Dark Calling (65 page)

“I am stronger than you,” Keely’s father declares.  “I’m more powerful.  You’re outnumbered.
”  He spreads his arms wide.
 
“
You cannot win.  I’ve seen it
; y
ou lose.”

“You know as well as I do the prophecies a
re not set in stone,
”
Ramuell states.

The King laughs.  “Yes, because our Father gave us all free will.  What a terrible joke.  He gives us this gift, but He doesn’t tru
ly want us to use it. 
When I use my freedom, He finds a
way to destroy it.  Well, no more.  When I sit upon His thrown
,
all creatures will
indulge in
their
every
fan
tasy.  It will be He who bows at
my feet and repents.  It will be He who pleads for my grace.”

“You’ve gone mad.  The centuries spent with Demons has destroyed you,” Ramuell says.

“My Father destroyed me! 
You destroyed me. 
My brother.  My dearest friend.  You turned your back on me.  You stood by and did nothing.  You let Him cast me into He
ll.  All because I fell in love?
  Becaus
e I loved another more than Him?
Why was that such a sin, B
rother?”

“You didn’t fall in love!  You coveted what you did not have.  That’s how it has always been with you.  Always wanting wh
at someone else has
.
  Always needing more power.  We were wrong to fall.  None of us did it for the right reasons.  Our children were proof of that.”

“You deny your
grandson?  Look at the man he’
s become.  Strong.  Determined.”  He nods his head at Asmoday.  “He is all the proof I need to know I was right then, and I am right now.”

“No.  My Father found a way to make right what you did wrong.  Asmoday is the flower that bloomed despite the spoiled soil he emerged from.  You tried to make him like you, but he is too much like
his mother. 
Even your influence cannot change his heart.”

“
His heart,”
he says the word with detest, “h
is only weakness.
”

“His greatest strength,” Ramuell corrects.

The Demon King gazes steadily at Ramuell.  “Not if it doesn’t beat.”  He sinks into the ground again coming up behind Asmoday.  He reaches for him, but Asmoday has already committed to the jump.  As the King locks onto him, they both disappear.

Keely spins in a circle, searching for their destination. Not far from the doorway into Mount Zion the a
ir swirls, kicking up dirt and grass
.  Asmoday falls to the ground, the King on top of him.  Keely burst into a sprint
,
moving faster than she eve
r thought possible. 

Two people emerge from the doors. 
One tall and skinny.  The other
is small and petite.  A girl.  She stands above Asmoday and Keely’s father as
they roll on the ground.  L
ifts her hands above her head and th
e setting sun shimmers off something,
glaring into Keely’s eyes. 

There’
s no time to think.  Only to act.  Keely dives forward, her talisman extended in front of her as she tackles the girl.  They somersault over each other, the girl landing on top of Keely.
 

“I had him, you idiot,” Mianna spits.  She slaps Keely across the face and screams with outrage.  Her fingers wind into Keely’s hair. 
“You stupid little bitch.  You’
re always in my way!”  Mianna lifts Keely by her hair and slams her head into the stone steps.  “I wish your brother would let me kill you.”  She slams Keely’s head back
down and pushes herself off
her.

Keely kicks out her leg sweeping
it at Mianna’s feet.  She falls
and Keely pounces on top of her.  “Ego expello lux,” she cries as she touches the necklace to Mianna’s pale skin.  The Demon girl screams and flails her arms.  Keely fumble
s
for the dagger.
 

Mianna screams again and rolls
,
putting herself on top of Keely
.  Using her knees, she pins Keely’s arms at her sides.
  Keely struggles, trying to work her arms free.  Mianna laughs and wraps her thin fingers around Keely’s throat.  “We’ll just pick this up where we left off earlier.
  I don’t care what he says, you need to die.
”

A shadow falls over them and a loud sound rings out.  Keely is deaf for a moment as something whizzes past her face and hits the glowing circle of light over Mianna’s chest.  She explodes in a st
orm of salt
.

Keely turns to the side
and shields her face as the salt
sett
les over her.  She chokes, cough
ing hoarsely.  Lila grips Keely’s hands and sits her up.  She beats on her back with an open palm.  “Come on Keel, there’s no time to lie around.”

Keely squints up at her.  “What?” she shouts.

“You don’t have to yell, I’m like
,
right here
.”

“What?”  Keely puts her finger in her ear and wiggles it.  “All I can hear is ringing.”

Lila smiles.  “Sorry
about
that.”

“What?”

“Oh, for the love of all that is holy.”  Lila yanks Keely up and turns her back toward the doors.  She points.  “Go.”

“Where’s Asmoday?”  Keely looks to the
place she last saw him.  There’
s a section of dark brown stone
soaked in blood.  Her heart falls into her stomach. 

“He’s already inside,” Lila says.
 
“
Your father too.”

Keely concentrates on Lila’s lips, trying to under
stand her.  Lila rolls her eyes
and turns Keely’s head.  She shouts into her other ear.  “They’re both inside.  When you get in there, do me a favor.  Send that treacherous pig out.”

“Who?”  Keely tries to turn and look at her, but Lila grips her firmly and puts her mouth up to Keely’s ear
.  I
n a crisp
,
cold voice
she
says, “Dustin.”  She closes her eyes and adds, “He’s mine.”

***

“Keely, wait,” Nick calls.  He ducks a blow from a large zombie-esc Demon and runs over to her.  He slips his dagger into the belt of his jeans and pulls her against him.  “Be careful.”  He hesitates, licking his lips.  Whatever he decides in that moment, he doesn’t say.  He leans forward and kisses her.  One hand cups the back of her head, the other her cheek.  The fierce sweep of his lips shocks her senses.
  It’s full of love and goodbyes
.

Keely’
s spent so much time concentrating on losing Asmoday that she forgot she could just as easily lose Nick.  And now
the realization freezes her insides with
dread.  She could lose them all
.

Reluctantly, Nick releases her.  “I’ll be waiting for you.”
 
Keely nods numbly.
  She kicks salt
from her shoes
with a sickened shiver
,
remembering it’s Mianna.

“Nick.”  Keely takes his hand.  “Mianna said she wasn’t allowed to kill me.  She said my
brother
said she wasn’t allowed to kill me.”

Nick stares at her blankly.

“Apophis made it sound as if Mianna turned on him.  Like she ran off to share his spell with my father to use it against him.”

“But if that’s the case, then why was she still following his orders?”  Nick’s eyes spark with anger. 

“Exactly.”

“He set us up.”

Keely bites her lip and looks back to the door.  She knows she has to go.

“
Go Keely.  I’ll take care of it.”  He pulls his hand away and nods at her.  “I love you.”

“I love you too, Nick.”

***

Nick watches Keely
move under the threshold
of the rocky building
until her form disappears into the darkness.  The sun sinks past
the horizon leaving him in the
dark as well.  He glide
s his dagger
out and sur
veys his surroundings.  He
find
s
Apophis languidly
revoking the spe
ll on a
small group of Demons.  He
meets Nick’s eyes and smiles.

And now Nick wants his blood.

The smile falters from Apophis’ face for half a second before he plasters an even bigger one on.
  “I’ve got a few ready for you, Guardian,” he
says.

Nick shoulders one of the Demons out of his way while bringing his dagger up quick
ly
into the
gut of another.  A third
Demon tries to flee but Nick throws his arm around its neck in a choke hold and sticks his blade into its spine.  He jerks his hand,
giving it a small twist and salt
explodes against him. 

Without hesitation, Nick turns toward Apophis and rushes him.  As Nick tackles him, the smile Apophis still wears turns wickedly amused.  Air rushes from Nick’s lips in a hiss just as they hit the ground.  He rolls off of Apophis, his hand flying to his stomach.  I
t comes away wet
with blood and
Nick
looks at it with
alarm
.

It takes Apophis a moment to get to his feet
and then
he’
s standing over Nick
with his trademark knife in hand
.  “So sorry about that, but I had to protect myself.  Did you
mistake me for one of the other
Demons?”

Nick looks from his bloody fingers to Apophis’ grinning face.  “I didn’
t mistake you.
”  He tries to sit up
,
but the pain is excruciating.  His stomach burns.  His body feels heavy.  Head dizzy.

“I’m on your side, remember?”

“You’re on your side.  Like always.  You set us up.”

Apophis clicks his tongue and looks back to the doors Keely entered a moment ago.  “She’s a clever one.  She knew the whole time?”

Nick doesn’t answer him.  His mind whirls
,
trying to figure out how to take this monster down.

With a shrug Apophis turns his attention back to Nick.  “
Cute the way she played along.  Used me while she could.  Smart.  But
I’m also very clever.”
  He lowers himself so that he’
s squatting next to Nick.  His eyes dart around to insure they haven’t been notice
d, but in the mayhem, everyone’
s preoccupied.  “I needed the thrown.  Asmoday would never just hand it over
,
of course, so I came up with a way
to force his hand
.  Th
is puppy dog love he has for my sister
has proven quite useful.”

“So you sent Mianna to your father?  Had her give him the spell just so you had a bargaining chip?
  These
Demons could just as easily kill you.”

“Not when I cast the spell on myself.”

Nick’s last bit of hope shrivels up and shrinks away.  He stares at Apophis in defeat.  “What are you waiting for then?”

“Well
,
little Guardian, either my father is going to kill Asmoday, an
d I will need to kill my father,
or Asmoday is going to kill my father, and I will need to kill Asmoday.  I can’t trust anyone else to do it.  You know what they say, if you want something done right, yada, yada, yada.”

Apophis plays with the tip of his large blade.  He swings it out toward Nick.  “How do you want it?”  He touches the tip to Nick’s throat.  “Quick and painless?”  He moves it to his stomach.  “Or nice and slow?”

Squeezing the dagger in his hand, Nick takes a deep breath.  It hurts everywhere.  Even if he can’
t kill Apophis
, he can at least give him a nice scar to remember him by.  He summons the last bit of energy he can find and aims for the same place Apophis left a scar on Keely.  He drives the knife into Apophis’ throat and puts his weight into it as he yanks it to the side.

Face white with astonishment, Apophis falls backward.  He drops his knife, putting his hands to his throat.  Nick retrieves it and pushes himself over to Apophis. 

Sputtering and choking.  Gagging and drowning in blood, Apophis writhes on the ground.  And Nick realizes there are some things worse than death.  Like being unable to heal yourself as you slowly bleed out.  Like knowing you are asphyxiating in your own fluid and it is your
own
damn
fault
.  He
tucks the dagger into his belt.  Leans over Apophis and uses his white jacket t
o wipe the blood off of his knife.  Without a
word, Nick turns and walks away.