God of the Abyss (39 page)

“How long have I been back?”

“I brought you back to a minute after you traveled to
Dios, but you couldn’t wake up until your body rebalanced your energy. You were
asleep for nearly twenty-two hours. I know you hurt right now, but it should
fade in less than an hour now that you are conscious. Try to take it easy until
then.”

“The gates are opening. The Dios gate is already open
and the others probably aren’t far behind. I need to…” I trailed off as she
glared at me. “I need to rest quickly so that I can think clearly and not get
injured. You’re so beautiful when you’re forgiving.”

“You are a dork.”

“But you love me anyway,” I said.

“I do,” she said, snuggling into my arms. She was a
god and often seemed above everything, but she still liked to cuddle.

With pain still weighing on me, I reclined and pulled
her with me. Sammy wiggled around in his sleep for a moment before settling
down, but neither child woke. “We got to get up. Work to do,” I said sometime
later, half asleep. I didn’t open my eyes, but I felt her nod against my chest.

“Yeah,” she said.

I could tell by her voice that she was half asleep,
too.

*          *          *

I woke to the sound of thunder. Snuggled between my
wife and my children, I wanted to go back to sleep. The weather of Shomodii was
always precarious… but it wasn’t just thunder… something was wrong. I could
feel something wrong with the atmosphere.

“Daddy, Ron doesn’t feel good,” Sammy said. I rolled
over, waking Divina, and saw the boys sitting on the floor. I was out of bed
and next to them in an instant. Ron was never sick; he was the son of a
goddess.

He was sitting cross-legged and leaning against
Sammy. His skin was pale so I put my hand on his forehead. He wasn’t feverish.
“What’s wrong, sweetie?”

“The energy is bad. The gate is nearly open and the
Ancients are getting out. I don’t know what to do, Daddy, I can’t stop them. I
can’t stop the gate. I’m sorry, Daddy.”

Divina and I both hugged him. “It’s not your fight,”
I said. “It’s my job to make the future better for you.” My next words were
drowned by another loud crack of thunder… but it didn’t sound so much like
thunder this time. It was an explosion. “Stay with the boys,” I told Divina.

“What?! I’m a god, why would I stay behind?!”

I stopped at the door and turned back to see her
still kneeling on the floor. Ron’s arms were wrapped around her right arm and
Sammy held her left hand.

“Because our sons need their mother when they’re
scared.” Exiting the bedroom, I found Edward standing in the front doorway
while the two griffins guarded the bedroom door. It was raining hard. I got to
the door just as I felt the same wave as on Dios.

“We are screwed,” Edward said.

The sound of an explosion came again and I pushed
past him. Outside in the yard, there was a small sphere of blinding light
suspended about six feet off the ground. With each explosion, which were increasing
in frequency, the sphere grew larger. Finally, it burst.

Standing there was Harvey.

It wasn’t really Harvey, though, only the demon who
took my step-father’s form. He stood there as the light faded, his arms
crossed. As heavily as the rain poured, the demon remained dry and with a smirk
of confidence. Hell, he even dressed like a high-class demon; he wore a black
satin, sleeveless shirt with thin metal chains strapped across it and black
leather pants. He dressed like a goth kid, yet he looked about my age.

Edward drew his sword, but I waved him down. “I got
it.” I could feel his unsure stare before he stepped back, putting his trust in
me. “Why are you here?” I asked. The rain instantly ceased.

“You sound unpleased. I hardly thought you would
welcome me, but I came here to help you,” he grinned. “Myself as well.” He
paused for me to speak, but I waited. “The demons are free from the void. Most
of us follow the balance, but I am stronger than that; I can think for myself.
I know that while the balance might be the strongest force in the universe, you
will probably come out victorious. Therefore, I have come to you with a
proposition. I want to serve you, in exchange for pardon. According to your
father, you will close the gates again, and I believe him. When you close the
gates, you will send the demons back to the void. There is no worse place. I
will serve you for your vow not to send
me
back. I am even willing to
serve your dragon friend in atonement for what I did to him.”

I knew my stare was blank, and he soon lost his
confident expression, but inside I was doing a happy dance. I was trying to
figure out how to contact Janus and make a bargain with this demon, but the
Ancient walked right into my hands.

“How long are you agreeing to serve me?” I asked.

“Until you send the other demons back into the void.”

“You know, without your power, you are hardly useful
to anyone,” I said thoughtfully. When he frowned, I gave him my friendliest
smile.

“I would, of course, need my magic back.”

“In order to serve me, you would. But if I were to
give you back your magic, you could revert to your old ways.”

“You created a body that I could survive in. I would
rather live powerless than be imprisoned in the void. It was never an ambition
of mine to cause pain. Yes, destruction was entertainment to me, but I can find
other ways to enjoy myself. There is nothing in the void. You humans call it
Hell, yes?”

He was earnest. “You brought it on yourself by
messing with my family.”

“Subjecting your dragon brother to the void was a
mistake. I will never make such an error again. The child was the only way I
thought I could live.”

“Who told you about Samhail?” Edward asked the demon.

The demon glanced at him and then back at me,
deciding whether or not I would demand his answer. “You would never believe
me.”

“Give me the truth and I will believe it,” I said.

“He created unbalance in the universe. I was led to
him, not by a person, god, or demon, but by the force of the universe to
destroy threats. He was the first of his kind and so powerful that the universe
had to try to crush him. Beings of the void can feel that, and it is our
instinct to help balance the universe. You have been the biggest foe of the
balance by destroying Vretial, but you still came out triumphant. No matter
what was thrown at you, you prevailed.”

“He does that,” Edward said.

“That is why I am resisting my instincts to enforce
the natural order of nature and instead, I want to follow you to the victory.”

“You would live with what I give you? That child you
were so determined to possess, he is my family now.”

He snorted. “That is no surprise to me. I spent so
little time inside the child, but I knew immediately that he could expel me at
any moment. I thought he was my salvation, but I was wrong; I cannot fully
possess a demigod.”

“Sammy isn’t a demigod. He is the child of a Noquodi
and a human, like I am.”

“Who told you that?” he asked me with surprise.

“His mother.”

“You were lied to. He is the child of a god. Your
whole family has the impact of a black hole to a planet on the balance. With as
much power as you all have and nobody to counteract you, there is nothing to
stop you from destroying everything. The universe will never stop trying to
return to equilibrium.”

“I’ll figure out how to keep the universe together
with the gates closed. You can have your power back for the time that you serve
me. You are required to obey me until I return the demons to the void, and in
return I will let you live. However; once you choose to stop serving me, you
will only have minor, mortal power. But there is one more stipulation. If
Mordon, Samhail, or my son, Ronez, are ever fatally in danger, you will regain
full power in order to save them, which you must do immediately.”

“You are very thorough. I accept.” He dropped to one
knee and bowed.

I wished Mordon was there, so that I could make a
joke. So many missed opportunities…

“What are my orders?” he asked.

“The other demons are causing havoc, and I bet the
Ancients will, too, now that they’re out. You are to stop them. I will make you
more powerful than all of them, but you have to thwart their every harmful
move. Every attack. Every single attack. Priority goes to protecting life.”

“I will make you glad you chose to spare me.” He
looked up. “But I need a name for you to call me.”

“You have no name?”

“Minor demons have names they keep hidden. People can
be controlled by magic through their names, but demons can be owned. Therefore,
I have no name. None of the demons of my class do. However, all demons must
give a measure of control over to the mortals if we make a covenant with them.

“You must give me a name to call me by, which will
have as much power over me as our deal entails and no more. In other words, for
this specific contract, you can use it to command me to save someone, but you
cannot use it to force me back into the void. Once you or I consciously break
our end of the deal or end it peacefully, the name loses all power. Be mindful,
for with every person you share my name, the power in it diminishes. I could be
called to anyone and trapped by my name,” he said.

Edward put his hand on my shoulder. “If an enemy gets
his name, he can be used to find you. I’ll go inside; I don’t want to know the
name of your demon.” He left, which meant something to me. Edward would only
leave me alone with a demon if there was no possible chance that the demon
could hurt me.

I pulled my power and sent my magic into him, giving
him back what I took the last time I faced him, but adding a little extra. His
own demon energy was powerful, and I couldn’t give him Iadnah power, but I
could easily give him better control over nominal energy. It was an
afterthought, maybe even a stroke of genius, to give him a protective instinct.
I gave him a little of my own healing energy, but tweaked it for a new purpose,
so that he would sense when someone needed help or healing, and it would bother
him. After all, if he was going to be my demon, I should train him.

“Xul is your name,” I said.

“Thank you. If I may be excused, I have work to do.”

“Go on, then,” I said. He vanished smoothly.

I went back inside. Ron and Sammy ran into my arms as
soon as I stepped through the door. Divina stood out of their way.

“It never even occurred to you to doubt your control
over him,” she said.

“It’s not my faith in my magic that caused me to make
a deal with him. I know he would have found a way to get his powers back. I
also know there are more Ancients than him. If I can close the gates, then they
are all going to be gunning for me. Having him on my side is better than having
him on theirs.”

“I thought Edward told you to stop taking home pets.”

“He’s not my mentor anymore, so I can get as many
pets as I want,” I argued. She crossed her arms. “As long as my lovely wife
doesn’t mind, of course. I’m sorry, are you allergic to demons? He can be an
outside demon. You won’t have to walk him or pet him or anything. Which reminds
me, where is Shinobu?”

“She wasn’t here when I brought you back. Don’t worry
about her; she’s a wild animal. Now, unfortunately, I need to get back to
work.”

“The demon told me something a little disturbing,” I
said.

Divina nodded. “I know. I’m a god; I was listening.
We can talk about it later.” She gave me a small hug and chaste kiss and then
vanished.

“What now, Daddy?” Sammy asked.

“We need to go get Mordon, but I have to go get
something straight real quick. I’ll be right back,” I said before flashing to
Edward’s house and landing right in front of the woman I wanted to talk to. In
her startled state, I grabbed Vivian’s arm and dragged her into the cabin, then
shut the door behind us and turned to her. “Who is Sammy’s father?”

She frowned. “Nano is his father. You know that,” she
said, a confused frown on her face. I knew Vivian; I knew when she was lying
and she was telling the truth. “Why are you asking me this?”

“You know Ron is old enough to pass Divina’s
protection spell back to her. Why haven’t you come for Sammy?” I asked. She
looked ashamed. “Do you not love him?”

She glared at me. “Of course I love him! He’s my
baby!” she paused. “But Nano and I talked a lot about what was best for him.
That’s all we ever wanted. And we think what is best for him is to stay with
you. Nano is often gone on missions and he has other children that he treats
like vague acquaintances. He has children older than me. It’s really creepy,
really. With you, Sammy has a brother. You and Divina are powerful enough to
protect him and train him. In many ways, he’s already more powerful than Nano.”

“You’re his mother. How can you possibly give him
up?”

She sighed and hung her head. “I know you don’t
understand. You
are
what’s best for him. I wish I was, but I know he’s
better off with you and Divina. He never liked Dios. He loves me and he likes
Nano, but when he used to cry for his dad at night, it was you he wanted. He’s
more like you than anyone, and he always wanted to be a Guardian just like
you
,
not Nano. You’re a hero to him. I can’t take him away from you.”

“I don’t think I could give him up, even if you
wanted him back.”

She gave me a sad smile. “And that is why you don’t
have to, because I could. I already let you go when I loved you, because I knew
we weren’t right together. I had to help raise my siblings and that was enough
parenting for me, but you wanted a bunch of kids. Let me give you what you
really wanted from me. I still love you. I always loved you, and I always will.
So I gave you up, like I’m giving Sammy up. Divina is better for you than me, I
know. I can see it.” She started choking up, but no tears fell.