Forfeit Souls (The Ennead Book 1) (16 page)

For a second I thought to myself,
of course, this is all some vivid dream. That would explain it.

But my thoughts of dreams and insanity were quickly dissuaded by the whisper in my ear. “What are you thinking?”

I was startled by Demetrius’ sudden reappearance next to me – I probably jumped a foot off of the bed. “Oh my,” I said as I landed back on the bed. “I’m thinking that I need to find my nerves again.”

“Sorry,” he said with a sheepish grin.

“I was thinking about the people I left behind,” I lied.

“Ah,” he sighed, and leaned against the headboard, closing his eyes.

I hadn’t thought much about them before, but I knew I would need to now. I understood that everyone I had ever known probably thought – correctly – that I was dead. But I wanted so badly to right a few of the wrongs that had occurred shortly before I died, namely Paul. I had left the dinner party in a foul mood and I didn’t want him to think that I had died mad at him – though technically I did, but that’s just arguing semantics.

I hated leaving things unfinished, I hated having people think that I was mad at them, especially if they thought I was dead.

“Metri, I need to go take care of something,” I whispered to him. I hoped that he would understand.

“Can I come?” he asked, without opening his eyes.

I was happy that he was willing to accompany me anywhere without question, but I couldn’t see Paul with him there. “It’s something I need to do on my own.”

He sighed and opened his eyes to look at me. “Alright, but if I think you need me I will be there.”

I laughed inwardly at his threat. “Oh? And what will constitute my needing you?” the laugh peaking around the edges of my words.

“I’ll be there if you get into enough trouble that you have to do something… demonic.” We both laughed at the last word and I winked as I thought of my destination and closed my eyes.

Paul

Opening my eyes after I felt myself come back together, I looked about me and became very confused. I had expected to find myself at his apartment, the museum of antiquities or his parent’s house. Why I was on a dank London side street I wasn’t sure.

-Paul-

I extricated myself from the rubble of the shop that I had been thrown back into. I couldn’t understand Ellie’s utter loathing of me, had she been so blinded by the wind demons that she wanted to kill me?

Then I saw him. The man that appeared next to her was surely another wind demon, perhaps he was her keeper, as Jack was mine. My mind was spinning, now that I knew she wasn’t dead, or at least she wasn’t completely dead. But what did it mean?

The pain and anger that welled within me was searing. I did not know how long I could abide it. The moment he took her hand was the last straw on the camel’s back that was my fury.

I couldn’t contain myself any longer, but it wouldn’t do to combust here. I quickly thought of a place that I would be able to do severe damage and found myself in the middle of a forest. It felt like every fiber of my being was on fire, I had been controlling it until now, but I could hold it no longer and let the anger and despair explode outward from me. The fire that flew forth from me rippled through the trees in a shockwave that sent them bowing backwards on themselves, and when they righted themselves again, their trunks were mangled blackened ruins and their branches alight with the flames of my rage.

I allowed myself to burn there for a long time. Feeling the flames as they lapped against my skin and staring at the gibbous moon as it slowly sank toward the horizon.

“This is really bad for our PR you know…” The voice behind me belonged to Jack.

I didn’t turn to him. “What do we care about the public? They are simply a toy; their lives are nothing but a game to us.”

“That’s not true,” Carlo said from the burning branch he was swinging on. “They’re not toys, and their lives aren’t games.”

“No, that’s right,” I said snidely, “they’re snacks and their deaths are the game.”

Jack appeared on another branch in the same tree that Carlo was hanging from, but he just sat on the burning bough. “That’s not true.” He said in a disappointed tone. “Their deaths are not games and we don’t
eat
them.”

I just shook my head. How many more lies would they try to sell me? “So, Hephaestus,” I hissed his name, “Do you always kill your new recruit’s friends, and then lie about it?”

I saw the muscles in his neck flex as his jaw clenched. I had hit a nerve.

“You took Ellie the night you took me. There was no fated reason that either of us should have died.”

“ I can assure you, there was,”  Carlo said as he swung himself up and hung from the branch by his knees.

I was surprised by Jack’s confused expression, as he jerked his head towards Carlo. There was something about Ellie and I that Jack didn’t know.

“Ellie, as you call her, needed to become an Asakku. She would have brought about a new era for the Asakku. Now we will have to wait a considerable amount of time before the next female Asakku is born and Namtar informs us of her presence. Charlotte was the first, but she was stolen by Lilith before we could get to her. It is not a surprise that they stole Joellen as well.” As Carlo spoke I watched Jack.

His expression was dumbfounded and annoyed. He was just hearing this information as well. I wondered why my keeper hadn’t been informed of his prey’s importance.

“Jack was lucky that he found you. You’re connection with Ellie made you a valuable addition to our ranks, like Ryan.” Carlo’s revelation about Ryan seemed to be new to Jack as well.

The Greek’s face was contorted in suspicion. “How do you know that?”

Dissention in the ranks… what a useful tool
, I thought.

“There are a few things that Gallu keeps from all of us. I’m just amazed that she sent you out without that knowledge.” Carlo’s hissing laugh echoed through the smoldering trees. It was then that I realized my fire had subsided.

“Gallu wanted her.” I broke into their tête-à-tête “Why?”

“Weren’t you listening?” he hissed at me. “She would have turned the tables in our favor.” He laughed and I felt the raspy hisses as they bounced off of me.

He turned to Jack now. “She would have rather seen you die than let that girl escape.” He paused, looking down at his claw-like fingers. “Like I said, I’m amazed that this simpering little boy was enough to save you from destruction.”

“But why tell us this now?” Jack said, as he dropped to the ground, burnt pine-needles crunching beneath his feet. “You could have continued to keep it from us.” He was now standing directly in front of Carlo.

“Actually, I couldn’t,” he said as he flipped around so that he was hanging by one arm. “Glow-worm over there ran into Ellie tonight. That’s why he’s not heeding Smokey’s advice.” He looked around Jack to me, “Only you can prevent forest fires.” It was strange to hear sarcasm in his voice.

“So he saw the girl. So what?” Jack said with a gruff voice.

“Look at his eyes Jack. He’s not really one of us yet.” Jack turned to look at me as Carlo continued. “Until he’s one of us we can’t trust him.”

“But we could have kept him going with a lie for a little while longer,” Jack growled.

“No, it’s better to just be rid of him now”

Carlo and Jack were completely absorbed with themselves. And I knew one thing for certain from all of this. There were only two chances of getting out of this without being destroyed. The first was to flee, but I knew that I wouldn’t get far. The second was to play their game.

“Guys, what are you talking about killing me for?” I asked in an amused voice. “I have no intentions of turning.”

“You would not rather be with Ellie?” Carlo asked in a confused tone. He seemed genuinely confused.

“The only thing I want from Ellie is to relieve her of the wickedness that was inflicted on her by the wind demons, and to punish those wind demons for what they have done.”

Jack’s face was covered in a large grin. He was more than pleased to know that he would not have to kill me. Perhaps his brotherly affection towards me was not a façade as I once thought. Carlo, however, was inspecting me shrewdly; he was less willing to buy my act.

“Well,” Carlo stammered, “I doubt that Gallu would have anticipated this.” He seemed fidgety. “Excuse me while I go see what’s to be done about this.”

Jack looked at his old friend with an exasperated expression. “Quit your fidgeting, I’ll stay with him.”

Carlo gave Jack a wary look and disappeared in a burst of silvery blue flames.

“Kid, I’m going to give you some advice, though I can tell you’ve already learned a large portion of this lesson,” he said as soon as Carlo was gone. “Being an Asakku is all about the politics. It’s who you know and how you keep the boss happy that keeps you around.”

“Like you said, I’ve already got that part.” I said warily. I didn’t quite know where this was headed.

“The second portion of the lesson is this: Gallu is not a forgiving being. If it comes down to it, I will tell you to run, and I can assure you the only place you stand to have a hope of being safe from her is with the Lilitu.” And as an afterthought he added, “your eyes may be the only thing that saves you.”

I gave him a queer look. “Why are you helping me?”

“I’ve been around long enough to know that some of us never embrace the Asakku nature, and I am not one to force that nature on others.”

“You killed Ellie, didn’t you?” I asked, feeling the heat welling up inside of me again.

“I did,” he said quietly. “I won’t tell you that I’m sorry for what I did because I’m not going to lie to you kid. But I did it for her good as well as the good of every other human on the planet.”

I looked at him, not yet willing to believe he wasn’t trying to sell me a load.

“Gallu’s got it in her head that a female Asakku would bring about her reign over the other eight demons of the Ennead. I don’t know why it would be any different, but it seems to pop up every five hundred years or so.”

“And you don’t want to see that happen?”I asked, suspicious now. I didn’t trust his motives.

“Don’t get me wrong kid,” he said with a wry look. “Gallu’s been great to me so far, but a female Asakku would diminish all need for the rest of us….” He waggled a finger back and forth between us. “The others don’t quite understand that.”

I hated to state the obvious, “Gallu would destroy you if she knew that you were sabotaging her plans.”

“And that, my friend, is the trick.” He said with an evil smile that spread across his entire face. “I always appear to be following orders. But I would rather be destroyed than see her plan come to fruition.”

My suspicions were not lessened any. “Why did you act dumb when Carlo was talking about Ellie earlier?”

“Just another part of the façade my dear boy.” He said as he walked to a rock and sat down.

Jack seemed to be forthcoming, and I was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. He had yet to tell me something that felt like a lie, as everything he had said before when I brought up Ellie had.

“Alright. So I should run,” I said when my resolve had solidified. And then, with a laugh, I added, “there’s no way on Earth that she’s going to believe me.”

Jack didn’t laugh with me. “Give it a little time, boy,” he said solemnly. “There may be a chance yet.”

I wondered if we were speaking of the same “she”… I knew that Ellie would probably be the last person to take me in. Her expression in the alley way had been one of sheer disappointment and disgust.

He probably thought I meant Gallu. And, truthfully, she would most likely be less inclined to believe that I was going to side with her and the Asakku way than Ellie would be to believe that I was willing to abandon it.

“Giancarlo will be coming for us,” Jack said in a low tone. “We’ll go back with him, but when I tell you to, you just go, think of Ellie and get away from us.”

“I don’t want to go back there,” I said stubbornly, ignoring Jack’s wolf-like smile.

“Come on Paul, its better in the basement,” he said with a subtle laugh. “Here we are like lions in a zoo. No matter how convincing our enclosure, we will never truly be free to be ourselves. The basement is our native habitat.”

“I disagree,” I said, mimicking his laugh, “It’s more clouded in the basement. That is our enclosure. I can think much more clearly here. Thank you.”

Jack looked at me seriously now, “You need to play along for a little while.”

I sighed, sinking to the needle covered ground, “Fine, I’ll go back to the basement, but I am not going into her throne room.” I would never again step into that room.

“I’m glad you’ve decided to play nice, he’s about to show up.” He said in a very sure voice.

My brow knitted as I looked to him, how could he know that Giancarlo was coming? But before I had a chance to organize my thoughts enough to respond, the silver blue flash of light in my peripheral drew my attention, and Carlo looked at us insidiously. “Good you’re still here.”

“Where would we go without you?” I asked in a bored tone.

“Wherever you might have gone I would have found you, and it would have been to your demise.” The hiss that escaped Carlo’s mouth was menacing. “Gallu is willing to have an audience with you. Do you agree to that?”

“I do,” I said, and his shoulders relaxed a fraction of an inch.

Jack stood from his rock and clapped Carlo on the shoulder, “why don’t you go retrieve her and we’ll have the meeting up here, in the fresh air?” And then, as though he was asking himself, “I wonder when the last time she came out of the basement and just saw the woods was?”

“No,” Carlo’s response was curt. “We will go to the basement, Gallu will not be retrieved. You should know that.” He hissed at Jack.

“Alright, alright.” He said with his hands up it the air. “No need to rip my head off.”

Carlo burst into flames and was gone. And I gave Jack a skeptical look as I let the flames engulf me. We reformed at the same time next to Carlo in the basement.

We were at the end of the corridor to Gallu’s throne room and the doors were open, showing the glimmering golden walls. I looked to Carlo and he held his hand out toward the door. “Please, after you.” He bowed his head slightly as though my lead should be a great honor.

I began to walk again, the hall that had once fascinated me now felt like my death row, Carlo was my warden, and Jack was the witness.

We walked slowly, and Jack began to babble.

“You know, this formality is silly,” he said with a laugh. “Paul should just go.”

The stress he put on “go” was enough for me to be sure that he was telling me to get out. I figured I’d go for the dramatic since it could be my last act. Just before my foot was about to step over the threshold, it lit like a fuse, extending up my leg and combusting my entire body.

I was pinned to the ground before I could go anywhere.