Aftermath (21 page)

“What…is…this?” He managed to mumble through the flood of gore that spilled from his mouth. Marduk dropped to his knees and Gabriel yanked the blade free, a gush of blood and brains spilling down the back of his neck.

“Just a more reasonable solution to the problem of conquering Heaven,” Gabriel answered, handing the dagger back to Morgan. She grinned and slit Abaddon’s throat. “I’m not much for sharing.”

A lightning bolt of reason struck me and it all made sense right then.

Acting on instinct I triggered my magic and reached out with a fury. Gabriel felt me coming and spun away, fearing attack, but it wasn’t him I’d aimed for.

My magic settled over Marduk’s skull like a giant bicycle helmet, beams of energy running from his throat all the way around to the back of his head where his wound gushed. I snapped my fingers and the beams converged, slicing his head into slivers in an instant.

“
Nooooooo,
” Gabriel screamed as he recognized what I’d done. He stumbled toward me, fists clenched but I held my ground. Outside of the interstice my powers dwarfed his. And the fact that I’d just stolen Marduk’s soul transfer from him sealed the deal, my blow the one that actually killed the old god. All I needed to do was wait for it to kick in and I’d be the most powerful being in our universe.

Morgan le Fay had seen what I’d done too. Dagger in hand, she dashed into the murk and disappeared without saying a word or bothering to look back at the angel she’d abandoned. Gabriel fell to his knees and screamed, at me, at her, at the sky, at pretty much everything.

“Not quite how you planned it, huh?”

I started forward at a slow gait, waiting for the transfer to hit me only to realize that it should have done so already. My senses slipped loose and reached out to Marduk as the last of him faded away, draining into oblivion with an ethereal sigh. Still, there was nothing.

And I started to laugh.

It just spilled out of me, a raucous, rough chuckle that exploded into a wild fit of laughter. Tears spilled down my cheeks as I laughed so loud as to tune out Gabriel’s screeching. I laughed until my chest hurt and my jaw ached, and still I laughed some more. It went on until Gabriel slapped me across the face.

“Shut up!”

I stumbled back, not out of pain, but because I’d laughed myself unstable. He came at me again and I snatched him by the neck and squeezed, lifting him off his feet, and I kept on.

“Why are you laughing?” he growled, barely getting the question out around my grip. I tossed him aside and he landed against the heap of Marduk’s body.

It took me a few more minutes to catch my breath and regain my composure, Gabriel glaring at me the entire time. Finally, when I had myself under control, I walked over to him, Ronald McDonald smile in place.

“Damn you, Triggaltheron,” he said, not bothering to get up. “Damn you.”

Too late for all that.

“I just realized why God locked Marduk and the others away in the interstice rather than simply killing them,” I said, leaning down so I was in the archangel’s face. “It’s because He hadn’t figured out
how
to kill them and absorb their energies.” A quiet chuckle started up again at the expression on Gabriel’s face as my words registered. “They weren’t His creation, weren’t part of His whole like the rest of us; weren’t connected to the system He’d created.”

Gabriel sunk against the body, the anger on his face sliding away to be replaced by sadness. A single tear spilled silver down his cheek.

“Your plan failed because you couldn’t steal Marduk’s power,” I told him, rubbing a little metaphorical salt into the wound by gesturing to the now dead god. “And to top it off you killed your only chance at revenging yourself against Heaven.”

He sighed, the defeat plain on his face, chin drooped damn near to his chest. “I failed,” he mumbled. “I wonder what Metatron will think.”

“Don’t worry, he won’t think anything,” I answered. Gabriel looked up at me, eyes narrowing. “He’s never gonna know what happened here today.”

“What…? What do you intend?”

“Nothing much. Yet,” I said, letting my power drift loose so it prickled his skin. “Tell me where Mike is.”

He met my eyes and drew in a deep, slow breath, dragging it out. “The telepath?” As if he didn’t know who he was. The vaguest of smiles crept to his lips. “You want him back?” He saw the opportunity to bargain and leapt on it.

“Of course I do. He’s a friend. Now tell me where he is before I start hacking pieces of your ass off until you crack and tell me anyway. Actually, I’m kind of hoping you don’t.”

He stared at me a moment and shook his head. “Let us be honest with one another. You don’t intend to let me live no matter what I do, isn’t that right, Triggaltheron?”

I didn’t respond.

“There it is, the truth in silence,” he said. “Then no, I’m sorry, but I won’t be telling you where to find your friend no matter what you do to me. Consider this my last
gift
to you, son of Lucifer.” He lifted his chin, his pride suddenly back in place.

I believed he meant what he said so I drove two spears of energy through his chest without saying another word.

He
hurked
and went rigid as the spears widened, shearing through his insides until the energy ran from his crotch to his throat. I then whipped my arms out to my sides, ripping Gabriel in half and sending his two parts flopping into the mist of Limbo a dozen yards apart, blood showering me.

My magic dispersed as his body settled and I dusted my hands off and spun about, returning to the portal. A moment later I was back in the interstice, standing beside the mosaic as my battered companions tromped up the stairs. I plucked the cipher from the device and dropped it in the hole that corresponded to Earth, willing it to open the proper portal.

“Everyone okay?” I asked as the gateway shifted with flashes of red and green and blocked their view of what lay beyond.

Rahim nodded. He’d been shot in the arm and Rachelle clung to him, but he didn’t look that bad off. Rala hung close to him on the other side. Thud carried Kit in his arms. She looked like hell but she was breathing and semi-conscious. Shaw’s face was one big bruise, blues and blacks distorting the paleness, but everyone else appeared pretty hale considering what they’d been through.

“The giant?”

“Taking a dirt nap,” Thud answered, sneering all the while and looking down at the woman he cradled carefully. I think he had a thing for her.

Lance strode up to me as the portal split the sky behind us, opening the way home. He glanced at the blood that coated me.

“Everything work out on your end?” he asked.

“Far better than expected.”

“Marduk?”

I shook my head. “He and Gabriel are gone.” I didn’t offer any details. They didn’t ask.

“And Morgan?”

“Trapped in Limbo again, I’m afraid. She ran off while I was busy, carrying a weapon capable of taking out a god. We might want to go hunting when things settle a bit.”

He nodded. “And I imagine you have a story to tell, my friend.”

“One day,” I said. “Right now I need shower and a good stiff drink, not necessarily in that order.”

Epilogue

Abigail chittered in my lap, farting in time with Chatterbox’s howling rendition of Iron Maiden’s “Hallowed be thy Name.” She swayed back and forth in my hands, doing her best imitation of dancing, hands clapping.

“You sure about this?” Scarlett asked, and I had a raging sense of déjà vu.

“Didn’t we already do this?”

Katon chuckled and nodded.

“Yeah I’m sure,” I answered, leaning in to give Abby a big, sloppy kiss before handing her over to Scarlett once more. “I just needed a few minutes with her and the big lump o’ maggots here.” I reached down and ruffled CB’s hair, which had been washed and conditioned, to my surprise. “You smell like a whore, dude.”

“
Whoore.
” He grinned, a new set of false teeth gleaming in his mouth.

“It wasn’t a compliment.” That didn’t stop him from smiling. It was creepy.

“Where will you go this time?” Katon asked.

“I’m not sure, but I have some explaining to do to the government and a rebellion to quash before I feel comfortable bringing Abby back into my life. As long as she’s around me she’s in danger, and I can’t have that.”

“We’ll be here if you need us,” Katon held out his hand and I took it.

“Thank you,” I said, biting my lip, wanting to say more. Rahim had told me not to tell them anything about Mike being missing. He didn’t want Katon and Scarlett worrying, preferring they remain oblivious while playing happy homemakers. I agreed that was best.

Scarlett handed Abigail to the enforcer once we broke the handshake and she gave me a big hug; an honest to goodness hug that didn’t involve kneeing me in the nuts afterwards. “Be safe, Frank. I don’t say this often but I would be sad if you died.” She pulled back smiling. “I wouldn’t have anyone to make fun of if you did.”

“Feeling the love, cuz.”

I shook my head and said my goodbyes once more and headed out the door to “These Boots,” the Megadeth version.

Good old Chatterbox. I could always count on him to set the mood.

Keep reading for urban spy fiction from my new series, Clandestine Daze.

Chapter One of Influx – Clandestine Daze 1

How long does it take to become comfortable in another man’s skin?

I wish I knew.

Six months had passed since I put the gun to Theodor Crane’s head and became him, but my stolen life hadn’t gotten any easier. In fact it had only become more complex, harder to manage. I wasn’t just Theodor: husband, father, and head of corporate security for Drake Advanced Technologies, my inherited father-in-law’s company. I was also me: infiltrator, spy, murderer, and most importantly, at the moment, it seemed, Jace’s bitch.

The latter role landed me in the middle of nowhere. The hours crawled by while I lurked outside the Rahldun Quay, the local portal that separated the dimension of Aellisar from Earth.

The city of Dallas illuminated the late night skyline with an eerie shimmer. It reminded me just how far from civilization I was. With the rhythmic
chirp
of crickets to keep me company I’d taken to leaning against the thick growths of creosote bushes in some masochistic attempt to get comfortable. The scent of stale moisture wafted from the plants with my every motion. It tickled my nose, and the leaves made me itch where the breeze brushed them against my skin. Only the
balaclava I’d worn kept me from sneezing. It held just enough of the scent at bay. Conversely, it also held the sweltering heat inside.

Sleep blurred the edges of my vision and yawns came in waves, each one forcing me to blink away a waterfall of tears that only added to the moisture soaking the mask. I’d begun to doubt Jace’s intel a few hours before dawn, and had convinced myself it was time to head home when tingles played hopscotch down my spine. The hair at the back of my neck stood at attention while wisps of energy charged the air. I sensed the quay activate and all thoughts of sleep were washed away in a surge of adrenaline.

I rolled to my knees and hunkered down, gripping the stock of my Mossberg while staring through the bushes. A hazy worm of dancing light rent the air over the nearby clearing I’d been watching. It grew brighter as the quay widened, flickers of electricity gnawing at the mystical barrier like a swarm of glowing termites devouring the space between worlds.

After a short moment, my breath held tight in cigarette-deprived lungs—damn Theodor and his lack of good habits—the portal settled into place, a gaping maw of darkness joining two planes of existence. Voices drifted through the opening. Two men appeared from its mouth, backlit by its gleam. They walked as though they were out for a morning stroll rather than sneaking through a secure quay monitored by representatives of a dozen Ael nations, all sworn to protect its integrity. My stomach soured at seeing them so casual.

I hated when Jace was right. It happened too damn often.

“You’ll be on your way soon,” the first man said as he pulled a cell phone from his pocket and initiated a call. The bluish light cast his face in sharp relief.

He was as average as a man can be. Not quite six feet, he had sandy-brown hair that was a little shaggy, and plain features, which appeared to place him in his mid to late thirties. He wore a loose shirt that buttoned up the middle and hid his build. It was the same with his pants: plain blue jeans that bunched at the ankles over a pair of scuffed cowboy boots. Even his voice came across as normal, no hint of an accent or defining characteristic that might offer up a clue as to what nation in Aellisar he called home.

The second guy just nodded to the first, not bothering to say anything as though he knew someone was listening in. A little taller than his companion, his head was shaved bald and he wore his beard cropped close, no shimmer of gray to be seen in the black from where I hunched. He was broader of shoulder than the first, but he wore a dark hoodie that almost swallowed him, making it hard to define his size, just like his pal, giving away no clue as to his true nature. His hands were stuffed deep in his hoodie pockets, his face swallowed in the shadows created by the portal.

Still, for all their commonness, both lit up in my second sight, their auras confirming them as Aels. It was something I was grateful to be able to determine.

Ever since the Aels had lived on Earth, they’d taken to wearing their human forms, finding them more convenient regarding inter-personal interaction. It had even become the common habit in Aellisar to avoid aggression between the various Ael races which, until they’d been forced from Earth, had been far less cooperative with each other.

“They’re on their way,” the first said a moment later, putting his phone away. He didn’t so much as glance over his shoulder at the still open quay, his confidence bordering on arrogance. The guy was certain that whoever had let him cross over wasn’t going to sell him out. Just thinking about how he’d bought that guarantee made my head spin.