Infernal Father of Mine (43 page)

"How long until our armor recharges?" I
asked.

She traced a pattern on her sleeve. A meter
appeared showing only a sliver of red. "We need at least twenty
minutes."

I groaned. "Someone needs to make
longer-lasting aether batteries."

"I can make them charge faster," Mom said. She
gave me a meaningful look. "You should be able to as well. Remember
how you told me you charged the flying carpet when you were chasing
Maulin Kassus?"

"And set it on fire?" Elyssa asked. "I don't
want to catch on fire."

"Give me a break," I said. "I got a little
excited and overcharged it."

Mom pressed a hand to my armor and Dad's. "Our
powers are muted here, son. Even at full strength there shouldn't
be any danger of spontaneous combustion."

Dad barely repressed a snort.

I frowned at him. "You have a sick sense of
humor."

"Can you truthfully tell me you didn't find it
funny?" he whispered.

I imagined him screaming as he threw off
burning armor and was forced to run around the Gloom naked. I held
back a laugh.

He winked. "See? Sick minds think
alike."

I pressed a hand to Mom and Elyssa's armor and
concentrated on charging them. It took me a moment to remember how
to rejigger my thinking so I could become a walking, talking
charger. Once I managed that, I felt aether channeling through
me.

A surprised look came over Elyssa's face as she
watched the charge indicator creep up at about one percent every
few seconds. I pushed harder and was rewarded by a slight increase
in speed.

"I wonder how Serena can attune the rune
without me," I said. "She seemed pretty confident."

"I don't know," Dad said. "And I don't want to
give her the chance."

Elyssa knocked my hand off her armor.
Apparently it had reached full charge while I was busy talking.
Mom's armor was also at full charge. Mine and Dad's were only about
halfway. I joined my efforts with Mom's and strained to listen in
case Serena came back but heard nothing.

After our suits finished charging, we slipped
into camo mode and followed Elyssa across the lab. I saw the minder
brain drifting lazily without any victims caught in tentacles. We
stayed behind cover until we reached the arch room doors and peeked
through. Again, I was amazed at its size. The circular chamber was
at least a hundred yards in diameter. The domed ceiling looked
about seventy feet at the highest point. Something about the
ceiling looked different, though I couldn't quite put a finger on
it. We made our way across the room.

Mom sucked in a breath at the sight of the
Shadow Nexus. "It looks just like the Grand Nexus, though the
colors are off."

Earlier, I'd told the others about how Serena
had grown it from a cube left by the mysterious builders of the
arches. "It seems to work just fine," I said, looking from side to
side in case any stray minders or Nazdal were wandering about.
"Which is why we need to capture it and shut this place
down."

Mom nodded and walked up to the arch. "I still
only remember bits and pieces of how I activated the original
arch," she said. "But I do remember how to remove the Cyrinthian
Rune without causing another Desecration."

"That's exactly what we'll need to do after we
shut down Serena," I said.

"What about the minder brain?" Dad asked,
jabbing a thumb in their general direction.

"We can't invade with the minders still in
control. The sentinels will tear us apart." I looked at the large
room and wondered how much of the building was real, and how much
was dreamcasted. I didn't want it collapsing on us. "While Serena
is gone, I'm going to see if I can draw the minders into the
psionic disruptor."

Elyssa made a quick circuit around the room and
returned. "Looks empty." She deactivated her camouflage, and we did
the same.

Mom hummed a few notes as she inspected the
rune in the arch. Her eyebrows pinched. "The rune isn't attuned to
Eden."

"It was when we left it," I said.

Mom's eyes widened. "This arch is set to open
in Seraphina. Serena must have already done it."

My stomach twisted into a jumbo-sized knot.
Somehow, Serena had attuned the arch to the angel home world.
Daelissa really didn't need the Grand Nexus anymore.

"How is that possible?" Dad asked.

Mom shook her head. "Serena said she had the
key."

"Why would Serena have kept this from
Daelissa?" Elyssa asked. "She could have opened it for her
already."

"I think she wants Daelissa in full control of
her faculties when she opens it," Mom said.

My mouth suddenly felt very dry. "How long will
it take you to realign it with Eden?"

"Several minutes." Mom held her hand out to the
rune, eyes closed in concentration. "I can't tell if the arch was
used. It feels cold which probably means she hasn't actually opened
it yet."

"That's good, right?" Dad asked. "It means we
don't have a horde of Seraphim in the fortress."

"It's not good any way you look at it." Mom bit
her lower lip. "Perhaps we should take the rune and find another
way out of the Gloom. We can't risk losing the battle with Serena
and leaving her with a fully functional nexus."

Elyssa swatted the idea out of the air.
"Absolutely not. We have enough assets waiting on the other side of
the arch to shut Serena down once and for all. Then, and only then,
will we deactivate this arch."

"I don't think you understand, child." Mom
regarded her with soft eyes. "If we lose this battle, we lose the
war. But if we take the rune, Daelissa will still be shut off from
Seraphina and reinforcements."

"What makes you think Daelissa still has the
political capital to command a Seraphim army?" Dad said. "For all
we know your current leaders will kick her to the curb if she shows
up after being gone for so long."

"That was exactly what I thought would happen
when Daelissa and inner circle conspired to overthrow our political
system thousands of years ago," Mom said. "Feeding off humans made
them incredibly strong. They overpowered all resistance and wiped
out the government. Daelissa and the others established a regency
with her closest advisor, Skazaeleus as the regent."

"Sounds like a monarchy by council," Dad said,
a sour expression on his face. "I assume what's-his-face stayed in
power even after the Desecration."

"It's likely, though we've been cut off for so
long, anything's possible," Mom replied. "If Skazaeleus is still in
power after all these millennia, Daelissa will have her
invasion."

I decided to toss my own two cents in. "Maybe
they got tired of his crap and overthrew him."

Mom shrugged. "We have no way of knowing until
we open the portal."

Elyssa shook her head. "I understand your
concerns, Alysea." She placed a hand on Mom's shoulder and looked
her in the eye. "I need you to hear me out. Serena has multiple
ways to ferry troops into and out of the Gloom. The arch ripper
Justin told me about is probably a small sample of the devices she
has at her disposal. This means Nazdal could pour into the mortal
realm from any Obsidian Arch. They could surprise attack us
anywhere around the world. Imagine what they could do to people
living in one of the pocket dimensions like the Grotto."

"It would be a massacre." Mom shuddered. "I
hadn't thought of that."

"I have a plan that should prevent Daelissa
from controlling this arch in case we do lose this battle." Elyssa
looked up at the black-veined structure. "Once my troops are
through, I want you to remove the rune."

Mom's eyes flashed wide. "But that
means—"

"We'll all be trapped here. No retreat, no
surrender."

As if my stomach weren't already one giant iron
ball of stress, the idea of being trapped in this place with
Daelissa's imminent return added a thick layer of heart attack
gravy to the mix. Unfortunately, I couldn't disagree with Elyssa's
idea. "Mom, you remove the rune and escape."

Mom shook her head. "I'm not leaving. I will
remove the rune and hand it off to a Templar who can hopefully take
it somewhere nobody will find it in case we lose the
battle."

"I can agree to that," Elyssa said. She
motioned toward the arch. "Let's get started. We've wasted enough
time already."

Dad nudged me on the shoulder. "Ready to go
slaughter some minders? We need to get rid of that thing before it
dreamcasts an army of sentinels."

"Wish I'd gone potty before we left the house,"
I replied. "But unless you can dreamcast a port-a-potty, yeah,
killing the brain sounds like a good plan."

Elyssa kissed me. "Be careful, and kick
ass."

I flashed her a confident look. "I'll see you
soon, babe." The room fell quiet as the weight of the situation
sunk in. I was about to offer up one last witty comment when a
faint noise caught my ear. "Do you hear something?"

She tilted her head. "No."

I held out my hands. "Everyone be
quiet."

Again, the sound. Like a very faint gurgling.
My heart froze solid. My eyes wandered up the wall of the domed
room. When they reached the curving ceiling, I realized something
was definitely off. The surface looked lumpy and uneven in spots.
"Mom, get started on the arch right now."

She backed away toward the rune. "What's
wrong?"

The ceiling swarmed with movement. The
gurgling, wheezing sound grew to a susurrus. Camouflaged Nazdal
revealed themselves, clambered down the walls, and moved across the
floor towards the arch. Their red eyes glowed with hunger and
bloodlust. The urge to drop a load vanished as my sphincter shrank
to the size of a molecule.

Maloreck appeared at the head of the pack. He
was big as a lion. Raw muscle showed through parts of his skin, and
drool still hung from his gaping jaw. Unfortunately, it seemed the
worse a Nazdal looked, the healthier they actually were. "She knew
you would return." His chest heaved with a heaving laugh. "You are
brave to come with such a small pack."

"Maloreck, join my pack," I said, extending a
hand. I heard Mom begin singing in the background.
Stall for
time.
"Together, we will make the mightiest tribe ever." My
words sounded incredibly lame, but I didn't know what else to say
under the circumstances.

"You have not proven you can beat the bright
one." He took a step forward, long yellowed claws clacking against
the stone. "I am still hers to command unless you defeat
her."

"I haven't had time to challenge her to a
duel," I said. "Maybe we can wait a few minutes and see if she
shows up."

"She comes as she wills," he replied, taking
another step forward. "Her underling told us to kill any who came
into this room." Wet gurgling, like sick cats trying to purr, grew
louder as Nazdal closed in from all sides.

"There must be at least a hundred," Dad
whispered in my ear. "Unless Alysea opens the portal, there's not
much I can do."

I reached through the window in my soul and
found all the power I could muster. I summoned orbs of burning Murk
and Brilliance in each hand, and faced my palms toward the
encroaching creatures as if I might give them a bear hug. "I am
greater than the bright one," I said in as loud a voice as
possible. "I will destroy any who step closer."

Mom's voice rose in pitch before diving deeper
in a series of notes so quick I could hardly follow. I felt a
tremor in the air, a vibration touching my back, and sensed what
lay on the other side of the nexus.

Seraphina
.
Home.

I shook off the feeling. That place wasn't my
home. Eden was.

"You look strong," Maloreck gurgled. "But
appearance is not always truth."

"Take one more step and you'll find out the
truth," I said, plastering a fierce grin on my face, and hoping it
really looked fierce and not stupid.
I have to protect Mom at
all costs.

Two smaller Nazdal advanced past Maloreck. One
dropped its lower jaw almost to the floor, making its mouth wide
enough to swallow a dog whole. It and its companion crawled
forward.

I wasn't sure if they were independent thinkers
or testing the waters for their boss. At this point, it didn't
matter. I had to act or look weak. Pushing as much power into the
Brilliance as I could, I shot a white hot beam at the closest
interloper and sliced its lower jaw clean off. It let out a scream
that could have peeled the polish off a woman's fingernails. Its
buddy leapt at me. I spun and roundhoused it out of the air,
sending it crashing and skidding through its comrades.

Maloreck crunched down on the neck of the
screaming Nazdal, and the room went silent except for the
purr-gurgles from the horde around us. His lids went heavy with
pleasure as he drank in the life force of the fallen.