Redemption Ch. 13

Sensations assailed his shivering body. The stench of stagnant water fouled his sense of smell. His eyes stung and the sounds of cicadas, crickets, and frogs chirping away made him realize he'd fallen through a hidden portal.

Wiping the muck out of his eyes, he looked around, sunlight immediately blinding him. He coughed again and reached out to touch the slimy side of the well he was in.

Shaking the water out of his face, he concentrated on lifting himself out from within the well. The burst of energy emanating from him peeled the water from his body as he lifted toward the heat of the sun.

A field of thick, yellowed grass greeted his ascent out of the narrow well. A waft of hot air played in his tangled locks as he took in his surroundings.

Lucien's eyes narrowed as he finally allowed his feet to touch the ground.

There was an old gate in front of him, just a few paces away visible through the trees. They were wide, rusted, and ornately decorated with the letters B and M wrought into each side. B...M

Blackthorn Mansion or Malvano Black.

A shudder rolled through him.

The feel of brittle grass on the soles of his feet had him looking down. His eyes snagged on what he wore instead. A threadbare, white gown hung almost in shreds off his broad shoulders. His feet were bare, and claws no longer decorated his fingertips.

The grass whispered against his legs. It was waist high, yellowed, and brittle from lack of moisture. The sun baked his head, and a little drop of sweat made its way down his back. Lucien listened closely to the silence of death all around him. The trees were black, knotted bare limbs twisting up to the cloudless sky. The hot breeze blew strands of his hair across his face as he blinked at the desolation around him.

Why am I here?—he thought to himself.

He turned slowly and looked over to where the mansion should have been standing.

To the normal observer, this was just an empty lot with an enormous sinkhole.

Whispering under his breath, he removed the spell that kept the old house hidden from view.

The sinkhole churned as the house rose from its bowels. Thick, thorny branches covered most of it. How much time had gone by? Was this a dream? Would he find the rotting corpse of his stepfather still inside?

Lucien looked down at himself and grimaced at the garment barely covering him. Despite being naked underneath, he tore the offending thing off, and slammed it to the ground.

Ancient words spilled from his lips, words of hate and loathing. The white robe lifted up slowly, and burst into flames. The white-hot fire rendered the garment to dust.

Lucien watched the ashes float away as he panted from rage.

Clenching his jaw, he snapped his gaze back to the house and stalked toward it. It was once a regal monstrosity of deep red brick and black wrought iron. The brick was beginning to crumble with age and the iron had rusted into near nothingness.

Thorns crisscrossed the stone walkway, but with a wave of his hand, a path opened up for his bare feet. The sound of creaking, snapping, crackling branches preceded him until he stood before the large, double doors of Blackhorn.

The wind moaned around him. He hoped it was Malvano's wretched soul screaming for release from Hell. The doors creaked open and the cold air from within the mansion brought with it the stench of death.

Tipping his nose higher, Lucien entered. Last time he'd stood in this foyer, he'd held Lucifer's sword in his left hand and a smaller dagger dripping with Malvano's blood in his right. The mosaic floor no longer shone like glass and the chandelier hanging overhead from the vaulted ceiling was swathed in dusty white cobwebs. The webbing also covered the grand staircase, dimly lit by light filtering through the vine-covered stained glass window on the second floor landing.

Narrowing his eyes, he turned left and entered the great room, cobwebs blasting away to nothingness as he approached, and the heavy black doors swinging open for him. The grand piano still stood in the corner, its once gleaming black surface now buried under layers of filth. The rich velvet couches were also covered in a thick layer of dust, making the rich burgundy material look faded and worn. What little sunlight managed to penetrate the grimy mildew covered windows made the floating dust sparkle like pixie dust. Regardless, Lucien knew very well he was in no enchanted castle, but rather a cursed one...one he'd cursed himself many years ago.

With determined steps, he veered right and walked into the study.

Everything was as he remembered. To his left was a large ornately carved desk with a cobweb covered leather chair behind it. A wall of shelves was the desk's backdrop, full of expensive tomes, some rare first editions...all in various states of rot. To his right was a glass wall that showed the gardens, fountains, and pool, devoid of water but full of debris.

None of that held his attention. His eyes were riveted to the enormous fireplace before him and the wingchair before it.

Slowly he approached, circling until he stood before the remains of his stepfather. There was nothing left, just tattered remains of his burgundy robe and slippers. The glass of cognac he'd been drinking still lay on its side on the dusty rug.

The memories were still clear as if it happened yesterday. It had been Lucien's eighteenth birthday. Malvano had celebrated it by whipping him to the brink of death and then having his cult friends form a line to sodomize him on Malvano's brand new spanking bench, to which Lucien had been tied.

That night a devil appeared to him and gave him the opportunity to show his stepfather his appreciation. He slit the bastard's throat.

A soft whining sound drew his attention.

Chewie?

His stepfather had killed the puppy when Lucien was a little boy.

He ran his fingers through his long hair with a frown and waited. When the soft whining came again he took a step forward and out through the broken glass doors to the gardens.

He breathed deeply through his lips as his bare feet stepped on sharp pebbles. Using his telekinetic abilities, he parted the swaying grass, scanning the ground for any signs of his long lost dog.

It's just a dream. Just another fucking dream. This isn't real. Not real. Not...

He frowned when his feet sank into something warm and wet. He stared at the blood welling up between his toes. The stench of iron it gave off nauseated him. There was so much...too much. A sob lodged in his throat. Memories of Chewie's tender throat being slit crowded his mind. He blinked back the tears that threatened to spill.

"It's just a fucking dream, moron," he told himself through clenched teeth.

The breeze blew his hair over his face again. Some of it got in his mouth when he took another bracing gulp of air. Raking trembling fingers through his blond hair, he strode forward. Blood squished beneath his steps. He stopped abruptly when he came upon a blood-soaked foot. It lay on its side, pale white streaked in red. It was large foot, though not as big as his, and finely boned. Moving the grass apart, he found that foot attached to a leg. There was another pair of legs twined around it, with smaller daintier feet.

Lucien frowned, and knelt to get a closer look. Two bodies, naked and wrapped around each other. They looked as if they had been trying to protect one another.

His mind didn't want to believe what he was seeing. He'd left them behind...safe...locked in their apartment. Devon had said that the others would protect them.

He reached for them, the tips of his fingers barely within reach of what looked like Boy's bent leg. Just as the vision he'd once had came crashing into his mind, brutal fingers gripped his hair, yanking his head back painfully. The sun blinded him.

"Luke, my son," said a low rasping voice behind him.

*******

His swords were in his hands without thinking about it. As he pulled them from the pockets of glamour behind him, he scissored them up, severing the hand that gripped his hair.

The unholy roar that followed rang out as Lucien spun. His footing slipped but he was already levitating, rising a few feet above the horrendous sight of his stepfather's rotting body.

The stench was almost overpowering. Lucien wasn't sure how Malvano stood when he was nothing more that paper thin, grayish green skin over ash colored bones. His eye sockets held what once might have been eyeballs, but were shriveled black prunes. The stump where his hand once was attached oozed black liquids and maggots.

Lucien sneered down at him, his eyes taking in the long white hair, dried and brittle. Patches of skin were missing showing his mummified innards. Pleasure filled Lucien upon seeing that the man's dick had rotted away and all he had left as an outward sign of once having been a man was one shriveled nut.

Malvano inhaled air through the tattered wound at his neck.

"Vile bastard," he rasped.

Lucien raised his hand, hellfire already glowing in his palm. With every ounce of hatred he felt inside, he hurled the fireball at the walking corpse.

Malvano shrieked as the flames consumed him.

To Lucien's horror the grass caught flame as well.

He zipped down to Boy and Girl, even as Malvano began to laugh.

"You can't kill me. I've been cursed, and you can't save them both." The burning corpse shambled closer, clawed hand reaching out. "I'll devour them, eat their tender flesh off their lovely bodies, dine on their innards."

Lucien gripped Girl, cursing as she slipped from his grasp. They were both covered in blood, but as far as he could tell, they were alive, just unconscious.

Devon appeared, swooping down from the sky, the female reaper close behind him.

Lucien gathered Girl in his arms as Devon sent a blast of power into the advancing corpse. The fire extinguished from the blast before Devon's booted feet touched the ground. Malvano's body flew through the air, crashing through the stained glass window that was over the main stairwell in the entry.

Girl stirred, her eyes blinking open.

"Baby, what happened?" Lucien asked smoothing a few strands of her dark hair from her cheek.

Her face was devoid of color, her lips almost white. She stared at him blankly for a few seconds before moving with a swiftness that surprised Lucien.

Girl was on her knees over Boy just as Devon was rousing him also. She held a knife in her hand. The same knife he'd used to slit Malvano's throat.

Lucien screamed in stunned horror when she sank it into Boy's gut, ripping him open from pubic bone to bellybutton.

*******

She wanted to kill him. He didn't know why, but she did.

Boy managed to survive the nightmare of Lucien's eighteenth birthday experience, had felt the rage and hatred the man had felt when he'd discovered the truth of his origins, the sense of empowerment he'd felt wrapping his fingers around the hilt of Lucifer's sword. Boy had traversed the mirror Samael had shown him and was about to accept the bejeweled knife he held out to slit Malvano's throat. The man had tortured and brutalized Lucien. For that he deserved to die.

But it had been Girl's dainty hand snatching the knife away.

Her eyes looked fevered. "It's for your own good, Boy. I need to do this," she whispered. "I'm sorry."

The walls began to bleed, screams shook the house. Girl lunged at him and he tried to fight her off. Boy didn't want to hurt her, but she was so strong. Shock ripped through him when she hit him, trying to knock him to the ground. Boy had kicked out at her and took the opportunity to run when she fell back. He crashed through the glass French doors of the study they were in. The floor was bathed in blood and the ground outside the house was soaked in it.

The sky outside grew dark and the sound of Girl screaming in panic had him hesitating.

He turned to see her being attacked by large birds...no...not birds.

Devils. They were not very big, but there were thousands of them. The grabbed at her hair and lashed her with tails, and claws.

Despite her attempt to hurt him, he turned and ran to her aid. The creatures attacked him too. Trying to shield her with his body as the creatures whipped, and scratched them, he lost his footing and fell back. His head hitting something hard was the last thing he remembered until now.

Pain seared his gut, and he shrieked again as Girl ran the sharp blade up his stomach. Something wriggled inside him and he reacted by gripping Girl's throat.

Lucien was there, trying to yank her away, but Boy's fingers tightened around that frail throat until he was sure she couldn't breathe.

"He's possessed," a feminine voice said somewhere behind him.

Devon gripped his wrist. He finally released Girl when whatever was inside him felt as if it were trying to burrow up higher inside him.

Boy screamed, his hands going to the gapping slit on his belly. To his horror, he felt his intestines.

Devon gripped his hands and began speaking in a language he did not understand. His voice was thick and garbled, his eyes burning like hellfire.

Boy shrieked as pain became his world. His body bowed and his eyes sought out and implored Lucien.

Lucien was already there, sinking his hands inside him, pulling at the horrible pain, ripping it from inside him until Boy had no more energy, but to whimper as something was extracted from deep within him.

He watched in a daze as Lucien's ice-blue eyes darkened to pure black. His entire being crackled with power as he held a wriggling wormlike creature in his hands. It was about as big around as Boy's arm and about a foot long. The thing screeched, gnashing needle-like bloodied teeth.

It turned white in Lucien hands, its movements stopping just before Lucien crushed it into dust.

Boy closed his eyes and let oblivion claim him.

*******

Lucien felt cold inside, numb, as he watched Devon seal Boys gapping abdomen shut. Nothing but the bare hint of a pink line remained and the pool of blood they all sat in.

"You all have to leave here," the female reaper was saying, her voice tinged with anger.

Lucien pulled Boy into his embrace and stood. Looking back toward the mansion, he could see a shadow ambling closer to the broken doors of the study. Malvano.

He'd said he was cursed. Pure hatred filled Lucien's heart.

Clutching Boy's body to his chest, he spat the curse that once more had the ground trembling. The soil beneath Lucien's feet liquefied, swirling, pooling thick blood. From the corner of his eye, he saw Devon grip Girl and rise in the air.

From within the mansion, Malvano's tormented cry rasped out. He cursed Lucien, Lucifer, and the Divine One before the rasping noise was cut off as the large house sank back into the bowels of the Earth.

Devon opened another portal back to the courtyard of the building they lived at.

Guardian soldiers surrounded them. Thankfully, Lucien's clothes had been restored to him when they traversed the portal. Still, they were all covered in blood.

The guardian soldiers aimed pulse rifles at them.

"You're all under arrest," one of them called out. "Put the stolen battle pet down and step away."

Stolen?

Lucien stiffened and the soldiers pointed their rifles at his head.

"Lucien, do as they say," Devon said softly.

"Get us out of here," Lucien replied tersely.

"They'll shoot to kill if I try. And they've got the others."

I'm not letting them take Boy—Lucien projected into Devon's mind.

We can't afford to manifest anymore power before them. As it stands, I'm going to have a hell of a time explaining how we stepped through a portal.

This gig is over—Lucien growled into his mind again.

"Put the battle pet down and step away," the guardian soldier shouted again.

"Luke," Devon prompted.

Lucien looked around. They had Angel, Anniel, and the reapers handcuffed. The weredragons, Seth, Ashriel, and Rowie were not amongst them.

Lucien knew how to open portals, but Devon was right. By the time the portal shimmered open, the guardian soldiers would fire on them. They could incapacitate the weapons, but not many Master Guardians could do that. Their covers would be blown. Not that he cared, but, fuck, they were so close to blowing this whole thing open wide.

Reluctantly, and with utter care, Lucien bent slowly to release Boy on the chaise lounge to his left.

"I'll find you, baby," he whispered, watching as Boy's lashes twitched.

*******

Girl watched horrified as the guardian soldiers fired upon Devon and Lucien. From the second floor balcony, Angel screamed and tried to lunge forward, but she was held in place by one of the guardian soldiers.

Both Devon and Lucien fell to the ground, their bodies lit with blue power, twitching until they no longer moved.

The soldiers seized Girl, wrenching her arms behind her back.

Even as they cuffed her wrists, she kept trying to turn to look at the downed men. Neither moved.

Girl Rayne kept telling herself they couldn't be dead, but she, along with the others were hauled away to waiting transports. Devon and Lucien remained behind Angel continued to shriek and toss curses at them. Anniel sobbed, head down and the reapers filled out behind them, faces grim.

They were shoved roughly into separate transports and whisked away.

Girl felt panic rise. What happened to Lucien and Devon? What was going to happen to Boy? Where were they taking her?

The transport moved through the city flying in a vein of traffic that took them high above the skyscrapers. The cleared the edge of the city's metal platform and flew over the churning ocean.

Rayne closed her eyes and clamed herself. Lucien and Devon couldn't be dead. That was impossible with the amount of power she'd seen them both manifest.

Blinking her eyes back open, she saw the transport approach an enormous fort-like building sitting out in the middle of the violent sea.

Pulse canons, similar to the ones on Rhylos, were mounted all around the top of the towering monstrocity.

The transport dipped and approached one of the many vents in the lower part of the tower.

The landed within a vast hangar. The doors to the transport opened and two guards stood with weapons pointed at her. They wore the usual black flight suits with full headgear and black glass shield covering their faces.

"Get out," the one to her right ordered. A female.

Rayne was still in her sleep shirt from the night before and covered in muck and dried blood. Carefully, she stepped out of the transport. The female guard gestured for her to walk.

They escorted her out of the large hangar. Girl Rayne kept trying to see if she could see any of the others, but the two guards flanking her blocked her view. They walked a few steps and then boarded a smaller transport. Girl Rayne's cuffs jerked back, sticking to the thick metal pole in the middle of the transport.

Her two guards raised their face shields. A Gruesh female and a Minino male faced her with stern frowns. Neither uttered a word as the transport slid silently through tube-like corridors.

Girl Rayne looked from the bright blue face of the Gruesh to the furred feline face of the Minino. His golden eyes narrowed and he growled within his chest.

Rayne dropped her eyes to gaze at her bare feet.

"What are you, female?" the Gruesh question with a derisive sneer to her voice.

When Rayne remained silent, the girl snickered. "She's probably their little fuck toy. They sure like to play messy."

The girl reached out and lifted the edge of her sleep shirt, baring Rayne's pussy.

The guards snorted in laughter before the female guard stepped back, letting Rayne's dirty sleep shirt fall back into place.

They entered a brightly lit chamber where Girl was once more pushed out and made to stand in the center of a glowing circle. She was being scanned.