Bound

Chapter THREE

Rebecca



She brought me into the warehouse, down into the hardened subterranean estate where she lived. The others looked at me curiously, wondering what she was doing with a mortal in tow, but they knew well enough not to question Joe's daughter.

She led me to her apartment, an open space with a huge fish tank ringing the outer walls. She made us some tea, and we sat on a soft mat in the center of the floor, sipping chamomile while we talked.

"You were going to tell me what's going on," I said, lifting the porcelain cup to my shell's mouth. The fingers barely managed to get a passable grip on the handle, and I nearly poured the drink into my lap. "Vampires that aren't vampires."

She took a delicate sip from her own cup, and then put it down next to her. "Yes. It started about two months ago. The same time as the so-called outbreak in Mumbai that made people start killing one another."

"It was the Beast."

She nodded. "I wasn't sure, but I suspected. As did father. His exact words were, 'I wonder if we'll ever see the Deliverer again'. He can be a little... single-tracked... at times. The riots ended. At first I believed Landon had defeated him, but then we started hearing rumors."

I had been single-tracked myself. All of my energy had been poured into arriving here. "Rumors?"

"That the diuscrucis were gone. Both of them. That there was a new Demon Queen, who also happened to be the daughter of Baal himself. That the Parisian archfiend was back in play, more powerful than he had ever been before, and with the demon Izak under his heel. That Hell was back on top, and defeat was inevitable without Landon to put things right." She caught my eyes in hers, and held them in a steel gaze. "That they had broken the world."

So much power had been funneled into the Box. A universe of energy in a Rubik's Cube. Had our universe not been able to withstand it? "Landon trapped the Beast inside Avriel's Box. He had to join him there to keep him contained."

"You want to free him," Elyse said.

I couldn't hide it from her. She had seen into me, when I had taken her. I don't know how, but she had. "Yes."

"So do I."

I didn't understand. "Why? Why do you care about him?"

She laughed. "I don't care about him. I care about us. Humanity. The world is broken."

"You keep saying that. I don't know what you mean."

She picked up her cup, and took another soft sip of the tea. "That... thing... I just killed. Where do you think it came from?"

"I would have said the same place all vampires come from, but you've already said he wasn't one."

She shrugged. "Technically, he was, I suppose. He wasn't always. He changed."

"What do you mean, changed? As in, from human to vampire?"

"Yes. It isn't just vampires. People are changing into other things too. Some of them, I don't know what they are. I've never seen it before."

I still didn't believe it. "You're telling me that humans are turning into demons?"

"Yes and no. They're taking on the characteristics of the Divine, we think according to their genetics, though there may be some other factors that we haven't considered yet. For the most part they're still human, but they have power. Divine power."

"I would think you'd be in favor," I said. "The whole goal of the Nicht Creidim is to use Divine power against them."

"To save humanity. Not to have it become the very thing we fight. These people are abominations. To kill them is to free them."

"So, that's why you're glad I came? Because you think Landon can stop this somehow?"

"I know how you feel about him. When you took over my body, I could feel it too. A strange devotion. I knew from the rumors he had gone missing, which meant you would be searching for a way to help him. You understand some of the things our family has collected, and in your current state, it made sense that you would seek me out again. I'd seen the writings about spirits, and so I made an Eye of Third Sight and waited for you.

"The changelings started appearing soon after the Beast was trapped inside the Box. We think there's too much power concentrated into too little space, and it's having massive side effects on our world. We need to release the energy."

"If you release Landon, you release the Beast," I said.

""Of course, which is why we can't just take the Box and open it up. Releasing the Beast would be worse than dealing with changelings, which is why I was waiting for you."

"What do you need me to do?"


"Sarah."

I almost choked on my laughter. "Sarah hates me," I said. "How in the world can I help you with her?"

"I don't need you to make friends with her", Elyse replied. "I need you to get through her. I can't get near her, you know. All of the things we've collected, and we have nothing to protect us. There aren't supposed to be any true diuscrucis, so neither side has created anything to fight them. I may have the genetics to make me resistant to the Divine, but as you are aware, I'm not impervious."

"I was never sure if I took you by force, or by invitation," I said.

She smiled, but didn't offer me a clue. "She can Command me, if she sees me as a threat. These days, she sees everything as a threat, but I don't blame her for that. Both sides are after the Box, because they believe they are best suited to protect it. The fact is that they would prefer if Landon remains in there with the Beast for all of eternity."

"What about the Nicht Creidim?"

She took another sip of tea, finishing the small cup and placing it off to the side of the mat. "Joe wants the Box. He believes he can use the power to destroy all of the Divine. An ethereal EMP. Considering the energy he could unleash, I think he can do it. He doesn't realize that it will be more like a nuclear blast than a magnetic pulse. The power will go everywhere, and expose us even more. He'll destroy the Divine, only to turn us into them."

I was beginning to understand my place on the board. I was the Queen to Landon's King, able to traverse the field while he was pinned down. Sarah couldn't Command me, because I had been transformed. God still held dominion over all things, and He had put me on this mission, I knew. He wanted me to save him.

"Okay. Let's say I agree, and we work together to find Sarah. Let's say we get close to her. Then what?"

"Simple. We steal the Box."

I wasn't expecting that. "Steal it? Why? Sarah has more reason to want to free Landon than anyone. We should work with her."

Elyse laughed. "Does she? How do you know? She is a true diuscrucis. Her ultimate loyalty will be to herself. Think of what she can do, if she finds a way to harness the power of the Box to her own ends. Power that no one can have without tearing the world apart, even if by accident. No, we need to take the Box."

"And bring it where?"

"Wherever the Beast came from in the first place."

I closed my eyes, catching the memories. I had followed his instructions to bring Sarah through the rift. A special rift that was the only link between this world and the one he had been trapped in. You didn't go to it, you called it and it came to collect you. "I can't open the rift anymore, and even if I could, it's a one-way trip."

"Not so. The archfiend Gervais has created a permanent connection to the Beast's original prison. He's been seeking a means to steal the power that remains there in hopes that it will lead him to a method of taking what is trapped in the Box itself. He doesn't just want to be the minion of a god. He wants to be a god."

Gervais. He had been granted a gift of power from the Beast, which was the only reason he was still standing. Of course, like any good demon he had been given a taste, and now he wanted it all.

"I can't get past Gervais, especially now that he has Izak back under his control. Besides, you didn't say anything about how this is going to help Landon? Even if you could put the power of the Box back into the Beast's prison, Landon will still be trapped with him."

"Do you take me for a fool, Rebecca? All the information I've shared with you has come from a single source. One who has proven their reliability, and whose goals are similar to ours. He's given me assurances that there is a way to free the object of your infatuation, and to remove the Beast's power from play."

There was silence for a few minutes, while I considered her words. Assurances? There were no assurances among demons, not in anything. Still, I had been guided to this place by something so much bigger than me. How could I have been brought back, only to be led astray?

"Fine. What's your offer?"

Elyse smiled. Was I making a mistake even considering this? "A partnership. You get to use my body to help save the diuscrucis. I get to return the power of the Beast to where it belongs and make things right again. We both get to stop Joe from polluting the world with creatures that shouldn't be, and Gervais from claiming power that isn't his."

Stopping Joe was one thing. Gervais was a different monster altogether. One that came with an equally powerful slave. "Do you have a plan to defeat the archfiend?"

"Not defeat, no. A different plan."