Thirteen Roses Book Three: Beyond: A Paranormal Zombie Saga (20 page)

He’d had a thought on the way down and had maybe a few seconds to find out if his suspicions were correct. As he dashed across St Paul’s, he tried and failed to stop thinking about the girl he’d left on the roof. He should have stayed. They could have talked some more. There wasn’t much room but maybe they could have kissed even.
 

He slapped himself. The retort bounced off the ceiling and came back, mocking him. What was he becoming? It wasn’t him thinking those thoughts, it was the other him, the person Luke had created when he’d sent him away. But it came so subtly now and without warning and he had a hard time knowing the difference.
 

Was there any difference? Was he kidding himself that there was some part of him that wasn’t normal? He didn’t feel any different when that part of him came out. It felt just like him. He slapped himself again. He could feel that. That was real. The thoughts he had of Krystal, the ones he shouldn’t have, didn’t feel like that. They felt… foreign. He felt the same, but the thoughts themselves came from elsewhere.
 

That was the truth. That had to be the truth. He chewed on his lip, swallowing the blood that still ran from his tongue. He’d left her up there alone with the machine while he ran away. But they would find her. Hopefully they’d think she was too young to be hiding anything, too naive to be so sneaky. She wasn’t naive though. She was a young woman, with a woman’s parts and a woman’s needs.
 

He turned back to the steps and only stopped when he heard the shouts of the soldiers at the entrance to the cathedral. He was losing it. He had to hide. He raced for the wall, praying to anyone who wasn’t hell bent on screwing him over, that his idea was right.
 

He reached the wall and gingerly touched it. His hand went right through and his face split into a huge grin. He was right. This was an exact replica of the real St Paul’s, including the secret passageway. He stepped through and his head collided with something that knocked him over.
 

He landed on his arse and rubbed his head furiously, trying not to shout abuse to anyone within earshot. The soldiers’ shouts grew louder and, on hands and knees, he scrambled back into the wall. He went through this time and straight into darkness.
 

He knelt for a moment, getting his breath back and rubbing his head a bit more. The darkness wasn’t absolute. Light came from somewhere and lit the walls a dim red. The carvings were present and writhing in the firelight. He stayed on his hands and knees as he crept forwards.
 

He put his hand down, only the floor wasn’t there, and he nearly tumbled arse over tit straight down the stairs. He caught himself just in time and lay flat on the cold stone, staring at what lay below. The stairs were rough and uneven and ran into what looked like a nightclub crossed with a gangster’s lair.
 

The lighting came from hidden spots, red for the most part, but interspersed with pools of white light. The floor and walls were stone, but the furniture was luxurious and huge, massive cream sofas and armchairs. In the far corner was a kitchen covered in bottles of booze and takeaway wrappers. He couldn’t see what lay beneath the stairs, but the music was coming from there. It was hip hop and, in David’s opinion, sat at the bad end of the spectrum.
 

In the sofa furthest from the stairs sat a demon. It could only be a demon, what with it being covered in red hair, bearing horns and a face even a mother couldn’t love. David hoped it was Az. The thought of two things like that running around made his stomach clench. The demon was on the phone, the tiny mobile dwarfed by the massive claw that pressed it to his ear.
 

‘Yeah, I know. But it’s early days, there’s no rush. Come on, we’ve been waiting three hundred years, let’s not get antsy now, huh?’

He waited a bit, rocking his head back and forth in a way David recognised all too well. He realised with a dawning sense of disbelief that the demon was talking to his girlfriend.
 

‘Yeah, I know. Miss you too. Okay. Keep it up there, don’t let them relax. Remember, they have to be ready.’

More waiting. ‘Yeah, yeah, alright. See you.’

He clicked the phone shut and put it on the table. The demon let out a long sigh and put his head back against the sofa. He lifted his monstrous feet onto the coffee table and spread his arms to either side. After a minute, David began to shuffle back. He could hide in the tunnel and wait for the soldiers to go away. He’d be fine, it would be—

‘Oh, please don’t go away. Come and say hi.’
 

Luke

He hurtled down the passage, gripped tight in Seph’s fist. He took the opportunity to slam his fist into the bastard’s face a couple of times and was rewarded with a spurt of blood from his nose.
 

‘Cut it out. I want to talk to you.’ Seph said.

They slammed into the end of the corridor and Luke found himself astride his friend’s chest. This was an excellent chance to not cut it out. He laid in, fists flying. His strength was only mildly diminished by his humanity and Seph’s face became rapidly covered in blood. The angel took it for a moment before surging to his feet, his sheer weight and size overpowering Luke and slamming him to the corridor floor.

‘That’s enough. Goodness, I come to speak and this is how you reward me?’

‘You sent me here. This is your doing, you and Az, so don’t try and talk to me like we’re friends. You’re bastards, both of you and I have nothing to say to—’

‘Oh, give it up, please. This isn’t our doing. Well, actually, I suppose it is.’ He paused, head cocked to one side. ‘Anyway, stop being so self-righteous. It’s not like you haven’t messed with a few people in your time. Half the people the Father lumped you with are pretty screwed over from what I’ve seen.’

Luke ground his teeth together and glared at his friend. ‘What do you mean, this is your doing?’

‘Ah, you caught that. Maybe we should go somewhere else to talk. We are attracting attention here.’

Luke glanced over his shoulder. Etienne and the soldiers were still pressed face down to the floor, but some were beginning to peek, eyes lifted from the stone.

‘Why do you care if they watch?’

‘Well, there’s the matter of me being God’s messenger. Seeing my face get pummelled doesn’t do much for my status. Added to that, we have the issue that I speak to them only in Biblical English and blow me if that isn’t a drag. Come on.’

He grabbed Luke’s arm and faded from view. Seconds later Luke stood alone in the passageway, turning to watch Etienne and the soldiers rise to their feet. Then they dropped again. Seph had reappeared behind him, shaking his head. ‘He actually did it, didn’t he? Goodness me, what’s it like to be human?’

Luke spat on the floor in front of him and snarled. ‘This is your fault.’

‘Yes, I gathered that. Well, we’ll have to travel by more earthly means, but that’s okay.’

They left the secret passageway, Seph drawing his wings in tight to his body to fit through the wall. They stepped into the chapel at the head of the church and stomped past the rows of pews to the end. Seph muttered and the wall before them shimmered and vanished.
 

‘Always have a way out that no one else knows about. Come on, hurry up or they will.’

Seph led him into what felt like a shallow depression in the wall. The air shimmered and they were trapped inside a narrow room, just wide enough for Seph’s wings. He nudged the wall with his foot and it swung open, revealing a far larger room on the other side.
 

Luke stepped in, mouth dropping as he realised where they were. The stars glittered as he looked out over the Flights.

‘How?’

‘That portal took me well over a century. You wouldn’t believe how tricky it is to get everything to line up. There’s about twenty spells all happening at the same time, all in sympathy. But you get one of them wrong and the whole damned thing falls apart. I tell you, I must have cast it a hundred times before it stuck.’

‘Is this how you get from here to Earth?’

‘Oh no, this is far too clumsy. I’ve been developing a few skills I thought might be necessary.’

Luke turned away from the view and stared at his old friend. ‘Seph, how long have you been doing this, coming to Earth?’

The angel grinned and tapped his nose. ‘Some secrets are mine alone. Suffice it to say your return from Hell was something of a catalyst.’

‘So you and Az have been planning this since Hell closed?’

Seph’s wings folded tight and he fell back into his chair with a long sigh. He didn’t answer immediately, but gestured for Luke to sit opposite him. He cleared his throat and sat forward, clasping his hands together between his knees.
 

‘Listen to me and listen good. Az wanted to be here for this but things are moving rather faster than we anticipated. Everything that has happened to you has been planned, meticulously, by us.’ He took a deep breath and a smile flickered across his face. ‘Tell me, Luke, what do you know about killing God?’

Luke’s mouth opened for a moment and his heart rate jumped. Sweat prickled on his brow and he closed his mouth, words failing him. Seph leant back again and nodded, grinning broadly.

‘Already your mind begins to spin. I know you, Lucifer, I know what you want and what you believe. And I don’t think I need say anything more.’

‘There is no god, there’s only the Father.’

‘God, the Father, whatever, same difference.’

‘No, it’s not. The rule you’re talking about applies specifically to God. I don’t know if it’s the same for the Father.’

‘It is, trust me. We checked.’

‘You checked it. How?’

‘The usual channels. We spoke to the Furies and the Oracle. Az actually read some books as well. The rule applies to the Father.’

‘How will you do it?’

‘Easy. Even now, Sara and some of the others are stirring up dis-ease and dissent. It isn’t hard. We’ve made it easy, it goes something like, ‘The Father has failed us, he has allowed the human race to be decimated and suddenly where are we? Left high and dry without jobs or a reason to exist. There is talk of some of the lesser beings fading away.’ Yadda yadda yadda.’

‘And how much of this talk comes from you?’

‘Most of it. But this much is true. There are only a handful of humans left spread across Earth. We, as a people, have lost the very thing that makes us who we are. If this isn’t the fault of the Father, then whose is it?’

‘It’s yours.’

‘Well, yes, but no one else knows that.’

‘I do.’

‘Come now, Luci, don’t pretend for a moment you aren’t already trying to figure out whether this will work.’

Luke grabbed his knees and squeezed hard. His breath stuttered as he tried to grasp what Seph and Az had done. ‘Humour me, keep going.’

‘So, we have the rumour mill working and more and more of our companions are finding anger where there has been apathy for so long we no longer even recognise it.’

‘Fine, but what about us?’

‘We have vessels, Luke. In this church alone we have a hundred, pristine, unsullied vessels. They will bear our children and those children will be an army like the world has never known. With them we storm the Father’s house and with you, we strike him down.’

‘Just like that?’

‘Who will stop us? Who cares enough about him to stop us? He’s had us in a strangle hold for so long, he has no friends left.’

‘He doesn’t need friends. Seph, he’s the Father. He’ll crush us.’

Seph shook his head, lips pressed firmly together. ‘No, he won’t. He’ll try, but he’s weak. There’s no belief, Luci, he’s lost his spark.’

‘He looked pretty sparky to me when he blew Az across his garden.’

‘That was then. The human race is gone now and every prayer and act of worship has gone with it. He has nothing left. He’s like a whale left high on a beach, his oxygen running out as his skin dries and flakes and peels.’

‘He’s not a damned zombie.’

‘But he may as well be, for how relevant he is.’

‘Trust me, the zombies feel pretty damned relevant when they’re attacking you.’

‘That’s because you’ve already forgotten what it’s like to be immortal. You’ve forgotten who you are because of your pesky humanity.’

‘Thanks to you.’

‘It’s the only way we could make this work. He can’t be harmed by one of us, but you? You still have your strength, your powers—’

‘I’m mortal. He can swat me like a fly and I’m not getting up again. You have no idea what that feels like. You don’t know what any of this feels like. I’m infected, I’m—’

‘And that’s my point. You’d never have agreed to this. What else were we supposed to do?’

‘You could have volunteered.’

Seph chuckled and shook his head. ‘I don’t have the evil in me. I no longer wish to live like this, controlled by an errant, meaningless old man, but I could never kill him. I’m an angel, in case you’ve forgotten.’

‘So am I.’

‘Were. You were an angel. But you were bad enough then and now you’re human, you can be twice as evil.’

‘I don’t want to be evil. I don’t want to kill the Father. How else do I get back home?’

Seph leapt to his feet, clapping his hands together. ‘And that, my friend, is the final touch. You will make your own home. Kill the Father and you absorb his powers. You will become ruler again, like you were in Hell.’

‘I don’t recall you being in Hell. How do you know you’ll like it?’

Seph shook his head, waving his hands before him. ‘We won’t make a new Hell. We can make whatever we want.’

‘We?’

‘Of course. We shall form a triumvirate, the three of us.’

‘And do what?’

‘What do you mean?’

‘You’ve wiped out the human race. You’re going to use the hostages to make an army. What will we do?’

‘This isn’t only happening in London. It’s happening all over the world. There are hostages in every major religious building in the world. And all of those hostages will spawn new humans.’

‘Spawn?’

‘Give birth to, create, whatever. It doesn’t matter. The human race isn’t doomed—’