The Taking (25 page)

“Can’t be done, my pretty angel.” He sniffs my air again. “You see, I must bring you back at all costs.”

“Bring me back where?”

“Back to Separus. Yes, yes, back to Separus.” He smiles showing off his remaining brown decaying teeth.
 

My mind travels to Ethan. He needs to be saved, and the only way to do that is to defeat Separus. There is also Zacharias and what Separus did to him. How I would love to make him pay instead of making the ones I care about pay. Quite frankly, he has to be stopped.
 

“On one condition,” I say.
 

His smile broadens. “And what is that.”

“If I go with you, these people and angels within and around this monastery must be left alone and in peace.”

The scrawny shoulders shrug. “They are nothing to me. It is you I must bring.”

“Done,” I say.

“What?” Cindy screeches beside me. “Are you mad? They will kill you for sure.” She studies my face then crosses her arms and says, “You take her, then you take me.”
 

The smile on the gatekeepers face broadens.
 

Ben’s voice is also raging in my head.
What are you doing? I told you we can stay and fight; the archangels are on their way.

Trust me
, I respond to him internally.
We need to get Ethan back to his normal life and kill the demonic powers in his head. This means getting to Separus. Trust me,
I say again.
 

 
“That means me too,” Ben says out loud standing with his arms crossed over his chest.
 

The gatekeepers tongue lashes around his cracked lips on one grotesque motion, as he looks Ben up and down. “Cocky, aren’t we.” His eye flashes over to Cindy doing the same. “Especially after your little visit last time.”
 

He totters to Ben reaching out to touch him, and I flash out my shield separating them. I hear a singe, and a curse escapes his lips followed by that horrid smell of burning flesh. The eye focuses on me. I expect to see scorn instead amusement flashes across his face.
 

“Yes, yes. Separus will be happy.” The spine-tingling cackle sounds through the air. With his free hand, he indicates the portal with a smirk on his face. “Step into my office.”

I stand firm. “I am not going anywhere until you remove your demons and free the people.”

“Yes, yes. Of course.” He throws back his head, opening his mouth wide and a sound comes out that has me looking for the cat that is being murdered. The demons spread their bat-like wings and fly into the portal. He turns to me indicating again to the portal. “Now, come my pretty angel.”

Hesitantly, I step into the blackness of the portal.

- Chapter Twenty-Two -

“Aurora, are you sure?” Cindy’s voice sounds behind me.
 

Grabbing her hand, I hold it tight. “We have to protect the people.” We step through the dark portal into the gateway of the underworld. Screams and guttural noises surround us, but the demons do not come close. It is almost like they were told not to touch us. I gaze around trying to work out where we are. Nothing seems familiar. We could be anywhere.

“Where are we?” I ask.
 

The disconcerting cackle sounds and echoes through the enclosed area. The gatekeeper swivels around slowly to look at us. “My pretty angel. We are under that new base I told you about. Yes, yes. We are under the city of Detroit. Many deserted areas in here.”

I look at Ben and our eyes meet. In case my plan goes wrong we need a remedy. He says in my head.
I am communicating with Archangel Michael. I hope you know what you are doing.
 

You have to trust me,
I project.
We need to end this.
I look into his eyes; concern is spilling onto his face. After studying me for a while, he nods.
 

With each step, the place is setting me on edge. Demons line the walls everywhere making their horrid sounds. With the moistness in the air, it feels like we are in the underground surrounded by thick cement and musty stench, similar to the basement of the deserted hospital but worse. It makes me think of the sewers. The thought agitates my stomach.
 

Cindy’s whispering voice reaches my ears. “I feel a strange sensation up ahead. I can sense these demons, along with something of an angelic presence.” Her normally perfect complexion is creased. She grabs a gold pin off her yellow bodysuit and pins part of her hair out of her face; it is almost like this has become her nervous tic. “There is unmistakably something up ahead, darker and more evil than these,” she indicates the surrounding demons with a tilt of her head. “Like what I sensed when we met Separus for the first time.”
 

Eventually, we walk into an open space of a large concrete room. The cold, depressing grey and stench remain. “Where are we?” I ask. “Are we still on earth or are we in Hell.”

This time the cackle echoes through the room. I have visions of grabbing one of Cindy’s Chakram and throwing it at his throat, eternally removing his head, so I never hear that cackle again. I shake my head to clear it. He is the key to getting Ethan back to normal again. I cannot risk his eternal life for my temporary peace.
 

“This is my gateway, my pretty, pretty angel.” He steps closer to me, and I seize with disgust as he sniffs around me again. “Yes, yes. You are too pure to take to Hell. That will change. Yes, that will change.”

“Over my dead body,” Cindy hisses.

He turns and eyes her with his one swollen eye. “That can be arranged.” And he cackles. He steps close to her raising his knobbly pointer finger. “One will be surprised what one will do for love. Yes, yes, you will.” He spins and runs off, disappearing into the darkness. He has probably done one of his vanishing acts again.

Cindy’s eyes fling to me. Worry is written all over her face. I mouth the words, Trust me.
 

“I guess I don’t need to tell you I have an awful feeling about this room and this mission we are on?” she says to me.
 

I shake my head. “I know and I am sure you sense the mighty demon getting closer especially with all the gatekeepers cackling.”

She nods and I squeeze her hand.
 

Turning to Ben, I know I need to see what condition he is in. He has not spoken to me for a while. His eyes hold hurt when I first look into them. I reach for his hand while I still study him.
 

I nearly smile when I hear his voice in my head even though it is not cheerful.
Yeah, I know, trust you
.

Please tell Cindy that, too. I know I am here to end this for Ethan, once and for all, but please trust me.
I ask again inside my head projecting to him.
 

He nods and looks straight ahead. I don’t know if he believes me or not, and I don’t know if he has told Cindy, but I guess this is where I have to trust him.

The dull room before us clears when all the demons move to the side. In the centre is a pedestal, almost like a shrine — raised by dark, grey bricks slightly higher than the rest of the large dull room. In the middle a figure stands, bat-like wings spread to the side. It looks much like the other demons scattered throughout the room except when I study his curly locks of hair I see the horns. That’s the clear distinction between him and his underlings; he has two short curly horns similar to that of a goat. The other demons are the underdogs and do not have these horns. It must be a sign of authority in the demonic world — the bigger the horns, the higher the rank.
 

My eyes travel down the dark forehead to the eyes resting above the generous nose. Their black soul haunts me, filling me with dread and destruction. It is a look that removes all hope from the world. Feeling the depression already sinking in, my eyes travel down to his oversized ears and his thin, ragged mouth. It comes back to me now, that horrid mouth, claiming that they will come and get me some day. My eyes travel further down his loosely draped material covering his body, skimming over the stomach area. I see ripples on a patch of his skin right on his torso. When I look harder, I see it is in the shape of a hand, my hand, the place I touched him last time we met before he fled. Somehow it has healed but the scarring remains.

The mouth opens, and the raspy voice sounds. “So, you have come.” It speaks to me in English, suited to the country he is in, yet in my angel form it would not matter what language he spoke.
 

The three of us face the base of this pedestal on which he stands. I do not respond to his statement, and his eyes gaze over my body assessing my protective white light circling my frame.
 

“If you come to me, why do you continue with your angelic protection?”

“Have you not demanded that I come?” I notice that he has not bothered to look at Ben and Cindy as I stand before him. I do not know what he thinks is so special about me.
 

He waves his crooked hand dismissively. “Demand, ask, request. What does it matter if you are coming in order to save the one that you love?” His eyes fall on Ben. “How does that make you feel? Will she do the same for you? Do you know?” His dark brown eyebrow lifts high on his forehead and his black eyes scan Ben’s exposed robust chest. “You would make a good earth demon, one to lure the ladies. You should join us.”

“I’m good,” Ben says, standing firmly in place.

Amusement crosses over his face. “Yes you are, but we can change that. Your desires will be well satisfied, unlike what you have been offered of late.” Separus’ eyes pass back to me. “One where her heart belongs to another.”

My stomach turns into knots. I would love to know what Ben is thinking right now. Peering out of the side of my eye I watch him. The muscles along Ben’s jaw bulge as he clenches his teeth together yet he answers calmly. “I know of your tactics and I will not fall for your tricks. I
am
satisfied completely being an angel.”

Separus shrugs. “Your loss. I am after the colourful one anyway.” The black eyes fall back on me and study every feature. “You have great powers. I could give you much more that any angelic life would give you. Why don’t you join me?”

The offer shocks me. “I am here only to have Ethan restored back to his normal life,” I say.

“Yes, Ethan.” He stands and strolls around his pedestal. “What would you do to have him restored? What would you give me? Evidently you care enough about him to put your life and your new angelic friends' lives at risk just to have him restored to his old ways. What puzzles me is he is unable to become an angel now because he is no longer entirely human, yet you still risk everything.”

“There is still hope. He may be able to be restored enough to become an angel if things fall into place,” I say.

 
He saunters around the pedestal to face me again. “No. That chance is gone, I assure you. He is destined to join us now.” He indicates with his hand in a long swooping motion to his underlings gathered around the room. “Would you not rather have your heart’s wish and have him to yourself for the rest of your life?”

Cindy’s speaks on my left with a voice full of agitation. “Aurora, this is rubbish. We’re going.”
 

Before I have a chance to answer her, she is grabbing Chakram off her wrist and flinging them across the room at the demons lining the walls. Many of the demons are caught unaware, and every Chakram makes their mark.
 

“Cindy, stop!” I yell, but it is too late. The remaining demons are crowding in ready to attack. I gather my power and set my hands in motion. There must be hundreds if not thousands of demons in the immediate area including the ones that are in the tunnels. It is going to have to be a massive explosion of power to be able to wipe out all of these. I push off the ground, my golden wings stroke gracefully in the air when I hear Separus’ voice over the screeching sound of the demons.
 

“Do this Aurora, and your beloved Ethan will never be the same again. I will purposely make sure you will never be together, and he
will
become a demon.” Glancing down at him, I can see on his scrawny face that he is serious and I shudder.
 

“On top of that, you would have to expel your powers too many times losing too much energy to be able to defeat all of them,” he adds.

I pause in mid-air, and I observe the situation below. The demons are still approaching Cindy and Ben, and now Cindy is completely out of weapons. Ben has his Butterfly Swords in hand ready to attack, but with the number of demons and Cindy being without weapons their situation is hopeless. I gaze at Separus; his black eyes are full of excitement over an angelic slaughter about to present itself. They flick up to look at me. “Bow to me and I will keep them alive as hostages and you will be able to be with your beloved again.”
 

I remain hovering above, trying to make a decision.
 

“You must come down and stand before me for this deal to take place. It is a one-time offer, and if you do not do as I say, now, I will leave, and your Ethan will suffer.”