's comment about feeding
the brain and would have recoiled in horror if not for the sentinel
holding me.

"That will be all, Jarvis," said a hard
feminine voice. A short blonde woman appeared from behind a
contraption that looked like a huge metronome constructed of brass
pipes.

Jarvis's eyes went a bit wide. "I was simply
showing—"

She cut the man off with a wave of her hand.
"See to your other duties."

Jarvis backed away, bowing as he did. "Yes,
Serena." He turned and left, glancing over his shoulder as if the
woman might set his pants on fire any minute.

"What's happening to Wax?" I asked
Serena.

She smiled sweetly. "Perhaps you'll find out,
young man. Follow me."

Despite feeling like a lamb being led to
slaughter, I did as she asked. Near the back of the room I saw a
low, stainless steel table. A white articulating arm hung over it.
An array of smaller hinged arms protruded from a metal ball at the
end, each one bearing horrors straight out of a dentist's
office.

"Lie down, please," she told me.

I looked at the table. My knees went weak as I
remembered my time as Maximus's prisoner. He'd kept me bound to a
metal table while his pet Arcane, Dash Armstrong, experimented on
me.

"No," I said, backing away. "I can't." Two
sentinels gripped me by either arm. Dragged me toward the table. I
struggled and fought like a cat on a leash. I couldn't lie on that
table. I felt sick to my stomach, like I was going to throw up. "I
can't!"

"Stop," David said. "I'll lie on the
table."

"I only want to examine him," Serena said,
still smiling.

"We're both demon spawn," he said. "I assure
you the results will be the same."

She turned an understanding gaze my way. "Of
course. Perhaps once he sees it's quite painless, he'll have the
courage to follow." She clenched a fist. "Buck up there, young
man."

I slumped to the floor as the sentinels
released me, my limbs weak with relief. But as I looked at my
father taking my place, guilt quickly swelled to replace any joy at
being spared.

Serena opened David's mouth, inspected his
teeth and throat like one might look at a horse for sale. She held
a scope to his eyes, looking intently into them. She checked his
pulse, and took his blood pressure as well. My father looked as
confused by the process as I was, and I began to think maybe she
didn't plan to drill into our skulls with one of the wicked
instruments on the articulating arm.

She wrote something on a notepad, clicked the
pen, and looked up. I turned my head and watched as one of the
minders circling Wax detached itself and glided silently over, its
translucent tentacles gliding over various apparatuses as it passed
them.

"Are you still running the Gloom Initiative?"
David asked, his eyes uneasily regarding the minder.

Serena turned her smile on him. "How do you
know about the initiative?"

"I work with Jarrod Sager's son," I
said.

Her gaze turned to me. "Jarrod abandoned the
initiative a long time ago. The poor man let politics overrule the
need for arcane research and discovery."

"What exactly have you discovered?" I asked.
"You have quite an operation here."

"Well, aren't you sweet?" She clasped her
hands. "I've dedicated my life to discovering the origin of the
relics like the Obsidian Arch network, the Grand Nexus, and so
forth."

"Are you about to feed me to the minder like
Wax?" Dad asked.

She tutted. "Of course not. I'm simply
extracting information. It's much easier this way than having to
perform something as crude and unpleasant as torture." She nodded
at the minder. "Now, if you'll just relax, let's get started." The
minder's tentacles lifted languorously, brushing against my
father's head. His eyes went blank.

One of the tentacles wrapped around Serena's
head. Instead of freezing, she seemed to be fully conscious. Her
eyes widened and flicked to David. "How interesting."

"What?" I asked.

She didn't answer but stood there for so long,
I wondered if she would ever move. I thought about diving for the
minder and ripping it away from my father, though the attempt might
simply put me in the same state he was in.

"Very informative," she said after a time, and
nodded. The minder's tentacles retracted from David's
head.

He sucked in a deep breath like a man who'd
just leapt into an ice pond. He propped himself on his elbows and
looked at the woman. "Did I make the team?"

"While I find your heritage very interesting,
you are only of secondary concern to me," Serena replied. She
turned to me. "Now, are you ready to be a big boy for
me?"

This woman's motherly tone was creeping me out.
Knowing I wouldn't be strapped down to the table made it easier for
me to lie down. I wasn't looking forward to the minder digging into
my skull but had no choice. Once again, she went through the
physical tests. I was just glad I didn't have to give her a stool
sample. When she looked at the minder, I tensed, waiting for the
cold grip of the tentacles. I closed my eyes, and willed myself to
float free in a sea of pitch black.

There's nothing to fear.

A cold numbness settled over me, and I realized
the minder must have me in its grip. I'd managed to slip into the
lucid dream state just before it touched me. It was a very strange
feeling. I sensed the minder as something not quite sentient in the
same way humans were. It was like part of a mind, but missing
certain elements that would give it full autonomy.

Autonomy?

The question echoed in the void, and I realized
it must have come from the minder itself.

Free will
, I sent back.

It seemed to have no response to that, and went
silent. I felt its psychic probes tightening around my head, as if
that would help it break past the barrier of lucidity I held
against it. The tentacles looked like tunnels of light to my mind's
eye. I wondered what would happen if I traveled through
one.

I floated in the still waters of the void,
wondering if I should chance it when a gentle wave caused me to
bob. Another wave broke over my face, making me sputter. I heard a
roaring, like a massive volume of water falling over a cliff, and
fear overwhelmed the calm.

What's happening to me?

Unknown,
said the calm whisper of the
minder.

I felt a wave cresting beneath me, picking me
up, and hurtling me through the invisible ocean. Barely keeping my
head above water, I saw a beam of light shining on something at the
base of the huge wave as it crested through darkness. "Crap!" I
shouted. The wave broke. I slid across rough wood and came to a
stop against a pile of rope. Pushing up on my knees, I coughed
water from my lungs. Double shadows appeared beneath me as two
sources of light hit from either side. I looked up and watched twin
suns rise in the sky. One glowed a deep violet. The other pulsated
like a white dwarf star. Between them hovered a huge gray
moon.

"What is this?" asked Serena.

I spun and saw her standing next to me on the
deck of a large galley ship. "A choice," I replied.

Her eyes widened for an instant. "She was
right. You are the Cataclyst."

"Who was right? Who said that about
me?"

She made as if to write something in an
notebook, but seemed to remember this was all in my head and
stopped herself. "Let us simply say it is vital you decide. You are
the progeny of Alysea and have a very important task ahead of
you."

I blinked in confusion. "Does that mean you
want me to succeed?"

"Of course I do." She took my hands and smiled.
"As the son of Alysea, you can help me in a way no other
can."

I couldn't tell if her smile was sincere or
not. "How can I help you?"

"Once you awaken from this, I will show
you."

I felt an odd sensation, like something cold
sliding away from my head, and Serena vanished. Water lapped at the
sides of the ship. The suns pulsed overhead, their erratic orbits
carrying them closer and closer to the gray moon. The three orbs
met. In the center of their juxtaposition, I saw nothing but clear
sky. It was like they were eating each other, or turning invisible
where they hit.

As I stared into the empty space where the suns
and moon met, I felt a sudden tugging on my chest. A great urgency
to make the decision.

As I'd told David, I already knew the right
choice wasn't any one of the three, but all of them. How exactly I
could announce my decision to choose all sides at once wasn't
apparent.

Once again, the three heavenly bodies merged
into one another leaving nothing more than a shimmer in the air,
though the light never dimmed. The pull on my consciousness grew
stronger. I felt heat rushing into my blood, and with it,
strength.