Almost Demon (The Sigil Cycle) (28 page)

Just then, Sam parted the wall of Dybbuk. “So the Great Destroyer has finally been wrangled in by a girl.”

Thom stood there in a flannel shirt, his arms crossed in front of him. He seemed larger than usual.

“Sweetie, this is Abbadon himself. In the flesh.”

My eyes grew wide and then wider when Thom said nothing to discount the accusation. “What?”

Sam circled around the two of us, stopping when he reached my back. He spoke right into my ear but I knew that Thom could hear every word he was saying. 

“Abbadon here is the Reaper. He is the taker of souls. Neither angel nor demon. He doesn’t take sides. But he also doesn’t interfere. Usually. Then again, he took your dear brother from you.”

I shook my head violently back and forth, thinking that my memories would be wiped clean like an etch-a-sketch and I could start my whole life over again. I pushed back the rush of tears that wanted to burst from my eyes and all I could do was mewl. Sam put his hand on my shoulder, steadying me.

“Sammael. Who gave you leave to part from your den of inequity?” Thom’s voice reverberated with power. 

“This is all part of the new order.” Sam stretched his arms out towards the air, sending the shadows into a frenzied dance around him then towards the sky where they reinforced the cage holding Harrisport hostage. “Gemma. Time’s ticking.”

I took a step closer to Thom and searched his face for anything that would change my mind. “Is it true? Did you kill my brother?” I asked.

“It doesn’t work like that.” He looked at the floor and twisted the toe of his combat boot on a sod of earth.

I couldn’t help but let out a nervous giggle, the kind of laugh that you hear when a person is losing their mind. “I see you don’t have such awful taste in shoes as I thought.”

“I reckon you don’t know a lot about me. But that’s not the point. Whatever you do now is your choice. Like he said. I don’t interfere.”

“You took my brother,” I screamed and pounded on his chest with every ounce of energy I had left. “He was all I had left in this place.” 

He grabbed me by the wrists and shoved his face up against mine until we were nose to nose. “I didn’t have a choice. I do as I’m told.”

“Why not me? They were all gone. Who told you to take them and not me?”

“And the plot thickens.” Sam chuckled. His foot was now on Charlotte’s back, keeping her in place. “Tick tock goes the clock.”

I dropped my hands to my side and inhaled until my entire body coursed with energy. I drew power from everyone around me. I was charged with a push that I knew had originated from Charlotte’s soul. I wove it around me like armor until something clicked open inside my brain. Visions flooded my mind of red caves filled with molten lava and never-ending screams; a black sun that burned across a desert landscape and a power that fueled it like nothing on this Earth.

Somewhere deep inside me the words came out. A lesson in rote that I had learned somewhere in the womb. “Omni bentidoct inversio thundora emperoct. Voidus pyro. Voidus cyro. Voidus animus.” 

Thom’s eyes flashed with disappointment but he did nothing to fight me. The Dybbuk began to converge around him and I placed the amulet in the lock, sending hidden gears into motion. 

“Why not me?” I screamed one last time over the sound of groaning machinery and whirling shadows.

“Because I couldn’t.” His voice was now in my head. “You’re needed here. You’re not human.”

“Then what am I? A demon?” I laughed at the absurdity of how it sounded.

“Almost,” he replied. The gate opened and a ring of slats moved aside to form one large octagonal hole. I scrambled to the forest floor as quickly as I could manage while I watched Thom fall head first into the abyss. The Dybbuk were sucked into the vacuum behind him. The gate roared, absorbing the steady influx of shadows.

“What now?” I called to Sam. “The book doesn’t say how to close it.”

“Now it’s your turn.” He gave me a hideous smile and pushed.

I fell backwards, knocking my legs against the sides before falling into the hole, catching myself a few times as I reached out for anything to grab onto, only to lose my grip. My fingers finally hooked on to a thick root exposed in the dirt.

“Ian!” I yelled as I fastened myself to my only lifeline and dangled like a fish on a line. “Help!”

Below, I imagined Thom’s body, a tiny speck caught in an endless fall, but there was only darkness. The sky turned from a cool gray and then to blue as the Dybbuk torpedoed passed me on its way down the dreary depths. 

My arms weren’t strong enough to carry my weight up to the surface. “Ian!” I screamed once more.

When I saw his face pop over the side, I was relieved.

“Hurry. I don’t think I can hold on much longer.” 

He looked to his left and then to his right. Then past me. I waited for him to flash me his classic impish smile. Instead, he straightened his back and started talking to Sam. 

“Please. I can’t.” I leaned my head against my arm. There was still more energy pulsing beneath the sigils. In theory, it would be enough to catapult me out of here if I trusted the power enough to do as I imagined.

I kept watching for signs that Ian was in the middle of bargaining for my life. It looked more like two buddies catching up, complete with shoulder bumping and knowing laughs. His eyes met mine once again and they were devoid of all emotion. The relationship we had shared these last few weeks meant nothing. That is when I saw the red glow in his eyes and the comprehension was crippling. Large skeletal wings unfurled from his back. It had been a lie all along. 

All I wanted to do was let the anguish wash over me until it forced me down into the pit. Maybe I could catch Thom on my way down the rabbit hole and apologize about not trusting him. 

“Goodbye, Gem,” Ian said without a hint of concern. Part of me was devising complex fantasies in which Ian created an elaborate subterfuge in front of Sam in order to ultimately save me. 

“Ian, please.” I poured every emotion I had into that plea. 

“It’s been nice.” His voice was cold and sounded older than the seventeen-year-old angst-ridden slacker he portrayed. He flicked something at me, raising my hopes, only to get nicked by the tail of a fading cigarette butt. He looked right past me and then laughed at something Sam said. Before my mind could even catch up to my heart and grasp what had actually just happened, Ian was gone. 

That was when the rumbling began from beneath. The tremors struck with the force of an earthquake, their power increasing with every ripple until the walls of the chamber threatened to collapse. The pit belched sulfur. Steam hit me with a face full of clay. Rocks clouded my vision and filled my mouth with the organic taste of earth. 

“I don’t think so,” I said as I began to clamber up the length of the root. 

There is no way I’m letting them get away with this. 

The muscles in my triceps quivered from the stress of pulling my weight and my palms were being rubbed raw from the friction. Sweat dripped down my back as I struggled to get out of there.

Tarzan made this look a lot easier.

The air now was choking and visibility was nil. The chittering sounds were growing louder with each blast of pressure and the sounds of clawing filled me with visions of the monkey-like creatures of the Dybbuk on the other side of the veil.

Something clipped my shoulder as it flew passed and I lost my grip, sending me right back down to where I had started. The sounds of bees swarming was followed by hundreds of things flying passed me and out into the dusk-colored sky. I looked up and caught sight of a humanoid creature with slick red skin and oversized avian eyes like black pools. It was hanging upside down, its clawed feet gripping the side of the wall. 

I tried to think of my next step. There was still an unexpended kernel of power resting within me. 

I could use it to summon help
.

The moment to try anything had passed when the grotesque creature with its shiny black beak pounced on top of me and began pecking at my head. I thrashed around, trying to hold on as it yanked out chunks of hair and tapped at my skull. My scalp burned and I began to scream. I threw a stray punch and the creature unleashed more of its power at me as it beat its thorned wings against my body. Tears ran down my cheeks as I realized that my life was going to end this horribly. Betrayed by the one person I had trusted enough to sleep with. Pecked to death by some beast as the rest of the world was subjected to a worse fate. 

My eyes searched the heavens.

Now would be a good time for the powers that be to intervene.

The monster grabbed my arms and began poking at the flesh. It ran the tip of its beak up and down my forearm and gave me a questioning look as if all of sudden he recognized me from somewhere. It tilted its bird head in surprise.

That was when a shadow bulleted straight into the creature, slamming it up against the far side of the pit. The sound of crunching bone echoed all around us. The Dybbuk released the creature to the depths of the chasm and flew back towards me into an embrace. Wispy black tendrils curled around my limbs and began lifting me up.

“Ghosty?” I asked.

It kept me steady and safe until resting me at Charlotte’s side before reforming into its familiar pillar-like stature. It stayed there while I pleaded to my best friend’s unconscious form to wake up. I checked for a pulse and found one but it was weak. Around us the woods were empty. Ian and Sam were long gone. The pit was no longer rumbling but still spewed the egg- filled stench. 

“What should I do?” I didn’t know who I was asking.

Ghosty just stood there, as expected. I ran to the pit and picked up the amulet, expecting it to close without the magical device. It didn’t. 

Instead, a colossal horse, white as a dove, galloped out. Its rider reigned it into a stop before me. He wore a suit of polished armor, his helmet was tucked beneath his arm and a thin gold circlet adorned his head. He would have been beautiful had terror not oozed from every pore. I shivered when he smiled, put the helmet on and grabbed his bow in the other hand. He held up one finger, kicked the side of the horse and then he was off. 

“That probably wasn’t a good thing.” I looked to Ghosty.

It morphed a human head and nodded in agreement. It was the first time he had really communicated with me and I would have smiled if things hadn’t turned to such shit. I hunkered down next to Charlotte’s motionless body, her breathing had changed and appeared stronger. 

Could I get her home?

I couldn’t be sure that my dad was back to normal. Ghosty’s presence indicated that it was still possible for some Dybbuk to stay. So I waited.

When Charlotte woke up, she screamed. “My dress.” She began to wipe away the dirt but the fabric was streaked with mud and grass stains. 

“Charlotte, you’re okay!” I threw my arms around her and squeezed.

“Wow.” She rubbed the back of her head. “What an asshole. That like hurt. A lot.”

“Tell me you’re alright.”

“I’m fine.” 

“Can you walk?”

“Yeah.”

When we got closer to my back yard, I saw two forms standing just beyond the reach of the security lamps. Even cloaked in darkness, I knew it was Sam and Ian watching the chaos in the streets, illuminated by the surrounding inferno. I squashed the urge to vomit. 

“Wait,” I whispered, holding Charlotte back behind one of the larger maple trees. 

“Is that him?” Charlotte asked. “Cuz if it is, wow, I am totally going to kick him in the balls.”

I saw one of them turn their heads in our direction.

“Quiet. We’re gonna get even. I promise.” I drew us down further to the ground and out of their line of sight. “There’s just one thing.”

“If you’re going to hit me on the head, no way.”

We watched as demons of every shape and size molested humans in the street, tearing at their clothing and skin as they cackled and hooted into the night air. The sound of glass breaking and alarms blaring was the added chorus to the misery.

“I don’t think I’ll need to. I’m asking your permission. Sam said something, that you’re the lamb. But you’re not dead. So I’m assuming it means that you just have a certain kind of supped-up power I can use. It’s your essence,” I said, recalling how the tattoos always sprung to life in her presence.

“Are you sure?” she asked. Our faces were close and I could see the uncertainty in her eyes. 

“No. I’m not. I don’t know about half the things going on around here. But shouldn’t we at least try to stop it? I don’t think it can get much more fucked up than this.”

“Okay. Go for it. Make sure you really hit Sam. Punk.”

“Just tell me if it becomes too much.”

We sat back-to-back and locked hands. I stirred the small ball of energy that had lodged itself within my Third Eye. Charlotte relaxed into my body as the flow of power began to pour through me. 

“You okay?” I asked. It was killer, trying to hold the power and talk to Charlotte at the same time, but I needed to know how she was handling it before I could go on.

“Yeah.” Her voice sounded dreamy. “Give them hell.”

I looked down at the sigils on my arm. They were cold and empty. The power I was using now was like the power I drew from the club. Human essence. Bit by bit, I was sucking down Charlotte’s soul.

C
HAPTER
T
WENTY
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IX