Cataclysm (7 page)

“Hey, miss! Ana!” I heard a stranger’s voice call. My muscles tightened up all over. A twinge of sadness came over me, realizing that even normal interactions caused alarm. Spinning around to figure who might have called, I was relieved to find a man with eyes that showed a gentle green glow.

Matilda had no use for me any longer and went off to finish what was on her mind, so I walked over to the man. He was dressed in dark jeans and a light beige shirt.

“Yes?” I asked.

“I’ve come from the east coast. We’ve been hearing of the plans you have to battle Azazel, and we all want to help. No matter what it takes to defeat him, we are in.”

“Aww,” I groaned. “There’ve been some difficulties she’s encountered, so she hasn’t mentioned that you were coming. I’m so sorry. What’s your name?”

“Noah. And it’s not a problem. I’ve got a place I’m staying, and once you’re ready, call me. We’ve been able to get a lot of intelligence. I think you’ll both be pleasantly surprised,” he said, handing me his number.

The old me would’ve just invited him back to the room to hear what he had to say, but with everything going on now, I was beyond cautious. It was a sad commentary that I couldn’t even trust my own kind. Seeing his name on the paper, I hoped the information he had come to deliver would be as valuable as Arie seemed to bet it was.

“Noah, I’m glad I ran into to you. Things work out for a reason,” I said, a smile genuinely appearing on my lips. “We’ll reach out very soon. Tonight, probably…”

Shaking his hand, I watched as he turned around and walked down the street, with only the streetlights showing the path he was following back to his hotel.

Arie had been through a lot, so I don’t blame her for not remembering to tell me this, but I wondered what else she might not have filled me in on.

“Come on, Matilda,” I called. She did her best to run over so I could hook her back up the leash. “Let’s go find out what else Arie might have planned that we have no clue about.”

“Hey, forgetful!” I hollered, as I opened the door to the hotel room.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” She retorted from the direction of her bedroom.

“Well, I ran into someone who you apparently invited to Seattle before your little mishap. Ring a bell? Has information for us, I guess.” I made my way to the bedroom, hoping to catch the look on her face.

“Oh, gosh. Yes, he’s very nice.” Her cheeks were flushed, and I could tell she was extremely embarrassed. “I reached out to several people, globally, hoping that our plan would work, and I would end up here in Seattle. I figured in my spare time, I could meet with some of our own over the next while and not waste a minute.”

“Nice try, Arie. I think Cy would get a little suspicious if I suddenly stopped coming around the home at night.” I was unable to hide my smirk.

There was no way of knowing what all Arie had planned or forgotten right before her attack. All we could do was hope everything would fall into place. I was thankful she remembered us, and that the memsors worked. Once the rest of the white demons master this, it could change the complexion of what we were about to face.

Noah showed up at our hotel room, pastries and tea in hand. It was a perfect late-night snack. Matilda seemed excited to meet up with him again, and I kind of was too. Knowing there were more than just us, trying to hash things out, brought some relief about what we were possibly facing.

Athen had been pretty sure Cyril would be sleeping soon. He had hoped we could dial him in on the important part of the conversations. I totally agreed. The more ears we had, the better.

After brief reintroductions, we all went to the table, so he could unload his backpack. I wasn’t really sure what he had, that he felt he had to show us versus just tell us about, but my curiosity was definitely killing me.

Whatever happened had to have been an awful event. There weren’t any other things that could take us down, so it had to have been the dark ones.

“Is that why you’re so connected with everything?” I asked gently, not sure of his comfort level.

“I’d say so. Before she was taken away from me, I knew things were starting to shift. I could sense a change that had begun in both the mortal and immortal worlds. She did too.” He shook his head, concern washing over his movements. “We just didn’t realize the severity or what it actually meant. I never would’ve guessed…” His words left a trail of unsaid remorse.

“May I ask what her name was?” I gently touched his hand.

“Her name was Vanessa,” he replied, with such tenderness.

Hollowness began spreading through me as I thought about my options. The pain I caused Noah and so many others, because I actually thought we could defeat Azazel and the dark ones, was something I couldn’t shake any longer. But what if we couldn’t defeat Azazel? If all it took to end the pain and interference against our world was me following in Lilith’s footsteps, why not do it? I rubbed my temples as a fierce pain began pulsating.

“Hey!” Arie’s voice shocked me out of my misery and delusions. “We don’t have time for you to wallow in your own stuff right now.”

Immediately, embarrassment went gushing through my body. I wondered how transparent I’d become.

“This isn’t your fault, Ana.” Noah began. “I’ve been playing a bit of catch up, but I can guarantee you that anything Azazel has told you is only a trap. He can’t be trusted. To try to put the weight of this entire evilness on your shoulders is a horrendous burden to carry. You’ve trusted your gut, and so far, it’s led us well. As small as the battles might have been thus far, you have the power to get us through what will be ahead. When I stood on that beach, with the chained minions launching their attacks, I saw what an amazing leader you were. You didn’t point your fingers at what needed to be done. You got in there and fought with all of us. You may not know it yet, but you will be the one who leads us to victory. I’ve never seen so many of us willing to accept commands from one being before.” His radiant smile began diffusing the heaviness of the moment.

“You were on the beach?” My mouth had a dryness that seemed impossible to swallow away. I reached for the water on the table. “How’d you know to get there?”

“Arie’s network is pretty elaborate.” A twinkle began to appear in Noah’s eyes again.

“I guess,” I laughed, thankful for Noah’s positivity.

“Listen, there are many, exactly like me, who want nothing more than revenge against Azazel, but what we really want is to end him. We want to end his run of terror and his dreams of cruelty. Whether or not it begins to trickle over to the mortals, we’ve got to stop it soon. The evilness is only going to grow in either world. Unfortunately, it’s taken some pretty horrific events for some, like myself, to understand the seriousness of what we are facing.” He placed his backpack on the floor.

“It’s kind of true. I mean our lives, up until recently, were filled with helping the mortals as much as we could while still enjoying the finer things in life,” Arie sighed. “We all can get pretty complacent. Bad things might be escalating around us or happening to friends or friend’s of friends, but until we are directly affected, it doesn’t seem to have the same impact.” She shook her head, as the revelation settled over us all.

“I guess, in a way, Azazel has shaken us up a bit. He made us all realize there’s a lot more evil out there that can’t be ignored. Even the little things.” Some of the stress began to dissipate. Noah was probably right. I knew deep in my heart that if I gave myself up, Azazel would still ensure his plan would continue.

“True. Even with what we all have tried to help with over the centuries, I’ve noticed sometimes we turn the other way or don’t try to interfere if the infraction is a small one. But truly, doesn’t a small one eventually lead to a bigger one?” Noah’s words sunk in.

I thought about the times, even recently, where I didn’t step in with my full ability. Are those the beginning steps that create the chain reaction of destruction? Is that when the seeds of power can be planted in potential predators? There seems to be a connection where the only way, certain individuals can feel any sort of power or control over a situation, is by taunting or slinging cruel comments. Most often it seems to be at someone who is defenseless, so it’s a false sense of power, really. And as they get older, they just get more vocal and more bitter. As things don’t go their way, the only method for them to hold onto their power is by getting more cruel and spouting off even more insults, rather than attempting to better themselves. It’s a pretty pathetic existence, but it seemed to be getting more commonplace. If everyone just worried about themselves, rather than being rude or inconsiderate there might be chance of improving.

“You know, I think that this evilness has been spreading in ways we never thought of paying attention to before.” I began, as I dialed Athen’s number. “I think the network of evil includes a lot more avenues than before. If we don’t start thinking of the big picture, we might not be able to stop it before it’s too late.”

“Hello?” Athen’s voice entered our room from the speakerphone.

“Hey, sweetie. Noah and Arie are here. I tried to think about how Azazel might be able to start connecting into the mortal world.”

“Geez, that’s some pretty heavy stuff to jump right into,” Athen replied.

“Tell me about it, but I think I’m onto something,” my voice excited with the clues that I was pretty sure could help us focus on the right methods for our upcoming battles.

“I think I figured out what Azazel’s plan is. I think he wants the mortals to turn against each other. I think he wants to end them by having them destroy themselves with hate. He needs to just nudge them a little,” I started.

It was silent. Athen said nothing. Noah stared at the table, and Arie was staring at the phone. As my eyes darted from one to the other, the silence killed me. The only noise besides our breathing was the sounds of Matilda snoring. At a time like this, I’d take it. I needed some sort of soothing sound.

“I think mortals are next. Once he realizes he can’t turn any more of our own, I think he’ll move on.” I stopped myself from continuing and waited for a response.

“You’re kidding,” Noah whispered. “This could change the entire way we fight. Going into war knowing that you can be brought back and reunited pretty quickly will certainly bring out a stronger drive to fight. Nobody will hold back. Whoo,” he blew out the air in his mouth, whistling as he went.

“Where’s the proof?” Noah asked, looking directly at me as if I’d be the only one who would tell him the truth.

“Well, Arie was only taken away a couple of days ago, and here she is. The only missing part is her bright green eyes! ” The excitement was in my voice.

“Just one incident doesn’t necessarily prove…” Noah started again, but not before I interrupted.

“True! Totally true! However, you’re talking to the other guy who it worked on too.” Arie gave her two cents. “My brother was taken down, but he knew it was going to happen and planted memsors everywhere. His process took longer than mine, but it might not have needed to. He was the first one of us to try it.”

“We’ve gotta spread the word immediately.” Noah’s voice was full of urgency.

“We will, but there’s a reason we’ve held off.” Arie shifted uncomfortably. “We didn’t do this only as a test case. I worried that Cyril was going to go to the dark side. I knew if I could keep him searching for me a little while, it could buy us the time we needed to show him that it’s all a trap. I know he knows that deep inside, but before I got taken, he seemed to be falling for Azazel’s story. I think he would have turned to the dark side.”

Athen’s voice came over the phone. “I’ve been taking him around to hear the stories from families, so he begins to hear more and more how these families were victimized. He thinks it’s part of the whole strategy behind our upcoming attacks, but it’s so he realizes he was about to fall into the same pattern. I think we’re almost there.”