Torment (25 page)

“She’s in the next room. My friend Lily is cleaning her up.”

“Is she a witch too?” she asked.

“A witch?” I said, shocked.

“I dreamed about you; I’ve been dreaming about you for months. I knew you were a witch, but I didn’t know you were friends with demons. It was demons who did this,” she said, getting upset.

“Eligos isn’t with them. Not all demons are like the ones who attacked you. And just to prove it, I’m a demon, not a witch, and I healed your sister. Would I do that if I was like the ones you’ve met before?”

“You’re not a demon!”

I looked her in her eyes and let mine glow red for a moment. She tried to scramble off the bed but I grabbed her arms and hugged her.

“Don’t be afraid. I’m not going to hurt you, or your sister; the only ones I want to hurt are the ones who did this. Do you understand?” I asked her.

“Yes.”

“Besides, you said you’d dreamed about me, so you must know I’m not going to hurt you.”

“I suppose.”

“Now, let’s get you sorted out.”

I stood up for a moment and held my hands out towards her, healing her. Once I’d finished she looked at her arms and legs in amazement.

“See, I wouldn’t do that if I wanted to hurt you,” I told her, passing her the glass of water.

“Thank you!” she said as a tear rolled down her face.

“How old are you, Marley? It’s hard to guess someone’s age when they look like you do at the moment.”

“I’m nineteen; my sister is twenty-two.”

“Well, Marley, I’m Keira as you know. I’m twenty-two. This is my house, and this is now your room. There’s some chocolate on the night stand for you. I suggest you eat it to keep your sugar levels up; you’ve been through a lot today. There is a bathroom, so why don't you go and get yourself cleaned up and I’ll go and get you some clean clothes. I’ll leave them on the bed for you and then once you’re ready just come downstairs. Shout at me when you’re down, and I’ll come and get you.”

She nodded and made her way to the bathroom. I went to get her some clothes out of my room. She looked the same size as me, so I got her a pair of my jeans, a T-shirt, some new underwear that I still hadn't taken out of the packaging and a pair of slippers. I grabbed a hairbrush and band and put them on the bed in her room. When I walked out I saw Lily doing the same thing for Beth; she had obviously come through.

I walked downstairs and into the living room. All the guys were waiting. I flopped down on the sofa next to Eligos.

“Beth has come round. Lily is going to help her get showered and changed,” Jake told me. “She cried out for her sister. She called her…”

“Marley,” I interrupted. “She just told me her name, and she is only nineteen.”

“She’s still a baby,” Eligos said.

“Yeah.”

“Did you see the news?” Jake asked.

“Yeah, me and Lucian saw it in a café in town. We missed some of it though,” I told him.

“Oh yeah, secret meetings,” Tyler said, raising one of his eyebrows.

“No, you shit-stirring bastard,” Lucian told him nastily. “We bumped into each other and went for coffee; there’s no harm in that.”

“I don't want arguing,” I said loudly.

I told them what we had heard on the TV.

“That’s about it really. It showed you the people attacking the police and demanding to know what was going on. They all looked furious. The reporters spoke to some of the people and they said they thought it was a government conspiracy or terrorist attacks,” Danny told us.

“So many people! “I said sadly.

“They’re building an army,” Eligos informed us.

“This is ridiculous. How can so many souls and demons leave Hell without somebody knowing one of them,” Jake said. “No offence, mate,” he said, looking at Eligos.

“What or who or where is going to be next?” I asked, staring out in front of me.

“If we knew that, maybe we could stop it…” Jake answered.

“I looked at the places before. The only thing they have in common is the population size. All of them are less than five thousand; other than that there’s no connection,” Danny said. “How can we try and protect every small town in the USA?”

Lucian’s phone started ringing.

“Hey, Dad,” he said, “I’m there now…Are you serious? Where? Oh my…I’ll put it on now…Yes we will…OK, bye.”

He got up and turned the TV on:

“The UK, France and Italy are now just three of the other countries to experience the attacks. In total, throughout Europe over 9,000 people have now disappeared. Add those to the people in the USA and the total is over 16,000.Police are looking into known terrorist organizations and…”

None of us spoke. What was there to say? No matter what we said, it wouldn’t do anyone any good. All of us sat there in silence as the anchor woman read out the names of the towns throughout Europe that had been affected. All of them destroyed with no sign of bodies or survivors. Now whoever was leading this was confident beyond belief. Nothing was stopping it, we couldn’t stop it. All we could do was watch and wait while innocent people died.

Chapter Thirty-One

Marley and Beth

“Keira!”I heard Marley shout.

“Turn the TV off,” I said, as I walked out of the room. I didn't want her to see this, not yet; they had been through enough today already. Marley was standing at the bottom of the stairs waiting for me. “Hey, how are you feeling?”

“I feel fine, thank you. Lily is just getting Beth dressed and then she’ll be down.”

“Good, now I have a few people I need you to meet.”

I took her arm and led her into the living room.

“OK, guys, this is Marley,” I said. “Marley, this is Tyler, Jake, Lucian, Danny and Eligos.”

“Hello,” she said shyly.

“Come and sit down,” Lucian said, making room for her on the sofa.

She walked over and sat down next to him.

“Are you all demons?” she asked.

“No,” Lucian told her. “But we all have power in us.”

“So it’s just you and Eligos,” she said, looking at me.

“That’s right.”

“OK.”

“Marley, why were you both looking for me?” I asked her, sitting next to Eligos again.

“My family had power too. My mom and dad had it passed to them from their parents. Part of my power is…I have visions. I see things before they happen and sometimes I dream about people. I dreamed about you for the first time about four months ago. Then in one of the dreams I watched you die. There had been an accident I think, and you died for someone. But then a few weeks later, I was walking home from the shops and I had a vision, I saw you fighting a man near a church. I knew I’d got it wrong and that you hadn't died…”

“Marley, I did die. Tyler was killed and I died to bring him back.”

“So why are you back?”

“That is a very long story; one of us will tell you another time. Right now, we need to know where you came from and why, why now?”

“Is Tyler your boyfriend?” she asked.

“No, Eligos is.”

She turned her head quickly to look at him. She smiled at him for a moment and looked at me again.

“Hey, guys,” Lily said.

Everyone turned to see her standing in the doorway with Beth.

“Everyone, this is Beth. Beth…”

Lily introduced her to everyone.

“Who found me, who healed me?” she asked.

“I did,” I told her.

She walked over to me, bent down and hugged me.

“Thank you!” she whispered.

“You’re welcome.”

“Who brought me here,” she asked, standing up again.

“Me,” Eligos told her.

She did the same to him, and I heard her thank him. Lucian stood up and went to sit on the floor in front of the fireplace so she could sit with Marley.

“I always wondered what you would look like,” Beth said to me. “Marley told me about her vision of you. She said you were beautiful and tried her best to describe you.”

“I’m not exactly beautiful, but thank you for the kind words,” I said, looking at Marley.

“So where did you come from?” Lucian asked them.

“We’re from Jacksonville,” Beth answered.

“What happened to you?” Tyler asked.

“We were attacked. Two creatures came for us. They killed our parents last year and now they have come back for us. We were packing, getting ready to come to Salem to find Keira. Marley knew she had to find her because of the dreams she was having. We had nothing to stay in Jacksonville for. We couldn’t afford to keep the house, so we sold it. The money had come through and we were staying at a friend’s house until we were ready to leave and come here.”

“Did they attack you at your friends?” Jake asked.

“No,” Marley told him. “We were driving here; we were about three miles away from Salem, on a quiet road when we were attacked. Our car was thrown off the road, and we rolled into one of the fields.”

“We dragged ourselves out of the car, but we were badly hurt and we didn’t have the strength to fight properly. The two creatures threw some form of energy at us and energy balls. Then one of them…” Beth trailed off.

“It’s OK,” Lily said. “You can tell them.”

“One of them…” she hesitated, “…violated me…”

“WHAT!” I shouted.

“Once it had finished with me it threw me against the car. The other was hitting Marley over and over again, and then it threw her at me. Neither of us could move,” Beth said.

“Then one of them blew the car up,” Marley said.

“I thought you were both against the car,” Tyler said.

“We were,” Beth told him. “I generated a shield, and managed to drag us both away. Then I collapsed.”

“I managed to bring her around, but she was bleeding so much. We tried to carry on to Salem but we didn’t get very far. Beth collapsed again and I tried to carry on, to find you. That’s when
you
found me.”

Marley said, and then she smiled. “As soon as I saw you, I knew we would be OK.”

I felt a lump in my throat and just tried to smile back.

“Girls, these creatures, can you describe them?” Eligos asked them.

“Yeah,” Beth said. “Both of them were really tall and quite fat. They both had really rough skin. It looked scaly, and it was like a yellowish-brown color. Their faces weren’t human, but similar to a dog’s, and they had really big teeth and big yellow eyes.”

“One of them had a mark on his back,” Marley said.

“What did it look like?” Jake asked.

“It was like a tattoo, a really big one. It looked like a circle with lines running across it. It had what looked like a spear inside it too and…I don't know, some other little scribbles.”

“BASTARDS!” Eligos shouted.

“You know who they are?” I said shocked.

“Yeah I do,” he said, standing up.

“What are they?” Lily asked.

“The creatures that attacked the girls are from one of the other realms. Do you remember the first time you saw me, when I brought my army?”

“Yes.”

“Did you notice how not all of them looked human?”

“Yes,” I said.

“Well, that's because they weren’t human to begin with. Some of
them
are from the other realms. It works the same as here though – if you’re evil or commit suicide you end up in Hell; if you’re good, you go to Heaven. Heaven and Hell are the largest of all the realms; Hell actually being the biggest of all. There are more guilty people and beings than there are good.”

“Do you know them personally?” Danny asked.

“I think I might. Marley, this mark on his back, did it cover the top half of him?” Eligos asked her.

“Yes.”

“Did it look similar to this,” he said, showing her his ring.

“Kinda, but the pictures were different,” she said, studying it.

“Think carefully – did it have what looks like a leaf inside the circle, just underneath the spear?”

“Yeah, it did. I couldn’t quite work out what it was before, but now I can see it…yes.”

“Then I know exactly who it is, and the creature that was with him,” Eligos said, standing and walking to the window. “The creature with the tattoo is called Kaligor and his little lapdog is Gurvon. They worked in the Pits for a while. Then Kaligor was brought to the Palace to be commended for running the Pits well. He earned himself the title of Lord and was tattooed. Not long after, he caused problems. I’m not even going to start telling you what he did; we’d be here all week. He was banished and, up until now, we hadn't heard from him or his lapdog. We all assumed Gurvon went to find him.”

“Can we find them?” Lucian asked.

“No, don't bring them here; they’ll kill us,” Beth pleaded.

“No they won’t!” Eligos told them. “They’d have to get past me first.”

“Are you stronger than them?” Marley asked him.

“Yes, stronger than both put together.”

“What are you?” Beth asked.

“A Grand Duke. I work for the Queen, Lilith, who incidentally is Keira’s mother.”

“Wow!” Marley gasped.

“The Queen of Hell is your mother?” Beth said in shock.

“Yes she is; all will be explained, don't worry.”

“Speaking of the Queen, I need to take you to her,” Eligos told me.

“We’ll go now. Guys will you tell these two about us please, and fix them something to eat if you don't mind.”

“No problem,” Lucian and Lily said.

“Let’s go,” I said to Eligos.

He wrapped his arm around my waist and we left.

Chapter Thirty-Two

Update

Instead of arriving outside the Palace, this time we arrived in the long hallway. I think Eligos did that purposely so I didn’t try and run away, so that I
had
to face Lilith. She was standing at the end of the hall, dressed in smart black trousers and a white corset top. Her hair was tied back, which was unusual; up until now I’d only ever seen her with her hair flowing free. She was staring at me with a blank expression. We walked over to her in silence.

“Eligos, my husband would like to talk to you. He is in the main room,” she said.

“OK. I’ll see you later, Keira,” he said before walking away.