Not My Apocalypse (16 page)

My hand went to the handle of my new sword and I gripped it tight as I stared at the moon. “What do we do?” But I knew, with sick dread, where this was going to lead. If I wanted to save the world this time, I’d have to fight my father.

Chapter 14

Just on the off chance I was wrong, and I really fucking hoped I was, I went to find Stefan to see if we were dealing with Ragnarok again. I teleported straight from outside the cave to Stefan’s house, and it actually worked. The happiness of having my teleportation work was immediately killed by the weird darkness that greeted me. I looked up, straight into an eclipse. A dark sun and a blood-red moon. Either it was the Satanist prophecy or Sköll and Hati had eaten them. The coward in me hoped for Ragnarok because that meant I didn’t have to face Satan.

I rushed up to the front door and knocked. No answer. I knocked a few more times, then went around the house looking in windows to see if he was inside. Nothing. Where the hell was he? Then I realized with the shit going down, he might be looking for me. He knew I wouldn’t be at home, so at least I didn’t have to check there, but he could be looking for me anywhere. I could get a message to him through the crows, but that could take hours.

Wait. New Orleans. We’d met there before and after the last battle, so maybe he figured we’d meet up there again. It’s not like he had to come find me to tell me something bad was going on. The sun and moon were fucked up, it’s not like anyone could miss it. I scooped up Mew-Mew and teleported to New Orleans. It worked again. If the world didn’t end and/or my father didn’t kill me, this teleporting thing was going to come in really fucking handy.

Stefan wasn’t there but I found Elliot, who said Stefan was going around gathering up the rest of us. I asked Elliot if Stefan said it was Sköll and Hati eating the sun and moon, but he said this didn’t have anything to do with the Norse pantheon. I sat down, feeling sick. Yep, it had to be my father. The others arrived and Stefan looked relieved to see me. “Alex, I checked with my dad and this doesn’t have anything to do with Ragnarok.”

“I know. Elliot told me.” I rubbed some sweat from my forehead and my hand was shaking. “It’s Satan. I guess he decided he wasn’t going to wait for me to take over the world. He’s trying to destroy the world right now.”

“What?” they all said.

“He’s going to destroy the world, and I don’t know what to do.” That wasn’t totally true. I had to fight my father, that’s what I had to do. Only I didn’t know how I was going to do it without getting killed. I didn’t even know how to get to him to fight him.

Mew-Mew said,
Do you think Joshua can help? I know he didn’t want to help us fight before, but this
is
supposed to be his fight.

The coward in me totally loved the idea of Joshua fighting this battle for me, but the fighter in me hated the idea. “It’s worth a try.”

“What?” Emily asked.

“Mew-Mew suggested we go see if Joshua will help us.”

“That makes sense. Isn’t that how Armageddon is supposed to go down? Jesus against… well, you, but since you’re with the good guys, Satan will have to lead the troops himself,” Stefan said.

“Yeah, let’s go give it a try,” I said. Stefan took us all there. I still trusted his teleporting ability better than mine.

Joshua was standing on his front porch and didn’t look at all surprised to see us. “Hi, Alex. I knew you’d come.”

“So you know what’s going on, right?” The ground shook for a few seconds, all ominous and shit, making us all stumble.

“I know Satan is trying to take the world now, without waiting for the prophesied time. It’s supposed to happen years from now.”

“Do you think that means he’ll fail?” Maybe we wouldn’t have to do anything at all.

Joshua shook his head, and now I could see the fear in his eyes. “I don’t know. It’s not supposed to happen this way, and I can’t see how it’s going to end.”

“Then we make something happen, and we make sure the good guys win,” I told him.

“We could really use your help, and this is supposed to be your fight,” Stefan said.

Joshua glanced up at the dark sun, then back at us.

“Come on, no fucking excuses,” I said. “This is your fight. This is your father’s fucking adversary and he’s trying to destroy the world. Fight with us.”

“I don’t know how to fight.” He didn’t look like a demigod. He looked like a scared kid.

“Then use your magical Jesus powers to protect us while we fight. Be our shield,” I said, my hand tight on the handle of Animus.

“We need your help,” Emily said.

“I… I have to ask my father.”

“Oh for fuck’s sake.”

He went inside and I refrained from beating my head against the wall.

“I hope this doesn’t take long,” Stefan said. “Do you know how long we have?” he asked me.

I shook my head. “The prophecy, either version, isn’t specific about timing. We might have days or months or years before the world is destroyed, but the damage starts here and now. We have a few hours at most before the shit really hits the fan. Earthquakes, floods, fires, volcanoes erupting… and all that means people dying. So the sooner we stop the devil, the better.” And I didn’t know how we were going to do that, or even where he was right now. Doomed, doomed, we were all doomed… I tried to push back the panic threatening to overwhelm me.

You can do this, Alex,
Mew-Mew told me.
The sword is powerful enough to fight your father, and you were able to hurt him without it. And you’ll have your friends with you.
That was part of the problem too. Having them beside me to fight Sköll and Fenrir was one thing, but this was different. As dangerous as those two fights had been, this one seemed so much bigger. I was worried for them. They were just kids, we all were, but this shouldn’t involve them. This was my fight and I was tempted to tell them to go home where they’d be safe. As terrifying as the idea of facing Satan alone was, the idea of them dying was even worse. I sat down on the front steps. Mew-Mew hopped into my lap and I pet him as troubled thoughts swirled in my head.

“If this takes too long, we’ll have to go without him,” Stefan said.

“I know,” I said. Stefan was obviously with me, and Emily and Colin had fought before. They’d do it again. I looked at Elliot. “What about you, Ferdinand? Will you fight with us?”

His face was as pale as it had ever been, but he nodded. “Sometimes you…,” he said and swallowed, “have to fight.”

I smiled, even though I was sick to my stomach. “That’s the spirit.”

I shifted to look at the front door. Would Jehovah tell Joshua not to help us, even though it meant the end of the world? I wouldn’t put it past him. Jehovah is a jerk. Plus, according to Revelation, he seemed pretty gleeful about the end of the world. Maybe he wanted this to happen.

We waited for a few minutes, then Joshua came out. “He’s not happy about me going with you,” he said, looking straight at me. Joshua sighed. “But he says all this isn’t supposed to happen now, it’s not part of the plan, so we have to stop the devil.”

See? Both the prophecies were wrong, which meant that our actions determine the future, not some destined sequence of events. Satan was using his free will, choosing to speed up his attempt to destroy the world.

“So you’re going to help us?” Stefan asked.

Joshua nodded, his face pale. “I have to fight.”

I could argue the “have to” part, but I wanted him with us, so I didn’t. “What about your dad? Is he going to get off his ass and help us?”

Some of the color returned to Joshua’s face. Whoops, I’d pissed him off. “God is going to take us to where the devil is. All of us,” he added, cutting off the question I was about to ask. Then he told us where the devil was and I told him to repeat it. I hadn’t heard him wrong.

We were going to fight Satan—on the moon.

***

I left Mew-Mew at Joshua’s house and remembered to leave my backpack behind too. Joshua warned us the devil wasn’t alone, he had some of the other demons with him, so not only would we have to fight my father, who was stronger than any of us, we’d also be outnumbered. The day was looking better and better. Just as he’d said, Jehovah teleported us and it was a lot like when Stefan took us places. In that second between places I wondered if Jehovah might just nuke me instead. He’d made it clear he didn’t like me and didn’t trust me, so maybe he’d take the chance to smite me and be done with it. But no. I ended up with the others on a rocky, blood-red landscape.

I sorta forgot to ask a few important questions like would we be able to breathe up here. I took an experimental breath and it seemed like regular air. I took a step, too, testing the gravity, and it felt just like Earth gravity. So we weren’t on the literal moon, but a version of it in the spirit world. I didn’t have any time for more observation because Satan and his demons were right there.

“Shit!” I pulled Animus from her sheath and she practically sang. Fighting was what she was made for and she was eager to fulfill her duty. Emily had her shield, which would at least keep her safe. Stefan had his sword. Joshua and the others had blessed crosses that would burn demon flesh. I trusted they would at least provide some protection because even being near them made me uncomfortable. Everyone except me had also been blessed by Joshua to boost their powers and make them more effective against demons. Joshua’s dad said he wasn’t allowed to bless me, so that meant I was on my own. Whatever, I was used to it.

Satan and the other demons sent up a chorus of growls and unpleasant noises. “What the fuck are you doing here, you fucking failure?” my dear sweet father asked me.

“We’re gonna stop you.” Facing down not just him but at least a dozen demons was terrifying, but I had my new sword and I had my friends. We’d saved the world twice. It didn’t matter that the odds were stacked even more against us. We could do this.

He laughed, just like a stereotypical villain. “I didn’t know we’d have entertainment delivered to us. I’ve left your friends alone until now, but this time I’m going to kill them and I’m going to let you watch.” He pointed his finger and the demons rushed at us.

Elliot and Emily screamed. I took two quick steps forward to stand beside Joshua and Stefan came up on his other side. Joshua had a glow around him, and Stefan had a fainter version of the same glow around him. Joshua’s holy protection, of which I’d gotten jack shit. The first few demons reached us. Joshua held out the six-inch-tall cross he’d taken from his house and thrust it out at the demon. The demon pulled up short and I missed what happened next because I had a demon of my own to worry about.

I stabbed at him and the demon made no attempt to avoid my sword. He must’ve thought it wouldn’t hurt him. He was wrong. Animus sank into his stomach and the demon howled. I twisted the sword and pulled it out, taking blood and a bit of demon guts with it. Animus had her first taste of black demon blood and she liked it.

I slashed at the demon and he danced back, nimble for a guy with a hole in his stomach. He pressed one hand to the hole and lashed out with the long claws on his other hand. I caught them on Animus, deflecting his blow. He snarled and threw a fireball at me. I brought up Animus to block and she took it without damage, actually seeming to absorb the fire.

He slashed at me a few more times, black blood seeping between the fingers pressed against his wound. I parried his blows, the claws making weird clicks against the metal of my sword. I used my power to create a sharp dagger of ice and hurled it at him. The ice dagger went straight into his eye. He screamed and fell and then poof, he was gone. Probably teleported back to Hell. I was disappointed I hadn’t been able to kill him, but at least he was out of the picture. One down, now how many more to go?

I glanced around to check on my friends. Joshua and Emily were alright. Stefan looked fine, fighting a demon and with black blood on his sword, so he’d done some damage. Elliot was sticking close to Joshua and he had some blood on his shirt, red blood. I hoped the wound wasn’t too bad. Colin held his large cross out in front of him, keeping three demons at bay. They were all busy, and it looked like they were going to be busy for a while.

I looked up at my father, who was just standing there, watching everything. He looked so fucking smug, like he knew he was going to win. Rage boiled in me. I glanced back at my friends, struggling against demons. They might die here, fighting to save the world, and Satan would just laugh about it. I looked back at him and I knew what I had to do. I was the strongest of all of us, except Stefan, and no one knew Satan like I did. Joshua might be able to stand against him, but he was no fighter, and he hadn’t come into his full power. Yes, neither had I, but I was still the best qualified out of all of us.

To be honest, I was being selfish. If the devil was going to be defeated, I wanted to be the one to do it.

I ran at him, the sharp tip of Animus pointed straight at him. He glanced almost casually at me and easily moved out of the way. I ran past him and skidded to a stop in the rocky dirt. I spun around just in time to meet his attack, his claws like small, sharp sickles. One swipe and I wouldn’t have a head anymore. Animus sparked against his claws, deflecting the blow. He laughed and came at me again. I parried two more attacks.

“You don’t ever learn, do you, Alex?” He smiled with sharp teeth. He was in his demon form: red skin, big curled horns, just what you’d expect Satan to look like while he was in the middle of trying to destroy the world. “You don’t stand a chance against me, not even with that new toy of yours.”

I tried to prove him wrong, but everything I tried—stabbing, slashing, feinting—he just blocked with his claws or a flare of his power. Heat shimmered around me, but even when I got close it didn’t hurt him. On the plus side, the heat surrounding him didn’t hurt me either. The fireballs he threw were another matter. I didn’t want to stand there and test if they’d hurt me or not. I dodged them or blocked them with Animus. She seemed to be able to take anything he could throw and I sure the fuck needed that advantage. I threw ice at him in various forms, but they all either melted or he knocked them aside. He knocked aside my fireballs just as easily, like I was tossing Nerf balls at him. Ice didn’t work, fire didn’t work, but I knew something that
had
worked.