From Hell with Love (16 page)

“I did what I needed to,” Cadmus said, which brought a nod from the stoic demon.

“That’s two fallen going feral in the same day, Ronové,” Crocell interrupted, but Ronové just turned back to the small fire.

“Yes, that is true.”

“And the council is tomorrow,” the blue demon added, but Ronové continued to stare into the flames.

“You never were the type to lie, old friend.”

“It’s happening.  There is no doubt,” Crocell stated, animosity building in his deep voice, finally causing the squat demon to look at him.

“There is doubt, slayer.  There is always doubt; never certainty.  That is the way of fools,” he said, causing Niccolo to shrug and grab a handful of dry grass.

“We’re certain of quite a few things,” Niccolo muttered, throwing the grass into the fire and watching the burning embers float up into the darkness.

“No one argues about your foolishness,” Ronové commented, drawing a glare from the leper, “but perhaps you can tell me about your certain things.”

“There is a conspiracy,” Cadmus stated, finally entering the conversation.  The squat elder turned to him, his face blank of any emotion.

“Isn’t there always?” he asked, but Cadmus disregarded the demon’s dismissal.

“There is weight to this one, and from what we’ve discovered, we need to seriously consider its implications, Ronové,” Cadmus made his case, keeping eye contact with the ancient demon.  “When I reaped Räum this morning, I gained a number of his memories, but I also inherited one of his visions.”

“He was never a good seer, Horseman,” Ronové said in his aloof manner, about to turn back to the fire, but Cadmus raised his voice in order to keep the stoic’s attention.

“Lucifer
died
.  Killed by a man in a grey cloak while the palace was on fire.  We talked to Buer and he mentioned the Cult of Ascension.  He told us to talk to Crocell, who has now led us to
you
,” Cadmus stated with fervor, not giving his respect to the portly demon.  The Horseman almost thought he had crossed the line, but Ronové’s placid exterior broke at the assertions, his eyes widening in fear.  He seemed to breathe in with effort before quickly looking at Crocell across the crackling flames.

“Do you
still
doubt?” Crocell asked, his voice tinged with resentment.  This drew the attention of the Horsemen, who looked at Crocell in confusion.

“Why are you not surprised by this?  We never told you…” Cadmus started, but Crocell breathed out deeply, his chest shaking with the release.

“The Cult of Ascension isn’t just some
rumor
, Horsemen.  I did not need to see Räum’s visions or to hear your side of the story to know that they’re back.  It only confirms what I have seen.  The Shroud, the cloaked figure you saw in Räum’s memory, is very real,” he stated, the flames of the pit reflected on the surface of his dark eyes.  “They want Earth, they want to invade, but, most importantly, they want to take over Hell.”

“We killed them,” Ronové stated, gripping his staff to the point of his knuckles becoming white, but Crocell let out a bark of a laugh.

“We didn’t kill
him
.  I knew this would be a problem.”

“How come…” Niccolo was about to ask, but Crocell knew where the Horseman’s mind was going.

“Secrets come naturally to the Fallen, Niccolo.  We have existed in the shadows for millions of years.  We didn’t want it to become public knowledge, but when Adonai announced his plans for the apocalypse, the Cult was not just a rumor.”

“But Buer said,” Cadmus started, but Ronové interrupted this time. 

“The centaur is confined to his archives; the other Fallen mostly keep to the other quarters and provinces.  Most of my citizens are former humans; most of my citizens could be swayed,” he explained before Cadmus in the eye.  “The Famine Quarter was the site of a massacre.”

“Massacre?”

“Yes,” Crocell said, gritting his teeth.  “Many souls were destroyed, banished to oblivion.  Nobody was supposed to know, because the truth could start a war across Hell.”

“What is the truth?” Niccolo asked, his brow furrowing.

“The Shroud, whoever it was, could turn a soul into a raving beast.  He could make them feral.  We thought it was a natural process at first, but that was until we saw it with our own eyes,” Ronové explained, staring into the darkness above them.

“You saw it?” both Horsemen asked at once, turning to look at each other in amazement.

“The two of us.  The Shroud made a public display of it,” Crocell said, sniffing at the memory.  “He turned his followers into monsters, removing their humanity.  It was unthinkable.”

“What happened after that?” Cadmus asked, which caused Crocell to bury his face in his hands.

“The Shroud disappeared.  He was in the wind,” Ronové explained, skipping forward to what he deemed was important.  Niccolo stood, shocked at what he was hearing.

“What about the humans?” he asked, his good eye looking between the fallen angels.

“I killed them,” Crocell said softly, turning to look up at the leper.  Bright blue tears were streaming down his face and the fury left Niccolo in an instant.  Crocell was not unaffected by the event; he was not the callous demon Niccolo has always assumed he was.

“So he’s back,” Cadmus concluded, breathing out deeply, “and he’s going to kill Lucifer.  They’re going to rise up again.  They’re going to turn demons feral and take over.”

“And we cannot stop them this time,” Crocell said, which shocked Niccolo back into anger.

“What are you talking about?  We know about it.  We can do
something
!”

“And what would that be, Nico?” the blue demon asked, slapping the ground with his hands.  “We only knew about the Shroud because he
wanted
us to know.  I have been looking for him for a thousand years!” he shouted, rising to his feet.  “To top it all off, he has found a way to turn the Fallen themselves!  If I went to go fight him, he could
turn
me.  Valefor was just as powerful as I am and the two of you, well, you're
human
!”  At the end of his shouting, Crocell fell back to the ground in despair.  “The best we can hope for is that the Cult ignores us.”

“You’re just going to give up?” Niccolo asked, anger flaring inside his mind and the memories of Valefor rushing through him.  He felt a massive surge of confidence and almost snarled at the demons sitting around the fire pit.  “We have leads.  We have time.  We can fight them.”

“Have you ever fought your own shadow, Horseman?  A fool’s game,” Ronové stated, which caused the leper’s blood to boil.

“Then I’ll be a
fucking
fool, you old bastard!” he shouted, walking to the ruler of the Famine Quarter and grabbing the loose cloth by his neck.  “Stop trying to be smart and try to fucking help!  I will not let Hell be run over by a madman and I will not let Lucifer die!”

“You will not
let
anything happen,” Ronové said as he lazily turned to look Niccolo in his good eye.  “You have no power to stop it.”  Niccolo threw the demon back to the ground and let loose his rage in a primal roar before breathing heavily.  He looked at Crocell and his gaze bored into the blue demon.

“You’re going to tell me what you know about this Cult.  If you’re not going to help us, we’ll just have to do it ourselves.”

“You know everything we do.  The most we ever heard were whispers.  The most we saw were shadows and blood,” Crocell weakly explained.  “I’m tired of this.  I cannot kill my brothers anymore.  The best we can do is survive to see the end.”

“Cadmus,” Niccolo said with a cold anger, not bothering to look at his fellow Horseman.  “Let’s go.”

“Where?” the reaper asked, rising to his feet.  Although he was more polite about it, Cadmus felt the same frustration as his friend.

“Anywhere.  We can’t waste time, and that seems to be the only thing these two know how to do,” he said before turning and walking toward the entrance, which seemed to be hanging in the air.  Cadmus followed behind, ignoring the demons and leaving them to their misery.

When Niccolo stomped out of the hut, his head felt like it was about to burst.  Valefor was screaming inside his head and, though he could not understand the demon’s words, he knew what the lion wanted.  Niccolo wanted justice; he
needed
justice.  He just did not know how to obtain it.

“Gah, we gained nothing from that,” he yelled kicking at the dirt nearby.  Cadmus came up to his side and placed his free hand on Niccolo’s shoulder.  The leper turned to his right and looked at him out of the corner of his good eye, confused to see Cadmus smiling.

“Not nothing.  We know that the Cult of Ascension is real and we know the Fallen fear them.”

“What does that do for us?”

“Are you kidding?  We might be fighting a shadow, but at least we know it’s not in our imagination.  If there is a Shroud, there’s a soul who hides in it.  We’re not going to give up like those two,” the reaper said before walking away from Ronové’s hut.

“Where do we start?” Niccolo asked, not wanting to summon Plague.  Walking would clear his head.

“Like you said, we have leads.”

“We already reviewed all of them,” the leper said in an exasperated tone, but Cadmus shook his head.

"No, we haven’t.  You and I now have millions of years of memories.  Admittedly, we can’t interpret most of them and they’re almost all irrelevant, but whatever those two saw was enough for the Shroud to turn them feral.”

“How are we going to know what’s important?  And…how are we even going to access those memories?  The best I can do is remember flashes of…God, nothing,” Niccolo said before looking at the ground, but Cadmus placed his hand back on his friend’s shoulder.

“There’s more, I can feel it.  I had that vision of Lucifer because I think Räum
wanted
me to know.  Do you remember how Valefor’s ghost looked at us?” he asked, which made Niccolo look at him in confusion.

“What are you saying?” he asked, not able to comprehend the reaper’s logic.  Cadmus breathed out deeply before looking down the main avenue and biting his lip.  After a moment he looked back at his friend, his expression almost filled with relief.

“The dead are trying to help us.”

***

Niccolo was deep in thought trying to remember the life of a fallen angel when Cadmus cleared his throat.

"The harder I try to remember Räum's memories, the further they seem to go.  But, I don't know, none of it seems important," the reaper said, his brow furrowed in concentration.  "It might be that the only thing he wanted to give me was the vision.  Maybe that was the only reason the Shroud got to him."

"Honestly, you might be right," Niccolo said before shoving his thumbs underneath his belt.  "I mean, we never heard much from Räum most of the time.  Kept to himself.  At least you have something specific to look for," he concluded with a frustrated sigh.

"What do you mean?" Cadmus asked, the end of his scythe clacking against the stones of the road.

"Well, you know how Valefor was.  He just wandered around trying to prove how much better he was.  Said he was
patrolling
, but he was just looking for anybody who would listen," Niccolo explained, which made Cadmus bite his lip as he contemplated the possibilities.

"That could be it, after all.  Maybe he saw something he shouldn't have while he was on one of his…
patrols
.  I can't remember the last time I didn't see him in some back alley or tavern wiling away the night," the reaper added, which brought a grunt of assent from Niccolo.

"That's what I'm thinking.  Just...ugh, if he's telling me something he's not exactly getting to the point."

"Pretty much the lion's specialty, if you remember," Cadmus said with a slight chuckle.  He felt like he had gotten off easy between them; Räum's memories were scattered, but at least he had a defined clue.

"Yeah, it's just that in half of the flashes and glimpses I can't even focus on what I'm seeing.  Bastard must have been drunk.  The only thing I'm getting is...he's so angry, and it's not just with whoever did this to him.  I can tell that he felt betrayed, but he also seems to be frustrated with himself.  Like, whatever happened he should have seen coming, or should have been able to stop," Niccolo explained while staring at the ground.

"We all blame ourselves after the fact," the Pale Rider tried to explain, but Niccolo shook his head.

"It's more than that.  Crocell was definitely right; the Shroud has to be one of the Fallen.  I don't see any way around it.  It feels like being angry at my family, like being abandoned by the people closest to me," Niccolo said, trailing off as Valefor's feelings started to meld with his own memories from Firenze.

"I think you need to be careful with how you approach this, Nico," Cadmus interrupted, which caused the leper to break out of his thoughts.

"What?

"The way you were just talking, it seemed like you were losing yourself.  We have to remember that the Fallen were extremely powerful individuals.  There's potential for us to be swallowed whole."

"Then what the hell are we supposed to do, Cadmus?" Niccolo asked, the frustration coming back to him.  "We were
just
talking about how these are the only leads we have!"

"Look, Nico, we just have to be careful about it.  I didn't say we should stop, but even
I
start to empathize with Räum's emotions during his memories."

"Oh, and you're so much
better
than me in controlling this, is that what you're saying?" Niccolo shouted in response, feelings of pride and anger flaring at the apparent slight.  At the childish display, Cadmus turned and put out his hand in a halting motion.

"
Easy
, Nico.  We're in this together.  You and I don't ever need to talk about who is better and you know that," he said in a soft, conciliatory manner.  Niccolo breathed out heavily a few times before realizing that the emotions he was experiencing were not entirely his.  He closed his eye and tried to calm his mind, focusing on the present.  After a moment he nodded and looked back to his friend.