Sinister Seraphim of Mine (Overworld Chronicles Book 8) (40 page)

She caressed the unconscious woman's cheek and gently kissed her forehead. "Our Phoebe." Tears pooled in her eyes. "I can't believe it."

Even Thomas couldn't maintain his neutral demeanor. He put an arm around Leia's shoulders and squeezed her to him.

"She hates us," Elyssa said, a trace of venom in her voice. "She wouldn't listen to a word I said. It was like the more I talked about you two, the more irrational she became." Her eyes squeezed shut for a second. "I think she's insane with hate."

Ivy walked to the table and looked at Phoebe. "Wow, she sure looks like Elyssa."

My mom took Ivy's hand and led her away from the table and over to me. "I'm sure she'll hear reason after you've spent some time with her, Elyssa."

"She was practically foaming at the mouth by the time we managed to knock her out," I said. "It was like the mere mention of Thomas caused her to fly into a rage."

Mom raised a blonde eyebrow. She looked at Thomas and Leia. "May I check something?"

"Yes," Elyssa said, even though the question hadn't been aimed at her.

"Of course," Leia said, a spark of hope in her eye.

Mom pressed a hand to Phoebe's head and closed her eyes. Several minutes later, she winced, and pulled her hand away. "No wonder she had such a negative and violent reaction." Her eyes hardened. "Daelissa has altered key parts of Phoebe's memories, and blanked others."

Elyssa's eyes blazed. "Like when she used the White to erase my memories of Justin?"

"Worst experience ever," I said. "Nightliss was able to reverse the process though."

"If we remove the tampering, will she no longer hate us?" Leia asked.

"I can't say for sure." Mom looked at Phoebe. "Some of these memories were altered a long time ago. By now, they may have become more real to her mind than the originals."

"Maybe you could just re-alter them to suit our needs," I said.

Mom shook her head. "Altered memories are already extremely fragile. If I tried to rearrange them again, I might destroy them altogether and cause a ripple effect of irreparable harm."

Thomas touched Phoebe's hand and nodded. "We should question her before attempting anything. We need to know Daelissa's plans."

Elyssa shot a venomous look at her father. "We should help her first. Nightliss saved my memories. Maybe she can help Phoebe now."

"Darklings are inherently better at restoration," Mom said. "But the risks are the same." She looked at Thomas. "I sensed some other more recent alterations. It's possible Daelissa implanted her mind with safety precautions to keep anyone from interrogating her."

Commander Borathen folded his arms and turned to Elyssa. "Simply because she is our daughter doesn't mean we can afford to ignore the information she possess. This woman—"

"Phoebe!" Elyssa shouted. "Her name is Phoebe." Teeth bared, she stepped toward her father. "All you want to do is abandon her again like you did over a hundred years ago."

"Ninjette, he's right," said a deep voice. Michael stood in the entryway. Despite his hulking mass, I hadn't even seen him arrive.

"But, she's our sister, Michael." Elyssa's eyes turned pleading. "You heard Alysea—what if Daelissa put some kind of self-destruct mechanism in her mind to keep her from giving us information?"

I could tell this argument was going to drag on. Both sides were right, but I had an idea that might address all their concerns. I held up a hand. "We've already dealt a crippling blow to Daelissa simply by capturing Phoebe. I suggest we ask Nightliss to see if she can repair the most recent mind alterations and remove the risk of brain damage due to interrogation. Once Nightliss gives the all-clear, we can question Phoebe, and hopefully repair the old memories later."

"The recent alterations should be relatively easy for Nightliss," Mom said.

Elyssa gave me disbelieving look, as if I'd just interfered in something I had no right to.

Thomas, arms crossed, regarded me with a level gaze.

The tension in the air was almost suffocating. I buckled down my uneasiness and met their stares. "Whether you like it or not, you are all part of my family now. That makes Phoebe family too. But we have a responsibility to
everyone
to do what it takes to save this world, and this seems to be the best middle ground."

"I think it's a sound compromise," Michael said, moving to stand next to me.

"I agree with Justin," Leia said, placing a hand on Thomas and Elyssa.

"I'm here, Alysea," Nightliss said as she entered the room. She stopped abruptly, as if she'd just walked into a wall. "Goodness. What is going on in here?"

Elyssa's hard expression softened. She squeezed her mother's hand and nodded. "Justin's plan is good."

"I agree," Thomas said.

"What plan?" Nightliss looked absolutely perplexed. "Will someone tell me what's going on?"

"You look adorable when you're confused," I said with a grin. I told her what Phoebe needed. "How long will it take to fix the recent alterations?"

"I won't know until I diagnose her." Nightliss placed a hand on Phoebe's forehead. "Give me some privacy, please."

We cleared the room.

Elyssa and I walked along the growing stacks of cubes running down the corridor outside. "Look, I'm sorry if you think I interfered."

She stopped me with a kiss and shook her head. "You're right, Justin. We're family. I'm the one being irrational now." A tear trickled down her cheek.

I wiped the tear with a thumb, and pressed a stray lock of raven hair behind her ear. "Given the circumstances, it's perfectly reasonable to be unreasonable." I smiled. "Besides, I wasn't exactly Mr. Logical when it came to my family."

"True." She pressed a hand to my cheek. "I identify with what you've been through with your family a lot more now. It makes me feel like I might have let you down."

"Hey, now." I stopped her with a kiss of my own. "You have always been there for me. You saved me from the tragon, for god's sake."

She laughed. "I guess that does count for something."

I looked at her mood bracelet. "Hey, it's glowing white. I wonder what that means."

"It means unicorn."

I raised an eyebrow. "Huh?"

Her soft lips pressed against mine. She reached my ear and whispered, "I've found my unicorn."

Chills ran up my back and I wanted nothing more than to whisk her away to some remote island paradise. Unfortunately, duty called. "You are my unicornette." I sighed. "I have to check on our mission status."

"Is it okay if I wait here?" She looked through the doorway to the gauntlet room. "I want to be here when Nightliss tells us what's wrong."

"Of course."

Jenkins came into the hall. "I was a little afraid to interrupt the argument in there, but what was all that about mind alteration? Can Daelissa really do that?"

"Maybe Elyssa can explain." I nodded down the hall. "I'll be back soon." On the way back to the omniarch, I checked my phone. Jeremiah hadn't checked in. Katie had sent me a text message to let me know her team had arrived at El Dorado and was just about to take the Alabaster Arch to the Grand Nexus. I prayed Jenkins's information was of some help to them.

I checked the time. We had hundreds of null cubes left to steal and only four hours to go. Even worse, I hadn't heard a thing from Jeremiah. For all I knew, he might be dead.

Chapter 36

Where is Jeremiah? Why hasn't he reported in?

I couldn't stand the waiting so I jogged to the omniarch room and went through the portal back to the loading bay at Kobol Prison. An unconscious Exorcist lay against the wall. "What happened?" I asked one of the Templars.

"Our sentries knocked him out before he came in here." The man continued to toss cubes down the chain of people as he spoke.

"Where are the sentries?"

"The man who brought him in is stationed through the door over there." The Templar nodded in one direction even as he tossed a cube in the other.

I walked to the door and walked down a hallway. Two Templars lay in wait where the hall intersected the east-west corridor connecting both wings of the prison. I knelt next to the one on my side of the hall. "Have you seen any other people coming this way?"

He shook his head. "The Exorcist we brought in was looking for Luna."

Our capture of the Exorcist leader wouldn't go unnoticed for long. In fact, it might considerably shorten our available time. "Any idea how many OPFORs are in this building?" I felt a little proud at my use of the acronym for "Opposing Force."

The Templar didn't give me a gold star or even a fist bump in recognition of my new jargon skill. "We were unable to send ASEs or other forms of recon further in for fear the enemy might detect them."

I took a peek down the long corridor leading east. It looked deserted. I sniffed the air and detected the very faint odor of brimstone. "I think there are demon spawn guarding the hall further down." I didn't know what kind, but it didn't really matter. Hell hounds, crawlers, and scorps had all proven themselves to be deadly pains in the ass. Since Daelissa kept the reborn Seraphim in the east wing, it made sense she'd had Vadaemos protect it with his little pets.
I really hate my uncle.
It was just like the sneaky bastard to set deadly traps and hide in the shadows.

"Thank you for the intel, sir," the Templar said. This time, he seemed tempted to give me a fist bump, but it probably seemed unprofessional to him. Instead, he motioned at the person across the hall and turned back to me. "We'll put down a few spawn traps in case."

His partner traced a complex pattern onto the floor. A few seconds after he finished the pattern, it faded into invisibility.

I went back to the loading bay and did a double take. The Darkling cubes were almost completely gone. Christian's Templars had reopened their portals closer to the unsorted pile and were sending them through, while the people working from the mansion were finishing the Darkling stacks.

This part of the operation had moved more smoothly than I could have hoped, even if Luna hadn't welcomed her family back with open arms. But I was really worried about Jeremiah.

The unconscious Exorcist the sentries had brought in was a little taller and thinner than me. The new and improved Exorcist uniform was a more modern, tighter robe similar to what the battle mages wore. I squeezed into it and had to ask a Templar to tug it down over my chest.

My arms felt extremely constricted, but the disguise would have to do. The only way out of the prison besides the portals was through the main front gate. I walked down the hall with the sentries from earlier. "I'll be back soon," I told them.

They looked at each other and back to me. The one I'd spoken with nodded. "Be careful, sir."

"I will, thanks."

The east-west corridor was long and deserted. The farther I walked, the stronger the scent of brimstone became until I could almost taste it. I crept toward the center atrium. Something big and black moved in the shadows in the hallway on the other side of the room. I repressed a shudder and flicked on my night vision for a clearer look. A scorp the size of a cargo van stood in the center of the entry to the east hall. The face beneath its carapace shivered and contorted, but the creature seemed content to remain in place.

I switched to incubus vision and saw why. A glowing blue pattern in the floor held it from wandering further. A narrow space on one side of the rune seemed to be the only way safely past the monster. I idly wondered what would happen if I loosed it from its confines. Simply burning the pattern from the floor might do it.

That would be insane.

The creature would come straight for me since I was the closest meal it could get its face-claw thingies on. Besides, unleashing mayhem would be really bad at this juncture of the mission.

I turned off my incubus vision and left the giant terror where it was, heading outside the main entrance. A few vampires stood guard outside—if standing in a circle smoking cigarettes and drinking was considered standing guard. They burst into laughter about something.

"Want some blood, dude?" asked a guy wearing a hoodie.

"No," I said, trying to disguise my voice.

"Exorcists are so straight laced," said a girl. She looked at me with glowing red eyes. "You're kinda cute, though. I wouldn't mind breaking you in."

"Sorry," I said. "I have to go to the Blue Cloaks camp."

"You must be from Minnesota with an accent like that," the hoodie guy said, emphasizing the O in the word.

"The Blue Cloaks already left on the super-secret mission," the girl said, coming closer to me. "They won't tell us where we're going." She ran a hand down my arm. "Maybe you could tell us?"

"Are you kidding?" I said. "They don't tell us anything."

The girl took her hand away from my robe. "Ugh. They did an awful job of measuring you for this nasty thing."

I tried to shrug, but the cloth was so tight, I feared I might rip it if I did. "They messed up my uniform. I'm waiting on a replacement."

Since I obviously had no useful information, the vampires seemed to lose interest and got back to drinking and smoking.

I looked out at the field in front of the prison. A huge building dominated the western side. I saw the lights of magic lanterns in that direction. Everything to the east looked dark. On gut instinct, I headed west. The main gate and much of the fencing around the prison had been torn down, probably to make navigating an army through here easier. I'd gone a few hundred yards when I heard the roar of a thousand voices shatter the air.

Swords clanged, spells crackled through the night sky, people cried out in pain. A shadowy form ran into range of my night vision. He aimed his wand at me and did a double-take.

Jeremiah lowered his wand. "Just in time, Justin."

I heard a rumbling sound. A dazzling light exploded in the sky as the humped forms of Nazdal raced toward us, a battle raging behind them.

"Holy Mary, mother of Smaug!" I turned to run, but my robe was too tight. With a roar of frustration, I flexed my upper body hard and ripped out of the blasted thing.