Sinister Seraphim of Mine (Overworld Chronicles Book 8) (6 page)

"He was talking about me, I presume," Mom said.

Jeremiah tsked. "Indeed. Altash told me the Seraphim must be stopped because they were upsetting a delicate balance."

"Did the dragon give you magic powers?" I asked.

The ancient Arcane shook his head. "Altash told me my family line had the gift of the first people. He sent me deep into the cave where I found a glowing river. In retrospect, I believe the river intersected a ley line, or perhaps the dragon had infused the water with aether. Whatever it was, the water awakened my talents. Perhaps it also granted me this longevity I seem to suffer from."

Shelton raised his hand.

"What is it, boy?"

"How did Altash talk to you?"

Jeremiah tapped his temple. "He spoke to me in here. The words were not in Hebrew or any other language spoken at the time, yet I understood them."

I almost raised my hand and stopped myself. "Does this mean all Arcanes can trace their powers back to you?"

He shook his head. "Most people, even noms, have the ability to tap the power of Eden. Some simply have more potential than others. An Arcane can increase their efficiency and ability through practice over time, but no human has the raw potential of a Seraphim."

"What about the dragons?" I asked. "Are they powerful enough to take on the Seraphim?"

"At first they were hesitant to become directly involved, but I managed to convince them otherwise," Jeremiah said. "As for their role in the grander scheme of things, I still cannot say. They never told me what their ultimate goals are, where they originate, or if they answer to a higher power."

I thought I had the answer to at least one of those questions. "There's a race of siren-like beings."

His gaze snapped to meet mine. "Explain."

"Shelton, a couple other friends, and I accidentally opened two omniarch portals too close to each other and created a kind of rift effect which sent us on an all-expenses-paid joyride through another realm." The incident was still vivid in my mind. "We ended up on a plain of obsidian rock. These women with snake-like hair were growing an arch from the ground by singing to it."

Jeremiah's forehead wrinkled. "What makes you think the dragons have anything to do with these people?"

"The sirens looked about our size," I replied. "Most arches are huge—big enough for a dragon to fit through. Unless there's another race of giant beings out there, I don't know how else to explain it."

"Inconclusive, but an interesting theory," he said.

Elyssa's phone chimed. She looked at it. "Nightliss is ready. I'll open the omniarch portal so she can come to the mansion."

"I'll go with you to meet her," I said. "She and I should go to El Dorado right away and find out if we're cherub fodder or not."

Ivy gave me a firm hug. "Be careful, bro. The first time I got close to one of those things, I threw up ice cream all over Bigmomma—I mean, Eliza."

"Speaking of whom, where is your wife?" I asked Jeremiah.

At first he didn't appear inclined to answer my question, but he finally relented. "The woman you know as Eliza Conroy is safe."

His statement raised a boatload of questions, but they could wait.

Elyssa took my hand. "Ready to face your nightmares?"

My stomach clenched. I hadn't been near a cherub since activating my inner Seraphim. Even if the disgusting things didn't make me puke just from being near them, they horrified me all the same. I put on a fake smile and nodded. "Let's go."

Chapter 5

Nightliss gave me a hug and a peck on the cheek when she arrived at the mansion. "It is good to see you, Justin." She turned to Elyssa. "Nyte and Ash are excelling as Templars."

Elyssa smiled fondly. "Are they really? I haven't talked to them in weeks."

Nyte and Ash had been part of a Goth group led by none other than Elyssa herself at Edenfield High School. For Elyssa, it had been a cover to find vampires posing as high school students. Little had we known those vampires had been part of a much larger network led by a vampire named Maximus who was intent on recruiting kids he could draft into his blood-sucking army.

Nightliss nodded. "They are very dedicated." She took my hands in her petite ones and squeezed gently. "So, we are off to visit husks? I hope this doesn't hurt."

"You and me both," I said with what I hoped was an encouraging grin. I took out my arcphone and retrieved the image of an arch control room. Every arch control room I'd seen had several things in common. Each one had a large world map on the front wall. In front of the world map sat a pedestal with a basket-ball sized sphere operators used to open portals between two Obsidian Arches. Most way stations were also filled with rows of smaller black arches, and several omniarches like the one here in the cellar of the mansion.

The particular arch control room displayed on my phone was different. It had an extra arch most didn't—an Alabaster Arch. Buried beneath an ancient city, the El Dorado way station had once been filled with all sorts of terrors, namely husked humans I called shadow people, and mobs of cherubs. Now, it was mostly clear thanks to the efforts of the dragons.

Taking a deep breath and pushing away anxiety, I pictured the control room in the image on my phone and willed the omniarch to open a portal to the location. The space between the columns of the arch flickered, opening into a gateway. The three of us stepped through and into the room.

The world map stretched along the wall before us. Behind us stood the Alabaster Arch. To our right was an open doorway leading into the main way station where an Obsidian Arch had once stood. We stepped through the doorway and into the massive cavern. Yellow ambient light suffused the cavern. Giant coiled forms dominated the center of the room. The red scaly hide of Gigantor—Altash—was closest to us. His gargantuan purple—girlfriend? Mate? Bromance?—rested on the other side. Since I still didn't know her real name, or if she was actually a female, I decided to stick with Lulu unless and until either of them tried to eat me for being a jackass.

A much smaller dragon, this one only the size of a car, slithered up to us. Scars puckered his side where a mad Arcane had once tethered him to a Tesla coil and used him as a power source for his experiments. The irises in the dragon's parietal eyes dilated when he saw us. His long, lean muzzle opened, and a low rumble greeted us.

"Hey, Slitheren," I said, running a hand along the hard scales on his reptilian head.

He rumbled in reply.

"We're just here to see if cherubs make me and Nightliss weak." I looked around. "Can you lead us to the holding pen?"

His red eyes regarded Nightliss for a moment, then he turned right and slithered toward a stone trench he and other small dragons had carved to keep the cherubs contained.

"Dah nah!" cried an infantile yet absolutely terrifying voice from ahead. A chorus of similar cries echoed the first with awful shrilling and screeching noises.

I shivered, and my teeth chattered. "Holy spiders in a pillow case," I muttered. "I hate these things."

Elyssa squeezed my hand. "Don't worry, babe, I'll protect you."

Nightliss offered an uneasy smile, though her complexion looked a bit pale.

As we followed Slitheren, I waited for my legs to go weak or my stomach to upchuck lunch as a sign the cherubs were affecting me. We reached the lip of the trench and stared down at the swarming masses of husks. I looked at Nightliss and shrugged.

"I guess this means we are okay?" the Darkling asked.

I breathed a sigh of relief. "Yeah. Looks like the Brightlings are the only ones they mess with."

"I think I know why," Nightliss said. "When the Brightlings feed on the light energy of humans, they rely more and more on that power instead of the natural energies we absorb from the aether in the environment."

I backed away from the lip of the trench as tiny hands stretched for me and shrill voices chorused, "Dah Nah!" over and over again. "Let's get out of here."

A tear sparkled in Nightliss's eye as she watched the cherubs strain their tiny hands for us. "I wonder how many of them are Darklings."

"I guess only time will tell," Elyssa said, glancing back at the giant dragons in the center of the cavern.

We walked toward the control room where the portal back to the mansion waited. Slitheren made some growling noises and left us, heading back toward the leviathans.

"What makes Brightlings more powerful than Darklings?" I asked Nightliss.

"In our natural state, without feeding from humans, Brightlings are not much more powerful than Darklings." She turned her green eyes on me. "There is something about feeding on refined soul essence instead of aether which magnifies their power immensely."

"What happens when Darklings feed from humans?" I asked.

She grimaced. "Feeding from humans is pleasurable for Brightlings. For us, it is disgusting, like eating a handful of moldy pickles."

"Eww," Elyssa said, making a face. "No wonder there's such a power disparity."

I felt my forehead scrunch. "I fed my Darkling and Brightling side from a human and it wasn't like that."

Nightliss's eyes went wide. "You fed from a human?"

I held up my hands in surrender. "It was an accident. During the Battle of Bellwood Quarry, it just kind of happened. My hand went up and pulled light essence from this woman who'd shot me. Then my other hand went up and pulled dark light from her other hand."

The Darkling blinked a few times. "You fed on both essences? At once?"

I stopped walking. "Are you only able to feed on dark energy?"

Nightliss shook her head. "We naturally feed on the aether all around us, drawing in both light and dark, although our natural affinity determines how much of each. If I tried to feed on a living being, it would be extremely hard but possible for me to draw bright energy from them on purpose."

"I've seen Daelissa almost draw dark energy from her victims." It had only been a matter of days since my last encounter. "She pulled the light energy from the person until dark oily energy came."

Nightliss's lips peeled back. "My sister is evil. The only reason she drew Murk was because she'd drained the poor person dry of Brilliance."

"On a scale of one to no way in hell, how likely is it other Darklings will feed from humans so they can match the Brightlings in power?" I asked.

She gagged. "If it is the only way, then I see no choice. Feeding from humans is not only disgusting, but actually painful for some of us. I do not know why this is, but the Brightlings look upon it as further reason to treat us as second-class citizens."

The differences between the dark, Murk, and the light, Brilliance, had been confusing for me at first. I'd always been raised to equate the dark with evil and the light with good. Unfortunately, that was just an extreme oversimplification popularized by fantasy novels and space movies with mystical forces. In the real world, things were a lot more complicated. Murk was the force of creation while Brilliance was the force of destruction.

Ever since coming into my incubus abilities around my eighteenth birthday, I'd been confronted with making a decision between the light and the dark. What I hadn't realized was all along, there'd been a third choice. Gray, the force of equilibrium. During my time as a prisoner in Daelissa's Gloom fortress, I'd finally made the decision. Since I was the kind of person who wanted to have his cake and eat it too, I'd taken option number four—all of the above.

By combining all three forces, I could create a fourth force I had no name for. The colorless element was a mystery to me and the current pace of events prevented me from messing around with it. Truth be told, I was a little hesitant to use it in case I broke the universe.

"We should get back," Elyssa said. "I need fresh recon on Daelissa's cupid factory, and we'll need to hit the place as soon as possible to keep her baby angels from maturing to the point where she can figure out which ones are Darklings and dispose of them."

"I agree," Nightliss said. She touched my shoulder. "Justin, I will do what I must to prevent my sister from returning to power, even if it means feeding from humans."

"I don't like the idea any better than you," I replied, "but she has the numbers and raw power advantage."

"It is the extreme amount of bright soul essence she's consumed from humans that has made her insane." Nightliss started walking again to keep pace with Elyssa.

I knew without a doubt Daelissa was certifiably crazy. "Will returning to Seraphina really cure her mental issues?"

Nightliss shrugged. "Seraphina is far richer in aether than Eden. It might rebalance her, given time."

We reached the portal and stepped back into the mansion cellar through it. Elyssa deactivated the portal and headed up the stairs all the while tapping on her arcphone and mumbling to herself. I'd seen her in planning phases before and knew better than to disturb her. She'd obviously inherited her father's ability to plan out complex missions. Her assault scenario on the Gloom fortress had worked amazingly well, for the most part, right up until Daelissa had appeared and nearly destroyed us all.

Elyssa jerked to a halt at the top of the stairs. "The three of us will need to do a recon mission tonight."

I managed to stop before running into her. "Isn't that a bit soon?"

She shook her head. "In the past couple of days, Daelissa not only fought our army at Bellwood Quarry, but she got into a knock-down drag-out with Jeremiah Conroy. She must be exhausted, or at the least, mentally unhinged. We need to strike while she's weak and before she has a chance to empower any Brightlings."

"I agree," Nightliss said. "She has her limits. Even my pretentious, overindulged sister needs sleep, normal food, and recovery time."

I gave Nightliss an understanding look. "She was the spoiled brat of the family?"

"Always." Nightliss's lower lip quivered. "She was born an instant before me. She had the beautiful blonde hair, the fair skin, and above all, the Brightling affinity."

"Marsha, Marsha, Marsha!"