Devil Inside (66 page)

As the Lux’s blood surged into her mouth Harley was blasted out of her body.  The power and energy and life force in that initial taste were beyond anything she had imagined.  It was indescribable and left her in a state of stupor.  She imagined that it was the taste of sunlight and life itself.  When she finally became aware of her surroundings she realized that she was floating above the gym staring down at herself on top of Haddon.  Haddon writhed beneath her and she could tell that he was screaming but she couldn’t hear anything.  The crowd of Ignis and Nocte began to surge towards each other.  The Ignis were trying to reach her and Haddon but the Nocte and Lux were trying to hold them off.  Randall and Alice were pulling Castor away and she was glad to see that he was alive.  He was feebly trying to join the fight.  But he didn’t even have the energy to stand so the Lux had no problems removing him from the gym.

Levi was trying to make it to Harley’s side but had to fight off the Ignis first.  Harley wasn’t able to see Cutter anywhere.  Harley watched herself feed on the Lux below and she was surprised to see black veins appearing through her skin.  Her fingers looked longer than normal as they gripped the Rogue’s hair and chin.  She knew that she was seeing the Nocte appearing through her body and the shock at that sight felt like she was suddenly dunked into ice water.  Without warning, Harley felt herself falling back towards her body.  She crashed into herself with shattering iciness and at the same time she broke her grip on the Rogue’s neck.  He was lying dead beneath her.  The ice in her limbs immediately melted into a blazing fire that became unbearable in a matter of seconds.  Harley rolled off Haddon’s body and writhed against the pain.  The burning was so great she was sure that one of the Ignis had set her on fire but she could see that her body was not in flames.  The scream that ripped from her throat came from something that was far from human.  It had the same inhuman growl to it that she had always heard in her Nocte’s voice the times she had heard her speak.

Harley was aware of what had happened but she still wasn’t able to come to grips with it.  They, Harley and her Nocte, had managed to take the life of the Lux into her own body.  It didn’t dissipate into an inner energy as it did the other times she had fed.  Instead, currently, both her Nocte and the Lux burned inside her.  It was more than she could stand.  She screamed, writhed, kicked and flailed against the scorching pain that radiated through her arms and legs.  She could see the Ignis and the Nocte fighting all around her but wasn’t able to do anything about it.  She was suffocating in the pain of every nerve and fiber of her being burning her from the inside out.  Somewhere, behind the pain and confusion, Harley felt fear.  It was not an emotion she had experienced in a long time.  The Nocte and the Lux were not mixing and she didn’t know how much longer she would be able to stand the pain of the conflict.  Like oil and water they boiled together fighting for control.  It was too much for her body to bear.

Suddenly, hands on her shoulders stopped Harley from thrashing.  She saw Levi’s deep black eyes enter her field of vision.  As he blinked down at her his eyes cleared to their original dark blue.

“I’m going to get you out of here,” he said.

Harley wasn’t able to respond but she did her best to stop struggling against the pain as he lifted her off the floor.  As he forced his way through the crowd of fighting devils and demons, Harley finally blacked out from the pain and drifted into unconsciousness.

Harley floated in alternating darkness and light for what seemed like forever.  This time she didn’t get to talk to her Nocte.  The flashes of white where jagged and painful as they burst across her brain.  In contrast, the blacks were cold and infinite and took her breath away.  The flashes came quicker and more violent as time drug on.  The cold familiarity behind the black void and the foreign strangeness of the white light finally helped Harley realize what she needed to do.

Harley knew she needed to trust her Nocte and she gave into that need.  The intensity of the flashes had not lessened since they began.  If anything, it had increased.  She knew her Nocte needed her help, just as Harley had needed her Nocte’s help so many times before.  She did the only thing that felt natural or normal and that was to move towards the darkness whenever she was able to see it.  As she did so, she felt the darkness envelope her and she let herself sink into the void.  She wasn’t afraid.  She embraced the darkness like the old friend that she was.

Together, Harley and the Nocte were able to wrap themselves around the light.  The pulsating and flashing whiteness began to slow and become more contained within their darkness.  The blinding white heat thumped against the surrounding dark but it wasn’t frantic or violent any longer.  Instead, the beat became rhythmic and in time with the beating of her heart.  The darkness and the light caressed each other until they fit together in a natural rhythm that calmed and soothed Harley all the way through her center.

As her internal struggle calmed and faded Harley felt her body beginning to relax.  The calmer she became on the inside she more she became aware of her body and the warmth that surrounded it.  She floated out of the darkness of her mind and settled back into her physical being and drifted into a deep sleep.

As Harley slept, she dreamt.  As before, she knew she was dreaming right away.  She was sitting on a swing set in the middle of a field.  A beautiful meadow stretched as far as the eye could see.  She slowly and gently swung back and forth.  She looked down at her body saw that she was wearing pajamas pants and a tank top and no shoes.  The pants had little purple bunnies on them.  Harley ran her hand over the cartoon print and closed her eyes.  The pain that formed in her chest was raw and it took her breath away.  Almost a year later and Jamie’s death was still unbearable.  The pajama pants had been Jamie’s favorite from when they were teenagers.  Harley had bought them for her friend for Christmas.  She had only gotten the money to buy them because Jamie’s parents had let her do chores around the house in order to make a bit of cash.  Harley fought the urge to cry.

“We did good.” A voice spoke from Harley’s right.  She gasped without opening her eyes.  She didn’t need to look to know who sat on the swing next to her.  It was Jamie.  She would never not recognize that voice.  Taking a deep breath Harley opened her eyes and turned to look at the woman beside her and what she saw froze her solid for a moment.

“Well, that’s an asshole thing to do,” Harley finally said with steel in her voice.

Her Nocte smiled at her with Jamie’s face.  Harley knew it wasn’t really Jamie and that it was her Nocte, because while it looked exactly like Jamie—the eyes were the only thing that weren’t right.  The eyes were solid black.

“I can’t help it.  I needed to use an image and I can’t show you my real one.  I’m forced to pick images out of your head.  It helps you process what you are seeing.”

“Why can’t you use your real image?”

“…You really wouldn’t be able to process that,” she chuckled.  “It’s better for the both of us to leave that to your imagination.”

“What happened?” Harley asked.

“You mean during the fight?  Or after?  Or something else?”

“All of the above.”

“Well, during the fight I finally figured out how to take care of the bastard.  Neither of us was going to be able to kill him the old fashioned way.”

“Why?  Why was he so strong?”

“Haddon—as he calls himself—made a decision a long time ago.  And that decision set into motion the things that have happened to you, and me, and Levi, and the Lux, and the entire world—hell all of the dimensions have been affected by Haddon’s decision.”

“I don’t understand,” Harley admitted.

Jamie shook her head sadly.  “It’s a story that is not easily understood.”  Neither of them spoke for several minutes.  Finally, the Nocte continued.  “Where we come from, the Lux, the Ignis and the Nocte, different rules apply.  We are not governed by the same moralistic standards that humans have.  But we do have ‘rules’.  One of those rules is ‘do not kill your own kind.’  Haddon disobeyed that rule and created an imbalance in our world.  Had that imbalance been allowed to continue it could have irrevocably damaged your world as much as mine.  He came here to continue his vile deeds.”

Harley mulled over the Nocte’s words.  “Did you come here looking for Haddon?”

“Yes.”

“Why you?  And why did you choose me?  Or did I just happen to be looking for a bond the same time that you did?”

“Why me?”  The Nocte sighed.  “I’m—I guess something like what you would call royalty.  But our royalty—the Nocte—we don’t sit around in castles doing nothing.  I made the sacrifice to come here after Haddon.”

“Sacrifice?”

“Yes.  Sacrifice.  I can never return to my world.”  The Nocte tried to conceal her sadness but it showed through in the softening of her voice.

“Why me?” Harley asked again.  “Did I just happen to be there?”

“Oh, no,” the Nocte said seriously.  “I had been waiting for you for a while.  Well not YOU in particular,” the Nocte chuckled.  “But a human that was a right fit.”

“Why was I the right fit?”

The Nocte shrugged, “You and I are both strong, stubborn creatures.  I guess when an unstoppable force meets and immovable object there is quite the potential for a reaction.  A reaction that we both needed on some level that neither of us will probably ever fully understand.”

Harley smiled and nodded.  “That sounds about right I guess.  What happens now?”

“We do what we do best.  Kill Ignis.  Maintain the balance of light and dark.  And have sex with Levi and Castor.  We need to do that a lot more.”

Harley tipped her head back and laughed.  “I won’t argue with that.  What about the Sol Invictus?”

The Nocte sighed.  “Unfortunately, I doubt we are done with them.  I agree, I don’t think they realized what they were getting into with Haddon.”

“How responsible are they for what he became?”

Her Nocte was silent for a minute.  “I think they—like us—were what each other was looking for.”

Harley sighed.  She knew without a doubt the Sol Invictus wasn’t done.  A group like that wouldn’t give up their mission easily.  They were the worst kind of evil.  The kind that believed they were righteous. 

Harley and the Nocte both swung silently letting the warm breeze blow over their faces and through their hair.  “Will I ever see Jamie again?”

The Nocte looked at her surprised.  “How the hell should I know?” 

Harley’s mouth fell open and after a moment she laughed and shook her head.  “Sorry, you’re right.  That was a stupid question.”

Without warning Harley was ripped from the dream and she blinked against the glare of a lamp shining into her face.  When her eyes adjusted to the light she realized she lay in a bed staring up at the ceiling.  She slowly turned her head and surveyed the rest of the room.  When she did so, she was greeted by the site of Levi and Castor in chairs beside her bed.  Castor’s head tipped backwards over the back of the chair with his mouth hanging open.  Levi was wide awake and when he saw that she was awake he scooted to the edge of his seat and examined her closely.

He smiled softly at her.  “How are you feeling?”  Her skin tingled looking at the Nocte.  The man never ceased being drop dead gorgeous.  His dark hair carelessly hung around his face and his blue eyes glowed.  As usual, he looked like he needed to shave.  Not in an “I’m trying to look like I need to shave” kind of way.  But in an actual “I need to shave kind of way” that Harley loved.

Harley considered Levi’s question for a minute.  She felt like she was housing enough energy to power an entire city.  “Fucking amazing.”  Levi chuckled.  Harley looked at Cas and snorted.  “So.  What happened?”

“Well, for that we should wake up sleeping beauty here.”  Levi nodded at Cas.

“OK,” she shrugged, sitting up in the bed as Levi hit Cas with the back of his hand to wake him.  It took several tries but finally Cas was startled awake.  When he saw that Harley was awake he jumped up and sat on the edge of the bed.  Levi scowled slightly but didn’t say anything.  Cas looked tired and barely alert but he was making an effort to become coherent.

“So, what happened?” Harley asked them both.

Levi started.  “Well, when you bit the Rogue the Ignis started closing in.  We started fighting back.  When you started flipping out and looked like you were in some serious pain I got you out of there.  I brought you back here.”

“Where’s here?”

“A cabin that I rented the night before the fight with the Rogue.  We are in the Rockies.  This cabin is huge.  It sleeps twenty if you squeeze them in.  I figured we all might need a place to lay low for a while.  Your turn—what happened when you fed from the Rogue?”

Harley took a deep breath and let it out before she answered.  “I took his life into mine.”

Both Levi and Castor looked stunned but not really surprised.  “How did you know you could do that?” Cas asked.

“I didn’t really.  My Nocte just did it.”

“What did you do to Castor?” Levi asked her cautiously.

Harley looked at Cas uncomfortably.  “Sorry about that.”

“Don’t be,” he brushed her off.

Levi looked at the two of them waiting for an answer.  Finally, Harley answered him holding his steady gaze while she did so.  “Well, it’s like when I’ve feed from Cas before.”  Admitting to this was the closest she had come to telling Levi ‘I’ve had sex with Castor.’  Even though he knew this was the case—saying it out loud made it much more true.  To Levi’s credit his gaze never wavered and his looked remained totally neutral.  “When I feed from either of you—I’m able to take some of your energy into myself.  It just doesn’t normally hurt because I give some back too.”  Levi nodded following her explanation.  “During the fight I honestly had nothing left.”  Both Levi and Castor’s faces hardened at that.  “When I made eye contact with Cas at the moment when I was almost gone, I could feel my Nocte draw from Castor.  It was just weird because I didn’t even need to touch him to do it.  How bad did it hurt you?”