Elixxir (The Brethren Series) (20 page)

He snapped his fingers as he strutted around her, and an orange flame of a whip extended from his palm. She closed her eyes and prayed she could handle his abuse. He grunted and she heard a sharp crack from behind her. Sudden, intense pain traveled down the right side of her back. She tensed and opened her mouth to scream, but nothing came out. Another lash from the whip, this time down her spine, sent her knees buckling and tears spilled onto her cheeks. Her skin burned as raw nerve endings smarted from exposure to the air.

A third strike hit her lower back and curled around her waist. She hung limply from her tethered wrists. Delirium settled in, and she faded in and out of awareness. Unconsciousness couldn’t come soon enough for her. Even death would have been welcome.

What have I done to deserve such a fucked-up life
?
Whatever have I done
?

The fourth blow left her without an answer but sent her into blissful darkness. She had no sense of time, but Uncle Eddie called out each strike of the lash. As she lapsed in and out of consciousness she heard ten and then fifteen.

Where is the blessed twentieth
?

***

Yelling.

She heard voices yelling and a crackling like electrical charges all around her. Opening her eyes, she marveled at the sight. There were winged Brethren flying all about, glowing and wielding swords against a sea of lightning bolts emanating from Eddie’s palms. Brilliant flashes of energy charged the air around her, raising the tiny hairs on her skin. Hundreds of craggy ribbons lunged toward each angel, making for a dangerous and frenetic scene. Dozens of after-images burned their marks before her until she could barely see.

Hopes rose and fell at once. They’d come back! But how could they possibly fight and win against such a powerful monster? At the moment, it didn’t look good at all. A quick flick of Eddie’s wrist and another lash-strike landed hard on her shoulders. The sound of wailing surprised her. He’d given her voice back.

“Listen, Brethren! Hear the lilting music of torture only I can deliver!”

The whipping increased in intensity and frequency. Knowing her voice had returned, she refused to utter another sound and feed into his sadistic plan. She might not be in control of the situation, but she sure as hell was in charge of her reactions. Skin on fire, she could actually feel blood trickling down her back from open wounds. One distinct voice amongst the many broke through her agony and touched her heart.
Nathanael
.

“Tonight, Murati, you die!”

He roared and descended to the ground. Taking one ominous-looking step after another toward her, his sword blocked and batted away the incessant barrage of destructive energy focused directly on him.

“Hold on, Red,” he shouted. “I’m coming for you, as I promised. Brethren! Swords together!”

As they changed formation and brought their swords up, all the bolts blended into one, and the wall of metal reflected the massive energy, sending sparks shooting high into the sky and back at Murati’s palms.

“Ahh!” Satan’s lackey buckled under the strain and dropped to his knees.

The lightning show ended, the lashings stopped, and her bindings faded away. She crumpled to the ground, but in spite of the pain managed to crawl to a relatively safe area by a raised flower bed, where she watched in horror as her uncle transformed right before her eyes.

Buttons popped, fabric ripped under the strain, and then, along with an ungodly scream, the very skin itself tore away as a grotesque creature emerged. An oily black sheen coated his scaly body. Howling, he stretched to his full height, dwarfing all of the Brethren present. Two red, curling horns protruded and elongated from his temples, and his clawed hands fisted in the air as though announcing he had arrived—whatever the hell he was.

“Brethren, be warned! Your existence is meaningless, and I shall take pleasure in meting out your death! I am Abaddon. Look into my eyes and you shall see your end!”

Unable to take in the unfolding scene any longer, she shrieked and backed up even farther, but as she did so, something glinted from the ground by what used to be her uncle’s body.
The Elixxir
! She had to get to it somehow and keep it secure.

The Brethren were up to their eyeballs in scary shit and she needed to pitch in, terror be damned. She monitored the situation for a few moments and saw the demon’s attention rested fully on the angels. Seeing her chance, she scrambled over to grab the flask, and found herself looking right into the eyes of what nightmares were made of.

Evil took all shapes and forms, but in the millennia of fighting and warring, none had ever materialized such as the one that now stood before the Brethren Warrior. He wouldn’t have the chance to deal out justice to Murati like he’d wanted; but then, Evil had taken care of that for him. So he would take care of the Evil that stood before them now. The familiar endorphin rush had coursed through his veins like a spark in dry brush as he’d flown over to save Ariana. With Michael’s talisman around his neck, no darkness could penetrate his soul, so he now gave free rein to the fire, the rage, and his desire for justice.

The coordinated efforts of all Brethren would be necessary here. He knew that. Understood the protocols. But when he saw her, battered and bleeding as she scrambled out of her hiding spot and retrieved the Elixxir, all reason left him. She’d caught Abaddon’s attention and now stared, terror-stricken, into the demon’s eyes.

“Michael, protection! Now! Ariana’s got the Elixxir!”

Michael extended his left hand toward her, but his attempts to protect her were flicked away like a gnat by this demon from Hell.

“Shit, Gabriel! Urie! Help him!”

All the Protectors combined their energies to wrap a protective dome around her and the Elixxir. The demon trudged right through it. The Warriors laid in their attack with jabs and slices to his scaly skin, but the wounds instantly healed, just as their own skin did. All efforts were ignored.

“Ariana! Toss me the Elixxir. It’s what he wants.” But she remained frozen in her place. “Toss it!”

No response, and Abaddon closed in on her.

The entire team raised their swords and flew over to defend her, but couldn’t get close enough. The behemoth batted them away as if they were toy action figures.

“The Elixxir will be mine, mortal.” His razor-sharp claws loomed ever closer to her and he plucked her right from where she’d been sitting like a stone figure.

He lifted her high in the air and she came to life, wriggling and protesting, hurling curses.

“You will never have it!” She opened the flask and poured the liquid down her throat. Coughing and gagging, she lost control and her hands let go of the flask. Nathanael looked on in horror as a greenish glow formed around her and beams of light shot out of her eyes. Her body shook like a tree being uprooted in the midst of a tornado. An inhuman screech threatened to deafen them all.

Abaddon was not a happy demon.

Normalcy seemed to return to Ariana as the light show receded, but as it did so, she stretched her arms out wide, grabbed hold of each horn, and pulled his face down to meet hers. “You’ve met your match, demon!”

Pulling those horns down even farther and twisting with the power of a legion of immortals, she wrestled the demon to the ground and stuck the tips into the earth. Nathanael looked on in amazement and pride at his woman, now an immortal with more strength then that of all the Brethren put together. “Warriors! Come deliver your Brethren justice!” She stood before them, a warrior in her own right.

Pulled from his stupor, Nathanael charged straight in like a bull, with Kemuel and Yofi joining him on both sides. Kemuel stuck Abaddon through the chest, deep into the earth, while Yofi skewered his gut on his blade. Nathanael severed his legs and arms and raised his sword to deliver the final blow. The inscription on the blade blazed. His eyes glazed over, ready for the execution, but he caught sight of Ariana and stopped. He wanted to do it. His body thrummed with the need for the kill. But would he cross a line he could never cross back over again?

“Do it, Nate. I’m here. I’ll bring you back. Look to me for your safe place.”

He nodded, and with the force of ten warriors, swung his sword. Light splayed out from Abaddon’s neck and he ceased to exist. The sword absorbed the demon’s blood in a brilliant display. Nathanael shuddered, closed his eyes, and fell to his knees, groaning. Sticking the blade into the ground before him, he anticipated the pain and hunger for more.

Look to me, Nathanael, for your safe place
.

She had spoken to him in his mind and he took a shaky breath. Hanging his head, he extended a trembling hand. A warm, soft hand closed around his. He grabbed her to him in a fierce embrace and drank in her unique essence, something he hadn’t noticed about her before. It damn near intoxicated him, and he smiled for the first time since…he didn’t know when. He nuzzled her hair and then held her from him, leaning his forehead against hers.

“My God, Ariana, you crazy fool!” He raked his hands through her hair to cradle her head and placed a crushing kiss on her lips. He tasted the salt of tears, not knowing whether they had been his or hers. “I almost lost you! Do you realize what that would have done to me? Whatever possessed you to drink the Elixxir?”

“Nothing was working, Nate. The Brethren were completely outmatched by that…that thing.” She caressed his cheeks and shook her head. “I don’t know. I guess I thought that maybe with the power of the Elixxir I could help in some small way. There seemed nothing left to do. And…I couldn’t bear losing you. You need me too much. And, hell, I need you more.”

Chapter Seventeen

Nathanael brought Ariana back to Emma and Michael’s house. Emma greeted them in the foyer.

“Nathanael.”

He nodded. “Emma, good to see you.”

“Good to see you, too. You have a healing session with me after you debrief with the boys, and Ariana, I’d like to meet with you now. You’re not the only one here who’s been transformed from mortal to immortal. We’ve taken different paths but it all ends at the same point, immortality. I think we should take advantage of the gathering in there, don’t you?”

“I guess so. I’ve got questions. Lots of questions.”

“And I’m sure the Brethren would like to know how your newfound immortality has manifested within you. What, if any, special powers you may have acquired. So, you, head on into the study there. The boys are already debriefing. Ariana, follow me, please.”

He leaned down and kissed her lightly on the lips, cupped her cheek, and smiled. “Hey, I’ll see you soon, Red. Be good and play nice.”

“You, too. Stay cool, calm. If things get dicey in there, think of me.” She ruffled his hair and followed Emma down the hall.

Nathanael entered the study, or lion’s den, since it sounded like a lot of snarling and arguing going on. He took a deep breath and joined the fray.

“What’s all the shouting about?”

Kemuel spoke up first. “What the hell happened back there? That’s what all the shouting is about. How the hell did things go so wrong? Why?”

“E.L. is fucking around with us again. He did it before, with Emma and me, remember? And he did it again today with all of us.”

“There’s got to be a way to circumvent his ability to screw with us, Michael. How can we do our jobs here if our powers can be dampened or made null and void at his will?”

“Kemuel, he’s always got a plan. You know that. We do what we think we should do in a given situation. If he has other designs, well, he lets us know by limiting our capabilities.”

“I get it, but what I have a problem with is that he made us
all
ineffective. None of us could do anything to that demon until Ariana drank the Elixxir and turned immortal on us. Speaking of which, we were supposed to deliver it back to the Beyond. What are we gonna do now? Deliver an empty flask?”

Nathanael sat on the floor by the fireplace. “Good question. I wonder what E.L. will have us do. I’m sure he’ll weigh in any time now. Technically, it no longer exists.”

“Technically, it exists inside Ariana.” Gabriel tapped a finger to his chin. “What will he have us do about that? Speaking of the enigma himself, he’s buzzing me right now.” He took out his cell phone and answered the call. “Sir? Yes, sir.” He put his phone away.

“That’s it?” Michael shook his head. “Three words and two of them were the same.”

“Well, we have one of our questions answered. You’re to escort Ariana Kupi to the Beyond. You have twenty-four hours to get her there.”

“Wow.” Cassiel whacked him on the arm. “Nice of him to give you a chance to recuperate a bit.”

“Is he for real? I’m beginning to question our fearless leader’s sanity. What the hell good does it do to bring her there besides freak her out?”

“I don’t know, but you gotta do it. Twenty-four hours.”

Nathanael threw back his chair upon standing and stalked out of the meeting. He needed some space and time to think.

***

Ariana’s head buzzed. Ultra-sharp, brilliant colors flooded her vision to the point of pain. She could hear her heartbeat, and noticed it had slowed considerably. Blood cells shushed through her veins and arteries, and the sensation of tiny worms crawling under her skin rattled her. She hadn’t felt this way earlier. Maybe she’d been too keyed up to notice. Now, with each step she took toward the bedroom, she wanted to chop her head off more and more: a high-pitched incessant ring had begun, and showed no signs of stopping.

“Hey, Emma, do you have any aspirin or something stronger? My head is exploding, and it’s like I’ve been infested by creepy crawlies. I can’t take it anymore.”

“We don’t need aspirin around here, so I’m sorry, I don’t. But let’s get you settled in here and I’ll check you out. Okay?”

“Yeah, sure, fine.” She lay down on the bed.

Emma closed her eyes and rubbed her hands together. When she opened them, she put one hand on Ariana’s forehead and one on her heart. Emma grunted, furrowing her brows. Her breaths came in shallow huffs. When she removed her hands, her composure returned.