The Generator: The Succubae Seduction (62 page)

“He’s not my brother,” Angela says at the same time I claim, “She’s not really my sister!” We look at each other, and then laugh a little uncomfortably. She tries to get up from my lap, but I tighten my grip on her, and force her to stay where she is. She gives me a thankful look, and then a quick peck on the cheek.

My father misses none of this, of course, but he drops his head back and continues speaking. “Yes, I sent Angela to you, Lyden, and yes I’ve manipulated events since then.” He draws in a deep breath, and the way he does so, makes me think I’m not about to like what he has to say next. “I’m the reason you have that cursed blade at your hip.”

I charge to my feet in outrage and shock, unfortunately dumping Angela, and sending Areth angrily fluttering away. “You
WHAT
?!?” I demand, rage infusing my entire being at his revelation.

Despite my actions, Shemhazau remains seated, his eyes closed and his voice steady, if not completely calm. “I stole the blade from Marchosias, placed a new hilt on the tang, and delivered it into his fantasy world, giving it to you.”

“
Why
would you do that?” I demand, painfully holding the referenced grip. He had intentionally cursed me? I don’t even want to know how he was able to slip into Marchosias’s world to give it to me.

His eyes open again, and if ever I’d thought he was crazy or not altogether there, those notions fly right out of my head. What I see in his light gray eyes is pure cunning. Before me is a man who doesn’t just think things through, but plans for every contingency. There isn’t an action that occurs around him that he hasn’t already prepared for or set in motion.

“You intended for Brooke to die.” The words are out of my mouth, before the thought had completely formed in my head, but as soon as I speak, I know them for truth.

“I knew there was a chance she would die,” he tells me without blinking. “I also knew there was a chance she would survive. I gave you the best chance of making sure she lived. If she died, though, then it would have been small penance for her part in your mother’s murder.”

“Bullshit,” I exclaim indignantly. “That’s why you sent her and me alone. And what about her helping me out thoughout my childhood? A childhood without a parent? Doesn’t that account for something?”

“She’s alive, isn’t she? I know a hundred different ways that encounter could have played out, son,” he states, only a slight edge touching his voice. “Douglas was a master swordsman in every respect. He threw me Masamune to test his technique out on the blade’s defense. He had beaten it before. He could have killed your entire group, including you. Your best chance lay in surprising him with the mermaid alone. In the end, all that matters is how it
did
come to play.”

“And how do you see things playing out with our swords father?” Not until the words are out of my mouth, do I realize how homoerotic that statement was, but my anger won’t let me be sidetracked. “You said before I left that I would have to kill you. What happens if I choose not to kill my own father?”

The grin that splits his face then seems almost feral. “Many things can happen then. Neither of us will be free of the curse, unless I choose to kill you. Since you’re the one prophesied to defeat the ancient evil, I’d rather not kill my own blood. Despite what you may think of me right now, I care for you.”

“What do you know of the prophecy?” I ask, some of the steam has been taken from my anger at his words.

“I knew the oracle that spoke it. I was there when it was given.” His eyes still hold the same edge, but there seems to be more there now. “When it became apparent to me that you were a Generator, and I saw the signs of the prophecy coming to pass, I took action. I understood the part about the cursed swords. A blade to kill, and a blade to save, a talisman to forge the path between. To kill and save, or save and kill, one path to both, yet choices lean.” He pauses to fill his lungs. “I’d have happily given you the sword to save, but it was too late. The only choice was to give you the sword that kills. You will never know how much sorrow I feel for that action. Especially because I know how it needs to end.”

“I won’t do it!” I shout. My emotions are boiling right now. “I’ve had to live my life without having you there, and now that I’ve found you again, I refuse to take you out of my life!”

“To kill and save, or save and kill, one path to both, yet choices lean.” He shakes his head, his stringy gray hair spreading out. “If you kill me, then you can save so many lives. If you save me, then we are all doomed anyway.”

My legs give way beneath me, and I collapse back into the chair.

“How can you ask this of him?” Angela asks, stepping between us. “Do you have any idea what that will do to him?”

“It will save his sanity,” Shemhazau states quietly. “He can live here, and slowly Muramasa will erode his willpower, until he is nothing but a violent shell. He can return to Earth, where his blade will destroy him in a matter of days, if not less. Or—“

“Or he can kill you, change his curse, and have to live with the guilt that he killed his own father for the rest of his life, until it eats away at him and he goes mad,” Angela spits, cutting my father off.

“Yet choices lean,” he quotes the last stanza of the verse again.

“How will this work?” I try to ask, but my voice breaks and I have to repeat myself before I’m heard. “How will this work?”

“Lyden, you can’t seriously. . . . He’s your
father
!” Angela says spinning to face me.

“Even I don’t think you can handle such a crime,” Areth says next.

I really do need Lisa here to cheerlead me on, though I doubt she’d support me in this. I don’t blame them.

“Shemhazau,” Angela spins back around, her blue hair flying out from her pretty little head, “please! There has to be another way. I don’t want to lose you either!”

Shemhazau pulls her into a tight hug, and I can see the succubus crying against his chest, even as she beats her fists against it.

She truly does love him like a father
, I think as I slowly get to my feet. I feel entirely numb inside. There is no emotion left in me right now. After almost losing Brooke yesterday, finding out that this man is my father, and with everything else, I just can’t do it. I’m tired, I’m exhausted, and I don’t have it in me to fight anymore. Maybe when Aldol is defeated, I’ll have time to lie down and just sleep the sleep of death. Until then, I have too much work ahead of me.

“What must I do?” I ask while pulling out the round black and white talisman Brooke had removed from Douglas’s corpse. His dried blood has permanently stained the leather thong, but it’s the orb that attracts my attention with its constantly swirling striations of light and dark. Almost like the colors of our two opposing blades, I realize.

“Lyden, no!” Angela screams, breaking free of Shemhazau and diving for the talisman. My father is no slouch, however, and with a quick wave of his hand, she vanishes along with Areth.

“Don’t worry,” he says as I stare at the spot she’d just been in, “I sent them to your other companions.” He regards me seriously for a moment, and then says, “For what it’s worth, I truly am sorry, son. I’ve spent all the time I can spare, trying to come up with another solution and failed.”

I only nod at his words, still empty inside. It doesn’t matter. None of it does. I’m simply a pawn, caught up in a battle between beings of much greater power.

“When I remade the hilt of your sword, I placed a hidden compartment in it. Twist off the bottom piece.” I do as I’m told, and find that the end of the hilt comes off. “Good, now place the talisman in there. Yes. And put the cap back on.” I continue to do as I’m told like a puppet on strings, removing the wire around the talisman, and sealing it into the hilt.

“For this next part, we’d better not do it in this realm. The guilt would destroy you.” He places his hand on my shoulder. Once again I feel that tugging at my navel a split second before I find us outside again. Blinking at the sudden light, I look around and see we’re back in the Pillar of Earth’s realm. The border with Light is right behind me, and I can also make out the dry rocky ground of Fire’s domain. “This is a crossroads for both of us,” he says, and walks across the border into the dry air. He gives a flourish with his right hand, and suddenly Masamune is there, the dark black blade glinting in the light. The blade turns in his hands. A moment later he presents the hilt to me. “You must take my blade, draw yours, place them side-by-side, and strike me down with both.” I can see tears begin to form in his eyes as he speaks. Some small spark of emotion tries to come to the surface, but somehow I can sense Muramasa tamping it down. He must sense the tension in the air, and know he’s about to feed. “Don’t hesitate,” my father continues, his voice starting to become choked up. “If you take too long, the warring blades will destroy your mind. Strike hard, and strike—“

He cuts off as I swiftly grip the hilt of Masamune, draw out Muramasa, and set them next to each other, gripping both blades in one hand. In the less than a second that this action takes, I can already feel Masamune trying to get me to lie down and relax and be at peace. At the same time Muramasa crows with freedom, and his desire to feed and kill. I almost stumble under the onslaught of the warring influences, but I thrust my hand forward.

Some small part of me watches in horror as the twin blades pierce my father’s chest. Two small rivulets of blood start to wind their way down his chest.

White light, blindingly bright pours forth from the holes in Shemhazau’s chest as his mouth opens and he speaks his final words.

“Thank you, Son. I love you, and have always been proud of the person you are becoming.”

Emotions return in a tidal wave of grief. Too much to handle at once. I can’t remember what happens next. Only that I hurt inside worse than any other feeling I’ve ever experienced. At some point I must have become too exhausted, and I sleep.

* * * *

“He’s over here!” someone yells, and I open my eyes. Angela is looking down at me, worry thick in her hazel eyes.

So odd
, I think,
that her eyes change color with every form of hers. I wonder if the world looks different for her with each eye color change.

“Lyden, speak to me! Are you alright? Where’s Shemhazau?”

Where is he? How should I know? He was here just a moment ago
.

“Something’s not right,” Angela says. “He’s not responding.” Her hand whips back, and a second later I hear a crack as she slaps me.

I don’t feel it.

“What happened to him?” This is Brooke’s voice, and a second later I see her curly red hair blocking out the sky.

“I don’t know!” Angela’s voice is full of painful emotion as she continues to look down at me.

I don’t care.

“This is the border with Fire, right?” Jewkes’s voice comes from my right.

I wonder what his first name is? I’ll have to ask him, sometime. Not now though
.

“Yeah, I know,” Angela says. “We need to move, but Lyden won’t budge.”

“We’ve got incoming,” Jennifer shouts. Angela looks away from me, and I see her face go white. Well, whiter than it normally is when she’s in this aspect.

You know, I really can’t decide if I like this aspect of her more, or her original self, the black-Asian woman.

“It’s that light thing from before!” Lisa’s voice rings out.

Multihued lights shine across everything in view, but surprisingly I hear a pistol going off.

“Come on!” Jewkes screams out, and I see him step forward, wearing his colored sunglasses. “Why are you all just standing there?”

Jennifer comes up behind him and without hesitation strikes him in the back of the skull with the butt of her shotgun. The law official crumbles under the blow.

The large-chested woman jerkily walks over to me. I know she’s fighting Aldol’s influence. “It would seem you’re harder to kill than I thought,” Jennifer’s mouth forms the words, but it’s Aldol’s sexually ambiguous voice that pours forth. “This time I’ll be sure to finish the job.”

Jennifer slowly brings her shotgun to point at my face, but I still can’t find it in me to care right now.

Lyden
, an unexpected voice sounds directly into my mind,
I know you’re upset with me, but right now would be a good time to act.

“Dad?” My own voice sounds rough in my ears, and Jennifer freezes for a moment, her features confused.

Son,
i
f you don’t act soon, everyone you love is going to get killed
.

Energy floods through my limbs at that thought. I roll to the side just in time to avoid having my head blasted by shotgun spray.

I use my momentum to gain my feet, and look at my attacker. “Forgive me,” I tell Jennifer, then super speed past her. Turning and drawing my blade, I strike her much as she’d struck Jewkes, with the hilt of my sword. I notice that the blade now has the constantly swirling eddies of light and dark as the talisman had, and know that the two separate blades are now one.

Behind you
.

I spin around in time to see Thomas level his rifle at my chest.  Everyone else is frozen where they stand, though I can hear AnnaBelle praying. Why is she free of Aldol’s control? Whether she’s praying to Aldol, or the Pillar of Light, I’m not sure, but I don’t have the time to think about that right now.

Thomas fires, and everything slows down. I watch in fascination as flame pours out of the barrel just ahead of the bullet. It’s almost child’s play to move the blade into the projectile’s path and deflect it harmlessly to the side. Normal time resumes as the chunk of lead strikes the dirt.

Thomas lands face first a second later, and I turn to look around me. “Give it up, Aldol. You can’t beat—Oomph!”

Something large and bright flies from the monster, striking me in the chest, and I go flying back. Where had
that
come from? I didn’t know it could do that!

Dazed, I look around and try to get back to my feet. Smoke curls up from my bare chest, and I can see that it’s red, raw, and bleeding. Breathing is difficult and filled with horrific pain.