Eve of Redemption (55 page)

HIS DAUGHTER’S SCREAMS gave Burke the strength to pull himself to his feet. “What’s happening to her? What are you doing to her?”

“Why I’m not doing anything, my boy,” the figure said, this time in the voice of his grandfather, Caleb Burke. “She’s doing all of this herself. Of course, I may have had a hand in selecting just what souls she invited to be her Eve.”

Burke’s numb mind could not comprehend what this demon-man was talking about. “What?”

“Come now, my boy. You know who I was, what I did. Your father made no secret that he was the son of a serial killer. Had to confess the sins of the father to clear his conscience and all that. He told you I was dead, I’m sure. That’s what they all thought, eventually. By the time you came along, it was ancient history. Pretty young women, murdered by some madman. Quite the scandal, I assure you. It started innocently enough, an accident, actually, but I had a savior, and he gave me the power to do whatever I wanted whenever I wanted. Those dark souls you saw crying out? Those young women were not the only ones. Not even close. Agibus needed some particular souls for this little project of his—the darkest, vilest of your human race. I got to kill them, and Agibus harvested their souls, storing them here until the day your lovely daughter came to give them all a new home.”

“You’re a monster.”

Caleb laughed. “Monster? Yes, I guess I am at that. However, I am nothing compared to what your little girl is going to come out of there as. Can you imagine? All those evil souls in one body, a body fed by the power of the Bene Ha’ Elohim. Then, all she has to do is kill the one she loves most. That would be you.”

Burke nearly laughed at that. “Well, grandfather, that’s where your plan falls apart. Sara doesn’t love me. She hates me for abandoning her, for getting her mom killed and not coming after her.” Burke pulled himself to his feet, but his shoulders sagged at the confession.

“Oh no, Johnny. That’s where you’re wrong. Dead wrong, we might say. You always held the highest place in her heart. You were too busy to see it, but she loved you more than life itself. She still does, but she’ll kill you anyway, and the portal will open. Then we will follow the Bene Ha’ Elohim into your world, destroy every puny human in it, and reestablish our place as the supreme beings in creation.”

“What about you, Grandfather? What about your humanity?”

Caleb chuckled. “I ceased to be human long ago, Johnny.”

As Caleb spoke those words, the floating cocoon began to hum and vibrate. Its color changed from bright blue to sickly gray, then faded to black, casting the cavern into darkness, only a few light crystals still providing illumination. The air in the cavern grow heavy, pressing in on Burke’s eardrums. He didn’t have to be a genius to know this new change in the atmosphere of the room originated from the spot where Sara had disappeared. The pressure continued to grow until he was forced to cover his ears in an attempt to keep it out of his head.

“Well, Johnny,” Caleb said, “I think it’s time to meet Eve.”

B
urke’s eyes bulged almost out of their sockets as the pressure in the air continued to grow. The room itself was silent, waiting expectantly for the next great piece of the puzzle to fall into place. It didn’t take long. The space where the glowing cocoon had once been had gone dark, so dark it seemed to pull the cavern’s light into it. Burke recalled the black holes that astronomers talked about and thought this probably fit the description. Except that with a black hole, the gravity within pulled things in, like a voracious mouth in space. Here, he was awaiting the thing that was about to be born out of the black mass.

As he stared, a massive bolt of lightning formed out of thin air and struck the hovering mass. The sonic concussion that followed slammed into Burke, sending him hard against the wall. He willed himself to remain conscious, and somehow managed. His broken arm had gone numb, which was probably for the best since it was useless anyway.

He ignored the pain as he sat up and tried to focus his gaze back on the object in the center of the room. The mass had grown to twice its original size so that its bottom rested on the floor of the cavern. Flashes of multicolored light burst from it. He blinked his eyes in an attempt to clear his vision. Something moved inside the cocoon. Something human shaped. Something alive.

“Sara?” Burke whispered, praying to the God he had come to rely on that she was all right. But it was not Sara who emerged from the cocoon.

Eve stepped from the ragged shell, lightning splintering in all directions off her body. Her head hung, black hair draping her face like a protective cover. Her shoulders, wider than those of the girl who had entered, heaved as she sucked in deep breaths of air. Slowly, Eve’s arms lifted from her sides, fingers splayed open, bursts of power shooting from each one. As dark red and blue lights flashed from within her body, Burke could see Eve writhing, the spirits that created her darting in their dance of rage.

Burke felt himself pushing hard against the wall behind him, certain he would bolt if he were able. Whatever stood before him was not his daughter but some monster from hell.

Love her.

The words burned in his mind like lava. Love that? How could such a thing even be asked of him?

Love her.

Again the voice, not severe, not even stern. Burke forced himself to gaze at the form before him. She still had not raised her head, hadn’t looked at him, though he could feel her hatred. The air pulsed with it. He took a deep breath and forced himself to see this terrible being as his daughter. Somewhere in all that anger, she lived and needed her father—just as he needed his father. The voice tugged at his heart, cracking the vault of fear and self-loathing in which it had for so long been encased.

As I have loved her.

Yes, Lord
. Tears streamed down Burke’s face.
I can do that.

Then Eve’s head rose, and her flaming eyes fell on him. Burke almost lost his tenuous grip on courage. If his daughter was in there, surely she was lost to him. Eve’s left hand came up, and a bolt of black energy launched from it. Almost without thought, Burke’s own power surrounded him in a protective shell. Again, her power shot toward him, and again he blocked it. The explosions were like nothing Burke had ever encountered. Icy cold surrounded him with each burst, numbing his body while crushing him against the immovable stone behind. He knew he had to move, or—mystical shield or no—he would not survive much longer.

Burke staggered to his feet, head spinning. He waited for the next burst to knock him down again, but it didn’t come. Instead, he felt pressure wrap around him. Eve’s blazing eyes locked with his. The pressure built as she forced her will into his mind. Burke’s hands flew to either side of his head, trying to hold it together as her godlike mind invaded his own. Darkness and fury swirled within him, and Burke knew if he didn’t do something, this thing would kill him. His own anger rose up, challenging that which violated him with such passion. He felt power rise up as well, righteous power that would smite such a foul creature. The pressure in his mind lessened. Something else changed as well. He thought he sensed…fear? Could it be that this hell-spawn feared him? No, not him, the power that flowed through him. It feared God.

Burke swallowed his anger and let the power fade. “I won’t fight you.” His voice was little more than a hoarse whisper, but he had no doubt that the dark being heard.

“Then you will die,” Eve replied. Her voice sounded like it came from a garbled Host all speaking at once. He found nothing to sustain his belief that Sara still existed within Eve, but he held tight to it anyway.

“So be it.”

“You would die anyway,” she said, and Burke thought he detected a hint of amusement. “Your god is no match for us.”

“You are already defeated.”

UNIMAGINABLE POWER FLOODED Sara’s every cell. No, not Sara, Eve. Sara was no more than a distant memory to this new being. She was aware of only one thing now—hate. Hate for the puny human she now faced, hate for the demonic forces she so willingly served, but most of all, hate for the God who had made her life miserable. A part of her knew this hate was more than hers alone. She was aware of the multitude of murdered spirits that had formed to bring her into being. The tiny spark that was still Sara Burke cringed at the malevolence that demanded vengeance, but Eve embraced all of it, taking in the hatred and making it her own.

More than these dark spirits fed her. Lurking in the shadows of the cavern were the half-human demon lord and his lackey. She could sense the smug satisfaction of Agibus and the pleasure of his human side, Caleb. Her own hatred of the human serial killer welled up, only to be quenched by her terror of him. She knew she should be strong enough to annihilate the demon lord, but he held some form of power over her that her limited understanding could not fathom. It was of no consequence. Her only thought now was to kill the human man and open the portal to the world of the humans.

The thought of opening the portal flooded Eve’s dark mind with the anxious roars of the Bene Ha’ Elohim as they pounded at the walls of their prison. Their unquenchable bloodlust fed Eve’s own, and the dark force of her power surged.

LIGHTNING FLASHED FROM Eve’s body. Without warning, both of her hands shot forward, launching twin missiles of cold darkness. This time no shield protected him as the terrible cold sank deep into Burke’s soul. He fell to his knees and gasped as deepest despair flooded him, only the tiniest spark of hope remaining.

“I love you.” The effort to speak those words drained what little strength he had, but even as he spoke them, Burke felt the spark of hope grow just a bit stronger. Another burst of frozen hopelessness slammed into him, and he knew death was only moments away. He didn’t care. Let it come. “I…love…you.”