Netherworld, Soul Guardians Book 4 (18 page)

Chapter 14

Captive

K
ara stared at the sphere in disbelief. Had she just imagined
a talking green sun? No, it couldn’t be. Was this one of Lilith’s
games? Like father like daughter, she realized. Asmodeus loved to
torment the souls of others. She raised her fist in the air
angrily.

“
Lilith! Show yourself!
What have you done with Jenny? I don’t have time for your games.
Show yourself!” Kara stood her ground and waited. She wasn’t in the
mood for any amusements. “You wanted me to come here, and so here I
am. Your fight is with me. Let my friend go, Lilith!”

“
Lilith?” said the booming
voice. Kara flinched and took a step back. “We are not Lilith. But
Lilith exists in us.”

Kara lifted her head slowly towards
the brilliant green sun. Her eyes burned, but she kept staring at
it anyway.

“
Uh—and what exactly are
you? I’ve never heard of a giant demon ball. Is Lilith your
mistress? Do you know where she is or how to get out of
here?”

The humming increased. The ground
vibrated and sent ripples through Kara’s feet. The sun shimmered
and grew brighter.

“
We are the heart of the
netherworld. We are a collective consciousness. We are in everyone
and everything. We have existed since the beginning of time. We
live, and yet we are dead.”

“
That’s just great,” Kara
mumbled to herself. She gave the sun a curious frown. “Well, you
obviously know Lilith…can you tell me where she is? How about an
angel girl? Do you know where they took my friend? Where is my
friend Jenny?”

Something inside told her the sun was
truthful. She wasn’t entirely sure the entity would answer her, but
it was worth the try.

A low rumble erupted from the sun.
“The demon Lilith lives in us. She belongs here…as do
you.”

What?
While Kara puzzled over what she just heard, a strange
yearning welled up inside her. She blinked into the sun’s rays.
Overwhelmed by a feeling of longing, she stepped towards the green
sun without thinking. When she realized what she had done, she
shook the feeling off and stepped back, terrified that she was
losing control. She gripped her blade tightly in her hand. She
gathered her wits and courage.

“
So…since we’re exchanging
information, do you know if Asmodeus had more than one daughter?
Did he have more offspring apart from Lilith…and me?”

The entity was silent for a moment,
and Kara thought it might never speak again.

“
The creature Asmodeus had
only two offspring—two female entities of great power. Lilith was
one…and you, Kara, are the other.”

Relieved, Kara let herself relax a
little. At least that was good news. One Lilith meant only one
threat for the time being, until a new threat revealed itself. Kara
could now concentrate all her efforts on Jenny. But first, she had
to get out of there.

“
Please…where’s Jenny? My
friend was brought here by force. She’s very sick. Do you know
where she is? I need to find her.”

The sun shimmered but did not
answer.

Kara tried hard not to show how eager
she was to escape. “Where am I exactly? Please, can you tell me how
to get out of here? I’ve been to the netherworld once before, but
I’ve never been here…in this place…it feels...”

Kara fought a sudden internal force
that pulled her towards the sun again. It called out to her. Part
of her wanted to walk up to it, to touch it, while the other part
screamed for her to run. She took a step forward.

Kara trembled. Something wasn’t right.
She began to feel even more anxious. She stared at the sun. She
could feel an emptiness in her core, where her power
belonged.

The sun hummed and blazed
brightly.

“
You are in the realm of
supernatural beings, where layers of existence travel along an axis
between the worlds—where the dead and the undead meet in darkness.
This is where you belong. You know it is true—you can feel it—you
belong with us.”

Kara trembled. Her soul blade slipped
from her hand and hit the floor. Sickness washed through her. She
ached to be close to the sun, but at the same time she knew it
would be harmful to her. The pull towards the sun intensified. It
took all of her strength to remain where she was.

“
W...what are you doing to
me?” She had never experienced such out of control power. It
overwhelmed her. “Stop it!”

A throbbing pain exploded in her head.
The more she resisted, the worse it got. She concentrated on Jenny
and tried to numb the pain. She had to get out of here before it
was too late.

The sun cracked and shimmered. “You
cannot resist us, Kara Nightingale. You belong with us. The more
you resist, the more it will hurt.”

“
I’m not one of you. And I
think it’s pretty freaky you know who I am. Well, maybe not as
freaky as talking to a sphere.”

Kara’s head burned, but at least she
knew why now. She ignored the pain. “I don’t belong here…I belong
with my friends. Let me go!”

A boom thundered throughout the room.
A wave of heat hit Kara, and she stumbled. She regained her balance
and fought to escape the sun’s pull, but its power was too strong.
She was trapped. She started to panic as she felt herself being
sucked closer and closer.

“
You are a creature of the
netherworld—an organism of immense dark power. You are one of us,
Kara. We can feel the darkness inside you. We have been waiting for
you. We knew this day would come. It is inevitable. You can feel it
too. You know we speak the truth. The power that flows through your
soul comes from us…and belongs to us. Come Kara, come and join
us
.
”

Kara’s right foot slipped. Her body
dragged forward two steps and halted. She fought to resist the
pull. Her body tingled with sharp pricks of pain. With a groan she
pulled at her restraints. “Yeah, well, I don’t think so. I’m not
one of you. I don’t have darkness. I don’t belong here. I belong in
Horizon with the rest of the angels. I’ll be leaving
now—”

Current lashed out of the green sun. A
tendril of green electricity wrapped itself tightly around Kara. It
coiled around her legs and pinned her arms against her sides. She
struggled to move, but she could only move her head. Her body was
lifted in the air. She averted her eyes as the tendril pulled her
ever closer to the sun. She hovered before the great green sphere.
Her skin burned. Lethal heat seeped into her wounds. Kara cried out
as she felt her angel flesh boiling. The green current snaked over
her body, slicing and burning every inch of her. She wrestled
desperately against her restraints, but to no avail. The more she
kicked and fought, the tighter the tendril squeezed. After a
moment, she let her body go limp.

“
Do not fight us, Kara. The
more you resist, the more we will hurt you. Let yourself go—join
us. The darkness exists in you just as it existed in your father.
You cannot deny what you are. You are part of us, and soon we will
be reunited. It is the only way. You belong with us. You can never
leave.”

Weakness washed through Kara. She was
in a dream-like stupor, unable to concentrate. Her eyelids
fluttered. “No…I…don’t…belong…here—my friends…” Although the heat
from the sun still burned her the tendril released a little. Her
head bobbed. “Have…to…help them.”

Cracks and thunder rumbled
around the chamber. Kara’s head fell backwards. Her eyes rolled
into the back of her head. Her consciousness wavered.
Was this a dream? Where was she? Mom?

“
Soon you will not remember
your friends or your family. Your memories will fade away, and you
will forget them. You will forget your mortal and angel life, and
become one with us. You cannot hide from what you are, Kara. The
darkness lives within you. Embrace the darkness and let go. Here is
where you belong.”

In the dull fog of the half-sleep,
Kara struggled to think. Her head snapped back up. She strained to
open her eyes. Her lids fluttered, but didn’t open “N...no. My
friends. Must…get out. You…can’t…keep me.”

The heat intensified. “You cannot go.
You will never leave. Your power and consciousness will join ours.
Soon you will understand and be glad. You will come to understand
the full meaning of your existence.”

With the last of her strength Kara
managed to ask. “My friends….David?” Her head fell on her chest.
The tendril twitched. Coldness seeped through her like an icy
shower. She flinched as the cold spread inside her body all the way
to her finger tips. It reached her neck, and then her head. She
shivered violently and then was stiff.

“
Ah, yes, David. David.
David. David.” The voice repeated loudly like a broken record. “You
will not need him anymore. All you need is us. To be with us. You
will see.”

David’s smiling face appeared in her
mind’s eye. His sparkling blue eyes—his perfect lips. They had
become inseparable since she started work at the bookstore. Their
affections for each other had grown. Kara clung desperately to her
feelings towards him. A surge of warmth rippled inside her core,
and the coldness tapered for a moment. But then David’s face
rippled and disappeared. The coldness subdued the heat, and Kara
struggled with her memories. They lifted away and vanished. Her
mind became clouded. Parts of her mortal life mixed with her angel
life, until only fragments remained. She couldn’t make sense of her
memories anymore. David slipped away from her
completely.

“
No!” Kara fought against
it. She held onto a partial image of David. She wouldn’t let this
thing take her memories. “Stop! I won’t let you do
this!”

“
Do not resist, Kara. Soon
you will not care anymore. David will not exist for you. Your
friends will not exist—only the dark power. You will be happier,
trust us. You are a creature of darkness—your power and
consciousness will join ours.”

“
I…don’t want to…I
won’t...”

With David’s image in her mind, Kara
concentrated. This thing wanted to kill her memories. Her strength
was going. The blackness was trying to suck her back in. “I
won’t…let you…do this to me.”

“
But you must. You will
see. It is already happening. You cannot stop us.”

Kara concentrated on her elemental
power. It was her only way out. She focused on her hatred. Anger
boiled inside her. A flicker of power answered. It grew. Kara fed
it everything she had. The heat of her elemental power diminished
the cold. Some of Kara’s memories came back—images of her mother,
David, even Jenny and Peter, flooded into her head. She let her
power sweep through her. In her desperation to cling to her life,
she focused all her strength on her anger. It spread like a
wildfire.

“
Kara…what are you doing.
Stop this. You belong to us. You cannot leave us.”

Kara ignored the voice. She felt the
sun’s anger trying to push out her elemental power. But she
resisted. Her wild elemental energy surged with white hot power. It
poured into her like a life source.

“
Kara, no, stop! You cannot
do this! No!”

A smile twitched on Kara’s lips. “Yes
I can.”

With a sudden burst of energy, Kara’s
body flared with a golden blast of light like an exploding star.
The ground shook and the chamber was illuminated with hues of gold.
Kara felt the pressure release around her chest, and she fell to
the ground. The green tendrils withered and
disintegrated.

“
No! You cannot
escape!”

Another tendril of green sparks lashed
out from the sun, but Kara jumped out of the way and the tendril
swept the ground near her boots. Another two whipped out and
attacked. Kara rolled and jumped out of their reach.

She threw out her palm. Nothing
happened. Tiny sparks of gold snaked around in her hand and went
out. Her elemental power wasn’t strong enough. She had used up all
her power resisting—she couldn’t strike at the thing with it. She
could feel her power was draining away.

“
Kara you belong with us!
With us!”

The green entity shimmered. It grew.
Its body rippled and grew until it was five times its original
size. Kara backed away. Soon it would fill the entire chamber and
squish her.

“
You belong with us! With
us!”
The green sun expanded some more. It
swelled like a giant water balloon about to burst. The chamber
shook. Dust and stones fell on Kara’s head. It was her cue to get
out.

She turned and bolted. She ran the way
she had come. She heard the entity wail once more, and then her
boot steps echoed in the silence. The remnants of her elemental
power were just enough to keep her running.

She dashed down the dark passageway.
Mist poured around her feet, but she ran faster. The fog rippled
and rose. She pressed on. She could see shadows of the crab demons
scurrying around. Any minute now a horde of them would attack. She
counted the seconds in her head and prayed she could squish them
with her boots.

With all the strength she could
muster, Kara pushed her legs as fast as they would go. The thought
of seeing David again fueled her with more energy. She cursed the
green sun for trying to take him away from her. In the gathering
blackness she had felt a connection to the darkness the sun had
spoken of, but she refused to dwell on it now. She ran for her
life.