Aetherial Annihilation (4 page)

"The Seraphim will still have physical strength." I felt somewhat certain on that point even though I couldn't prove it right this moment. "But the Arcanes will be…"

"Yeah, go ahead and say it," Shelton grumbled. "We'll be useless."

"Well, you could play the battle flute," I suggested.

He snorted. "Anyway, we don't have many Seraphim left in these parts. Legiaros Ketiss took his army back to Seraphina." Shelton's forehead wrinkled. "The only Seraphim left in Eden are Justin, his mom, his sister, and Nightliss."

My heart grew heavy. "I don't know if Nightliss will show up to help."

Bella's eyes grew downcast. "The poor dear was really in a depression when she told me goodbye and left."

"Bah." Shelton rolled his eyes. "I don't get why she was so upset about Daelissa. That crazy bitch tried to kill her more times than I can remember."

Bella raised an eyebrow. "Yes, but family is family, Harry."

"There was more to it than that," I said.

"Isn't there always?" Shelton slashed the air with a hand. "All right, enough talk. You need to get your ass to Bangkok. I'll mention our wild theories to Thomas and see what he has to say about it."

I nodded. "We'll see you soon."

Bella blew us a kiss. "Please be careful." She sighed. "It's so frustrating you can't simply step through the portal."

"I just hope the Obsidian Arches aren't the same as this." I motioned to the barely functioning portal. "We'll talk soon."

Shelton sighed and nodded. "Good luck, man."

The gateway winked off.

Elyssa squeezed my hand. "We may have to wait out the flood before we can leave."

"It'll give me time to recover." I touched my ribs and gritted my teeth. "Maybe we can find a boat."

"Let's pray one survived." The look in her eyes didn't hold much hope.

No matter what, it was going to be a long journey home.

Chapter 3

We left the stairwell and went back outside. The hopeless misery on the faces of our trapped comrades dragged my emotions into the mud. We had to get back to Queens Gate or Atlanta as fast as possible, but I couldn't just leave these people behind. I would help them if I could. Unless we figured out how these meteors were destroying aether, it didn't matter how quickly I returned home.

"Let's see if any news organizations have charted the locations of the meteors," I told Elyssa. "I want to see one first hand."

"I wonder if destroying them would stop the effect," she mused.

I nodded. "Same thing I was thinking." My gaze shifted to the glow in the ocean. "I think that one is too far underwater to view."

"Probably." Elyssa stared at it for a long moment. "It's difficult to tell how deep it is from here."

It was hard for me to ignore the eyes of the others watching me. I couldn't blame them. Seeing a blue-skinned demon climb up the side of the building had probably been quite a shock. Then again, they'd probably been in shock already from seeing the asteroid crashing into the ocean.

The breeze should have somewhat cooled the area. Instead, a warm wind swept over us. I wondered if it had something to do with the way the meteor was destroying the aether, or if it was simply a slight change in weather from such a major disturbance.
Well, at least now I know why they call it meteorology.

Harley walked to the railing and stood beside us. "A lot of people are talking about you, Justin." He cast a look over his right shoulder.

"Are they ready to break out the pitchforks?" I asked.

"If Jay has his way, they'd throw you over the side." He chuckled. "Thankfully, nobody's taking him too seriously, especially after you took his gun."

I looked back at Jay—the sunburned man. He wore a Hawaiian shirt and bright red bikini briefs. "Where do you think he was hiding that gun?"

Elyssa grimaced. "Harley, we don't want any trouble, but if they come at us, we're more than capable of protecting ourselves."

"Considering the show you put on earlier, I think the others know that." He drew in a deep breath and stared at the glowing water offshore. "I've never been one for fairy tales or fantasy, at least not until today. Something otherworldly is going on, and I'd like to know what it is."

Elyssa and I exchanged a glance. She spoke first.

"A supernatural society has existed on Earth since the dawn of mankind. They eventually formed a government called the Overworld Conclave." She gauged Harley's reaction.

He simply nodded. "Okay. What kind of supernatural beings?"

"Vampires, lycans, felycans, Arcanes, Daemos—"

"Daemos—like demons?" Harley glanced at me.

I nodded. "We're humans with a mixed human-demon soul."

"And you can transform into that demon thing?"

"Yep." I crossed my arms and leaned on the railing. "Earth has several realms. The ones we know about are this one, Eden—"

"Like the biblical Eden?" His face betrayed the first signs of surprise.

"The name is the same, but don't get it confused with places from the Bible." Elyssa took over the narrative. "Haedaemos is what most people call Hell, and Seraphina might be analogous to Heaven."

"Yeah, but the Seraphim are anything but angels." I snorted. "In fact, we just won a war against them. There's a faction called the Brightlings who wanted to rule Eden. With the help of the other faction, the Darklings, we stopped them from taking over."

"Maybe I'd better sit down." Harley gripped the railing as if he needed it for support. "How in the world did you fight a war without it ending up on the news?"

"I'm with the Templars," Elyssa explained. "We have a faction called the Custodians who cover up supernatural scandals."

"You know, I expected a simple explanation, like, sure there are vampires and maybe even werewolves, but—" Harley shook his head. "This is almost too much." His eyes widened slightly. "Are you going to kill me now that I know?"

Elyssa chuckled. "No, we have Overworld Orientation for noms who find out about us."

"Noms?" He looked at us. "Oh, wait, kind of like normals, right?"

"And nom-noms," I added, as if he didn't already look disturbed enough. "That's because some factions feed off humans."

"I take it you're not bad people." Harley's voice sounded hopeful.

"I might be half demon, but I'm a nice guy." I grinned. "I'm also part Seraphim, but these meteors seem to have wrecked my magical abilities."

Harley seemed to relax. "You mentioned Arcanes earlier. What do they do?"

"You might also call them sorcerers or wizards." It brought back my first memory of Shelton. I'd called him a sorcerer for quite a while before adapting to the official lingo. "Just don't call them magicians, or they get really peeved."

"Where are you from, Harley?" Elyssa asked in an abrupt change of subject.

"I'm originally from Chicago, but I got tired of the same old crap job and crap life." He closed his eyes as another warm breeze found us. "I sold everything and moved here." He pointed toward the flooded beach. "I have—or had—a little shack where I sold surfboards and other knick-knacks. Just enough to make a living."

"Are you familiar with the mainland?"

"Of course." He grinned. "I travel to Bangkok regularly. The women there are amazing."

"We need to get back to the States." My stomach rumbled and I tried not to think about food. "To do that we need to get to Bangkok. There's an arch there that can instantly transport us back."

Harley's mouth dropped open. "Are you serious?"

I nodded. "Yep. If you want to visit Chicago, I might be able to arrange it."

"I'd love to see my sister. I haven't been back in years." His gaze traveled to the beach. "Looks like I won't be doing business anytime soon."

Jay, flanked by a small group of other men, approached us.

"We want you off our building," Jay said to me. "Get thee behind me Satan!" He and the others held up their fingers in the sign of the cross.

"Ah!" I held up my hands and backed away. "Please, no, the pain! The pain!"

Jay bared his teeth in a grin and advanced. "I told you it would work! This creature is the harbinger of the apocalypse."

I limped backward a few more steps, then couldn't hold it in any longer and burst into laughter. My ribs protested angrily, and a few tears of pain joined the tears of mirth.

Elyssa rolled her eyes and sighed. "Seriously, Justin?"

Jay and his pals looked comically confused, especially as they pushed their crossed fingers toward me to no effect.

I made the cross with my fingers and walked toward them. "Be gone, ye moronic buffoons. Ye harbingers of the idiocracy that will destroy this world."

"You leave us no choice, demon." With that, Jay loosed a roaring battle cry that sounded a lot like a midget trapped in a washing machine. The others in his group ran at me and picked me up.

Despite my supernatural strength, I wasn't much heavier than most other people, even with my extra dense muscles. All those hands grappling my sore body sent pain racing along every nerve fiber.

I heard explosive exhalations, meaty thunks, and the sound of bodies hitting the floor—or as it were, the roof. I landed on my feet as the last hooligan caught the business end of Elyssa's fists and went down hard.

She stood over them, violet eyes glowing with menace. "Stay away from us, or I'll throw you off the roof next time."

"We're doomed!" Jay curled into a ball and wailed. "The Devil himself is here with his succubus whore."

Elyssa's fists tightened and every knuckle cracked. I hopped in the way before Jay received a one-way ticket to the Promised Land. "Let's everybody just calm down." Much as I wanted to kick Jay in the stomach a few times, it would only make me a bully. I couldn't pummel the guy just because he was a misguided idiot.

I looked at the rest of the group, some twenty or so people, huddled against the railing. The doctor—I still didn't know her name—stood apart from them, an appraising look in her eyes. She finally walked over to us.

"I've official decided you're not evil." She glanced at Harley who was having a good laugh at Jay's expense. "Can you use your super powers to get us out of here?"

"That's the topic of discussion." I winced and rubbed my right side. The broken bones there still hadn't mended very well despite my supernatural abilities. I had to assume the lack of magical energy might be the cause. Then again, I'd suffered extreme physical trauma. The water had nearly squashed me like a bug.

"I don't suppose you can fly," the doctor said.

"Not at present." Though I'd recently learned how to fly with aether wings, that wasn't going to work with the aether shortage. "By morning I should be healed enough to swim out and look for a boat." The glow of the meteor gave us limited vision, but not enough to see any great details far out from our refuge.

"The water should be receded by the morning," Harley said. "We'll be able to leave the hotel and look around."

"If that's the case, I'm going to bed." I'd planned to just leave and go to a dry bedroom, but looking at the miserable faces nearby, I felt like what they really needed was some sort of leadership, even if they thought I was a demon. I caught Elyssa watching me.

She smiled. "I love you."

"You sound proud of me for some reason."

"That's because you can't ignore suffering. You want to help people." Elyssa leaned her head on my shoulder. "You're a good man with a big heart, and you want to do what's right even if it's a pain in the ass."

"If that's the case, why did I run away from my responsibilities?"

"Everyone gets burned out, Justin." She put her hand on my shoulder. "You deserved the time off."

"I guess this is my reward." I took a deep breath. "Here goes." I clapped my hands and winced at the jolt of pain in my ribs and right arm. I raised my left hand to get everyone's attention. Since most people had been keeping an eye on me ever since my dramatic entrance, every gaze was on me in an instant. "Hello, everyone. My name is Justin, and I have a few ideas I'd like to share." Nobody screamed at me, so I continued. "The rooms on the top few levels are probably dry. I suggest everyone find a room and get some sleep. In the morning, I'll try to find a boat. We'll navigate back to the mainland and get everyone safely to Bangkok somehow."

"I'll not follow you," Jay proclaimed. "You're leading us to the branding iron to be marked with the number of the Beast." He staggered to his feet. "He leads you to temptation and damnation."

I let Jay go on for a moment as he shouted all the awful things that would happen to anyone following me.

"Will you kindly shut the hell up?" a large man bellowed. "That guy is strong enough to launch you into orbit. His girlfriend could've torn off your head. Instead, they let you live." He blew out a frustrated breath. "If you'd messed with me or my family, I would've already thrown you off the roof."

"Yeah, just shut your stupid mouth," a woman chimed in. "I want to get home."

Murmurs of agreement rose from the others.

Jay growled, but slunk to the stairwell door. He stopped and faced us. "May God have mercy on your damned foolish souls." He slammed the door behind him.

I sighed. "Alrighty, then. Let's get some rooms, get some sleep, and hopefully in the morning, we'll find a way off this rock."

An older man spoke. "I've been checking the news on my phone and it doesn't sound like the Thai government is sending help anytime soon. The mainland coast suffered some damage too."

Groans rose from the others.

"Is Bangkok still in one piece?" I asked.

He nodded. "From what I've read, nothing happened farther inland."

"Okay, let's go get some sleep." I went to the stairwell door and tugged on it. It opened a fraction before catching on something. I peeked through the crack and saw a fire axe lodged in the handle. "Looks like Jay tried to lock us up here." I motioned to Elyssa. "Will you do the honors?"

"Sure, hon." Elyssa gripped the door handle and tugged hard. Wood cracked. The door flew open and the axe head dinged on the ground.