Evenstar (28 page)

Helion fought against the compulsion.
 
He tried to find a way to answer honestly without giving up Dahlia.
 
“Ladriam is everywhere!”

“What do you mean?”

Helion blinked away blood.
 
“She is matter, she is in all things.”

“She is a person.”

“She is half the universe.”

“What is the other half?”

“Lucifer.”

“That is blasphemy against God.”

It was not a question, so Helion stayed silent.
 
The man grimaced, and turned the fire on.
 
Andy stretched away from the flames, but he could not escape the heat.
 
His body quivered with tremors of pain.
 

Dahlia read his expression.
 
He was bluffing.
 
The burning
was
as bad as it looked.

In Andy’s mind, he had retreated to a forested place, with birds, a blue sky, and Belial.
 
She wasn’t killing anything.
 
They rested hand in hand and stared at the clouds.
 
Belial sang along with the breeze, a melody he had not heard from her for a long time.
 
She smiled at him.
 
He could almost imagine the pain away, but not entirely.
 

His skin and flesh burnt, a cosmetic wound, but inside his blood boiled and his organs baked.
 
Andy had stopped breathing to keep scorching dry air out of his lungs, but the pain did not lessen, instead it changed.
 
The places where he touched the grate had seared through skin and muscle, and his bones cracked where they touched glowing metal.
 
The signs of the seal beneath him were rescored into his flesh with each cycle, binding and holding him in place.

The fire stopped, but his agony did not.
 
With each cessation of the flame, his body began the tiring and painful process of healing.
 
Skin grew on top of blistering muscles, and pores opened on the surface.
 
Hair follicles pierced new skin and stood on end.
 
His eyes filled with fluid and blinked white and gray once more; his eyelids reformed over dry orbs.
 
His tongue and lips grew back so that he could form words.
 
Andy took a painful breath.
 
“Fuck God, fuck Michael and
fuck you
.”

The man hit the dial on the fire and Andy was engulfed in flame.
 
The man smiled.
 
“This is what Hell will be like for you once the day of reckoning comes.
 
The final purge is at hand and then the beginning of Revelations.
 
Your kind will be cast into the lake of fire for eternity.”

Two men entered the room.
 
They took in the scene, bored.
 
“The game is on TV soon.”
 

The first man sighed.
 
He waved them over to the TV.
 
“Go ahead.
 
We will not be able to get anything useful from this Helion until he is broken.”

One of the men looked over and glanced at Whitney and Dahlia.
 
“Why don’t you try one of them?”

The man scowled.
 
“They barely even register as Lilliam at all.
 
These two were probably planning on eating them or sacrificing them to Satan.
 
I doubt they know anything.”
 

“Then can we have them?”

“Not while I am working, watch your stupid game.”
 
He glared at Helion.
 
“Outstretch your wings.”
 
Helion did so.
 
The man grabbed a pair of bloody pliers from Nukka’s operating table and pulled out Helion’s feathers in bloody clumps.
 
In the background, a local sports station came on drowning out the low whimpers that escaped Helion’s closed lips.
 

Dahlia and Whitney watched in horror, the spectacle of torture bumped up against something as commonplace as watching a baseball game.
 
Whitney closed her eyes to shut out the sight of Helion’s blood.
 

Dahlia stared.
 
She was not terrified.
 
She was enraged.
 
Her clear pendant flooded with red.
 
With each pull of the pliers, Dahlia strengthened her resolve to kill every human in the room, then the building.
 

 
She shifted to get a better view of the metal circle that held Andy, and the lamin that flashed around the man’s neck.
 
Those were the keys and she would figure them out, but first she had to get untied.
 

***

Belial tried a different hairstyle.
 
“This Super-Mart smells like human sweat.”

She stood in front of a full-length mirror examining the henna tattoo that Spider had covered half of her body in.
 
Shoppers wandered around her, unaware of her presence.
 
Overhead, speakers blasted announcements about a pre-summer sale.
 
The others sat off to the side feeling mildly embarrassed and nervous.
 
Seeing Belial completely naked, except for high heels, was still taking some getting used to.

Belial looked over.
 
“Are you finished with the blades?”

Jacob, Tracy, and Celeste sat on borrowed outdoor furniture and fumbled with a headdress made out of knives.
 
Tracy shook her head.
 
“We’re new to making a…
anything
out of steak knives okay.”

Belial stuck her tongue out, then her hand.
 
“Give it to me.
 
I don’t have anything to do now that I have the
perfect
set of heels.”
 
She spun around in her steel-toed pumps.
 
She’d filed the stiletto points to spikes; three razors had been imbedded in back of each heel.
 

Belial grinned, showing off fangs.
 
She picked up the rows of strung together knives and bent the metal between her fingertips weaving the blades into an ornate braid of sharp steel.
 
She sat down next to Jacob, making him blush scarlet.
 
Belial looked over her handiwork.
 
“In the City I have a headdress made from human bones, I used to have a belt of skulls too.
 
You can see it once we get there, if you want.”
 

Jacob gulped.
 
“Oh yeah, uh, sure.
 
Sounds great.”

Belial grinned.
 
“I used to dye my hair with ashes from funeral pyres too.
 
Kind of gothic of me, don’t you think?”
 
She smiled.
 
“I like this better than skulls.
 
Shiny.”

Spider walked out of the toy aisle with the Chulyin and Tokala at her side.
 
She smiled at the trio of new Lilliam.
 
They leaned away from her.
 
She held out a brilliant piece of shimmering red cloth.
 
“For you.”

Belial hopped to her feet and let Spider secure the fabric to her waist.
 
The cloth hung in front and in back with slits on the side from ankle to hip.
 
Belial danced to one side.
 
“Good for being mobile.”
 
She high kicked the air.
 
Jacob looked at his hands.

Spider smiled and touched Belial’s hair.
 
“I know what you like.”
 
She braided Belial’s blonde locks, interweaving more of the red material in with the blonde.
 
Spider took the blades from Belial and bent the metal, securing it throughout her hair.
 
She examined her work.
 
“We have notified the local Lilliam and my human followers.
 
They have cleared Phoenix, only non-converted humans remain behind.”

Belial nodded at her.
 
“Good.”
 
She stared at herself in the mirror.
 
“I am so badass.”
 
She pointed to Tracy and Celeste.
 
“Do you have outfits for my priestesses?”

Spider nodded.
 
“Of course dear.”

Tracy looked up.
 
“We’re priestesses?”

Belial grinned.
 
“Now you are.”

Jacob looked at the two girls.
 
“What am I then?”

Belial bit her lip.
 
“I never really had guys around
alive
.
 
You can be a eunuch, but not literally.
 
Now all of you strip.”

The three balked.
 
Celeste stood up.
 
“What?”

Belial snapped at them.
 
“We have to match outfits!
 
So strip!”

Spider finished braiding Belial’s hair and let the web of fabric, hair, and blades settle into place.
 
She walked up to Tracy, hooked a finger in the girl’s shirt, and sliced her clothing off.
 
She handed Tracy a dress that tied at the side, open from ankle to underarm.
 
Tracy slipped it on.
 

Celeste stripped to her underwear before Spider got to her.
 
Spider handed Celeste a dress.
 
Celeste took it down an aisle to change.

Spider stilled.
 
She stared off into space.
 

A boy materialized near a rack of candy.
 
Set looked at Belial and bowed.
 
“Greetings.”

Belial smiled.
 
“Set.”

Spider took the boy’s hand.
 
“I must go.
 
Lucifer needs to be healed.”
 

Belial waved her away.
 
“We’ll be fine.
 
Give my regards to everyone and get a TV going.
 
I want an audience.”

Set smiled grimly.
 
He recognized her outfit and intent.
 
“Everyone will appreciate the gesture.
 
The Mother has not yet returned.”
 

Spider nodded.
 
“We will send someone for you, to bring you in if we can.
 
Otherwise, you must take the Old Road.”
 

Set stepped back, pulling Spider with him.
 
They faded out.
 
That left Belial and the others alone.

The Chulyin leaned on his blade.
 
“What do the prince and I do?”

Belial fiddled with her hair, sliding it over her bare breasts.
 
“Cover us.
 
We’re going to get sniper fire.
 
I want you flying high and taking them out.
 
Tokala, Morgan will be
pissed
if I let you get hurt, so lay low.”

Tokala shook his head.
 
“I am one of many princes.
 
I owe it to my people to do this.
 
Besides.”
 
He smiled.
 
“It will be good for morale.
 
It is a prince’s responsibility to make the people happy.”

Belial shrugged.
 
“Your choice.”

Jacob stood up.
 
“So, what happens
after
you kill a bunch of people?”

Belial turned to him.
 
“After?
 
I never think about after.”

Tokala answered in her stead, “We will either be picked up or we hike to the City on the Old Road.
 
But focusing on that is not the right mindset for battle.”

Tracy chewed on a nail.
 
“Battle?
 
I don’t know how to battle.
 
I’m an office manager.
 
I order coffee mugs and reams of paper.”

Belial grinned.
 
“
You
just stand around and be lucky for the rest of us.
 
Think of yourself as our sexy mascot.”
 
She looked at Celeste.
 
“You are a natural, and you.”
 
She glanced at Jacob.
 
“Well…you’ll figure it out I hope.”

Jacob skin turned bluer.
 
“Great.”

Tokala pulled Jacob into a hug.
 
The air shimmered around them.
 
He let Jacob go.
 
Jacob wobbled, tripped, and fell.
 
A blast of air kept him from hitting the ground.
 
He careened into Celeste, just missing Tracy.
 
Tokala helped Celeste to her feet as Jacob slammed into shoppers.

Jacob came to a stop and shook his head.
 
His hair was translucent, and his eyes had turned silver.
 
Jacob’s skin was transparent, underneath was a milky blue mist full of moving lights.