The Second Coming (43 page)

Sephirah’s
soul screamed inside her head. It was the anguish again.

“
I know who you are,” he said. “I see Sephirah’s soul bound
with your own.”

“
You know?”

His face
sagged. Sorrow lay in those eyes. “I did not tell Uriel who you
are.”

He released
each of the captives and paused at Mason, noticing the emblem upon
his uniform and the gleaming white cross.

“
Whose side are you on?”

Mason looked
at his sister. “Yours. I want nothing to do with the Confederation.
I have had enough.”

The messenger
glanced at Brahm.

“
He is with us,” she said as she tried to massage her missing
hand against her body. It itched.

He released
her brother and threw the keys away.

Mason stared
into the thick of battle, to where the Hunter and demon army
advanced upon the refugees and horse riders. He took one of the
swords from the dead Hunters. “We must get Lya and run for the
ships.”

Diarmuid
grabbed another sword, wrenching it from the body of a slain
Hunter. “I am going after Paine. I will meet you there.”

“
What about the ghoul? What was your price?”

“
Not one you need to worry about,” he said.

Her gut wrung
as he left them to run towards the fighting.

Diarmuid.

Brahm looked
at the messenger. “Why are you helping us?”

“
To right a wrong,” he said. “The second soul within you
knows.”

He looked
about the field. “I am looking for the child of Sephirah. Where is
he?”

Sephirah’s
soul wept uncontrollably.

“
I do not know,” Brahm said. “We are trying to save
him.”

“
I’m trying to save us all,” said the man.

-Don’t tell
him.-

But White
Feather spoke. “Follow the one who just left. You can help him. He
went after Paine.”

The messenger
nodded his head and ran after Diarmuid.

“
Wait!” Brahm called, wondering to what Sephirah had been
referring, but the man in black robes did not turn back.

Sephirah
pleaded.

-
Go after my children! They are in
peril!-

White Feather
retrieved two daggers from the Hunters. “We must go now. Already it
is harder to breathe.” He handed one of the daggers to Brahm. It
was silver.

She waved him
off with her stump.

“
We need to go after that man. I think he may harm
Paine.”

He nodded.
“Then I will watch over you.”

Brahm’s soul
leapt from her body, sailing through the battle. Beside her,
Mason’s presence skimmed across the land. Brahm surged forward,
through the Hunters and demons that fought side by side. She
thought of the young Firstborn girl and the second soul within her
guided her steps, the same feel that for years had guided Brahm’s
gut.

They ran, and
there, in the midst of the Hunters, the girl stood, unchained,
unhindered, and summoning aid. Her hands were raised to the
sky.

Further ahead,
Brahm noticed Paine. His features suddenly dissolved into red anger
and Sephirah’s soul screamed.

-Down!-

Sudden cold
emanated from the boy and Brahm reeled back towards her body. She
grabbed her brother. Her ghost-hand grasped air as she reached for
White Feather.

“
Get down!”

The rain
stopped and a wave of black fire flooded towards them. They all
dove to the ground.

***

Friar John ran
after the pepper-haired man, darting past more demons and Hunters.
The man in front was swift in his movements, yet he shifted
directions with his search. He searched the borders of the battle
where those that had fallen or were maimed lay waiting to be eaten
by the demons. Then he would lunge into the thick of the fighting
where he moved a little too close to the archangel. Demons fought
at its side and John thought of their common master.

Who maketh his
angels spirits; his ministers a flaming fire.

They were
nothing more than an elevated form of demon.

There were
three less Obek now and the fighting was not looking good for the
towering beings. Uriel’s flaming sword and strength was too much
for them. It wouldn’t be long before all of them fell. John tried
to give as much distance as possible from the angel and continued
after the man who searched for Sephirah’s son.

The man ran
back towards the perimeter and John realized what was going on. The
man’s movements were erratic, and undisciplined. He was desperate.
And looking closer at the man showed John the mark upon his arm;
one that was very similar to his own with the exception that the
soul leech was still attached to his own arm.

He left the
man to his frantic hunt and then felt a wave of cold and the souls
of the dead move to the west of where he stood. He felt his own
desperation fill him, the sense that if he did not ask for help he
would miss the chance to kill the Beast. He had enough of pissing
around; too much had gone awry and not the way that things used to
for him. His plans had always been smooth and flawless. Not
now.

Why?

John had no
choice. He unwrapped the bandage around his own arm and yanked the
leech from him. Then he summoned the ghoul and asked for help
finding Sephirah’s son.

***

Paine stood
behind Great Bear and Mira, who beat back the Hunters and twisted
creatures that flooded from the north. The Obek stood beside them,
but they were engaged by the angel and his swift sword. He searched
the fields for Fang. Hundreds of wolves poured from the woods to
the south, yet he failed to find the she-wolf.

He looked
between the Obek at the wiry demons. He thought of Puck and anger
boiled inside him.

Is he
here?

He searched
through the army of Hunters, wondering if the former simple-minded
fool was among them. Great Bear and Mira lunged to the right,
giving Paine a clear view. He spotted black hair, like midnight's
cloak framing a pale face and eyes like the brightest sky. Her arms
were raised to the sky and he sensed her summoning. Beside her
stood Puck. He was whispering in her ear. Paine closed his eyes,
feeling for the connection between his heart and hers. At first
there was nothing and he searched deeper, pushing the sounds of
battle from his ears. He delved further and there he found it, an
insipid presence that connected his heart not only to hers. He felt
the sticky strand that had been placed there securing his sister to
him and he noticed something else. He was secured to Puck as
well.

He yanked both
from his heart and the two turned to him when it was done.

“
Lya!” he called.

Puck looked at
Paine. He morphed to demon form.

Paine fisted
his hands. “No!”

Anger surged
from him, pure and unfettered. A field of dead souls rushed to his
aid. And those within his blood, those that he carried with him,
arose. They took the form of black fire. Paine shoved past those
that protected him, but some of them burned as he brushed them,
Mira among them. She recoiled and screamed at his touch. He
stumbled forward, the black fire searing the ground on which he
walked and he sent it forward in a cresting wave of blazing pain.
The Hunters before him fell to the ground.

Paine marched
towards Puck and commanded the fire to burn the wraith, the fucking
creature that had played him for a fool. The demon flew back from
Lya, scoring the ground with his claws. He rose, commanding a
powerful wind to suppress the dark flame that encircled him.

Paine
advanced.

Puck pointed
towards him with a thin, bent claw. “Get him!”

The demons
from the battle turned towards Paine and launched at him. They
withered as they leapt into the dark aura that surrounded him —
sagging, writhing shells of their former selves. He trampled over
wild flowers and wet, red earth. He slogged through mud, his legs
like weighted chains.

Demons and
Hunters ran towards him. They dropped, seared to the bone before
they could get within yards of him.

He pressed
on.

The dead from
miles around flooded to Paine’s silent call. They hovered over him.
He pointed with a single finger.

“
Kill him.”

The host of
souls sailed forth.

Puck screamed
as he was flung to the ground. The demon writhed in agony, leprous
spots dappling his body. His fur lit up with flame, white and hot.
He tried to rise and call forth souls to aid him, but his lips were
suddenly stitched together. Puck thrashed about, morphing from
wraith to human, in the various forms he had taken over his years.
They were many, and each had a tortured expression. Among them were
Billy Chapman, Farin, and then the Reverend Chapman. Paine stood,
watching as the wraith mumbled his screams and kicked at the
earth.

Paine smiled.
It was filled with vengeance.

Good.

Then the fire
finally took the demon and he lay still, burning. And this time,
unlike the other demons, the wraith had a soul. And with it Paine
opened his arms, waiting. He welcomed the memories and the
knowledge that accompanied it. He was ready for it, embracing it.
He would know what this being knew.

But the
memories did not come. The soul he expected slid away from him,
towards the man known as Senator Thurmond. Paine turned on him, but
a tall man in black robes stepped in front. Upon his arm was a
terrible wound, dripping and bloodied, and in his hand was a
blackened spear.

***

Brahm got up
from the ground, grunting with the pain of her missing hand.
Sephirah was driving her forward.

-Get
them!-

She pulled
White Feather with her one good hand. “Get up!”

The
Haudenosaunee rose, but his face was slightly seared. Red blisters
were beginning to form.

Brahm’s heart
wrenched at the sight.

Her brother
was beside her quickly. He was undamaged.

She began to
run towards Lya, but her instincts told her different. She made a
sudden change and instead ran after the boy.

Demons and
Hunters blocked their path. White Feather and Mason ran just ahead
of her, taking each one down that dared to get in their way. Brahm
felt useless and even her soul tired of running. She ran blindly
behind the others, and then Sephirah spoke to her, quietly,
revealing all.

She told of a
dark conception, a spell of great power, of the birth of Dark Wind,
and of how one of her children might be able to command it. And
then she gave Brahm the words of a spell she had once recited; one
that she had hoped might bring to ruin a plan that had been laid
with her own forced pregnancy.

And in that
moment, Brahm’s soul held Sephirah’s; comforted her from her pain;
and vowed that she would help make everything right.

She pushed
ahead of the others, her legs moving in great stag-like strides.
She ran ahead and heard White Feather and her brother calling after
her.

-I must
speak.-

And Brahm let
Sephirah’s soul come forth as she arrived, just as the man in black
robes did. And they both faced Sephirah’s child.

***

Friar John
stood facing the boy to whom the ghoul had guided him. He felt his
face flush and his heart pounded, for he knew who stood before him,
as sure as the truth that had plagued him for years. He had found
his quarry; but not the one the Pope had sent him to find. Although
it was by his hand that Sephirah had been drugged into the
abominable act, and also by his own body that she had been
impregnated, this was not whom the Pope had sent him to find. Yes,
this boy before him had been conceived by John’s unwilling
relations with the former Pope; and the one Sephirah had borne to
the world — a Son of Man. But things were not as he expected.

He twitched
his fingers as he smelled the truth of this boy. He was not
possessed of the dark Spirit that should inhabit his body. John’s
work was not complete.

I have found
my bastard child, but this is not the Beast.

Behind him a
voice spoke, its cold hatred forced him to turn. It was the man in
white robes he had recognized from a distance; the Senator.

There was
anger in the Senator’s face. “Heretic, what are you doing
here?”

John sucked in
his breath.

Heretic?

The man’s face
reddened as he looked at the Spear in John’s hands. “Is this what
the Pope sent you to do? Fool! This one is mine. He has been
promised to me.”

“
No!” said another voice. It was a woman, tall and black. She
was missing a hand. John recognized her. And the voice that spoke
was not her own; it was that of Sephirah.

“
You will not have my son, Aloysius,” she said.

Aloysius?

The Senator’s
eyes widened.

“
I know that voice,” he hissed. “How do you know
me?”

“
You know me, well, fool. Now, leave this place.”

He smiled with
recognition. “Sephirah. So you have managed to find a way to cheat
death by taking residence in this body. Well, you are too late. The
boy is mine!”

He reached to
grab the boy, but missed.

John looked to
where Uriel battled with the Obek. They were down three more. The
archangel turned, and with a sudden knowing in his squinted eyes,
he gritted his teeth and began to fight his way towards them.

John gripped
the black Spear. The angel lacked a soul to take, but the weapon
might still do some damage.

The boy
finally spoke and spat out his words in anger. “Who sent you? Why
do you want me and my sister?” A legion of dead hovered over him,
waiting for his command.