Echoes of the Past

Chapter Seven

Through the portal that led to my uncle’s quarters, Karra and I were in Hell just a short while after we were dressed. She was excited to go, the tome and case intriguing her and driving her into a frenzy of curious energy. While I was interested, too, it was more of a how will this save my ass? kind of adventure. Unless the book was the Kama Sutra of the Otherverse, and I didn’t think it was-there weren’t any pictures-it was like lugging around an old textbook. Sure, that kind of thing was useful when you needed to pass a test, but it sat in the closet collecting dust, otherwise.

“Why are you so riled up?” I asked.

She grinned as we wound our way through Lucifer’s chambers. “The idea of something beyond our existence fascinates me. It’s what drew me to necromancy-among other things.” Karra’s smile flickered for an instant, likely remembering her quest to reanimate her father, Longinus-the Anti-Christ-and the cause of his death: my uncle, whose chambers we were now roaming. A second later the smile was back. “I’d love to see what else God deigned to create.”

“Preferably dead and under a microscope.” The very last thing I wanted was an army of Hasstor-like beings invading Earth and giving her a firsthand glimpse of alien life. I shivered as I recalled Hasstor’s squirmy appendage. It gave the term violation a whole new meaning.

As we passed the corridor that led to the God-proof room, I waved Karra on ahead. “I need to stash this somewhere, and it’s probably safest if you don’t know where it is. I can pull it out later for a closer look.”

“You’re still talking about the book, right?”

“Mostly.”

She laughed and shooed me off. “I’ll be down the hall.”

Once she was, I made my way to the only room in existence-as far as I knew-that no one, to include God, could see or send their senses into from the outside. A gift to Lucifer from God himself, it was the supernatural equivalent to a super powered safe room. Once inside, I found a good spot to hide the tome and made my way back to Karra. She stood at the entrance to the room where Asmoday had been murdered. I had the dread fiends open the place back up afterward, seeing no point in keeping it sealed since it wasn’t being used as a prison cell.

“You feel better now that you’ve done your manly duty and protected me from the mean old book?”

“As a matter of fact, yes, and please stop impugning what little bit of my manhood I have left.”

She laughed and followed me inside as I pretended to pout. She was only joking, seeing how she was the more powerful of us, but she was right on the truth. I was trying to protect her. Lucifer hadn’t passed on anything about the book or what its significance was. Who knew what it was meant for or who would be scrambling to get their hands on it? I sure didn’t, but it didn’t take a genius to realize he wouldn’t have me stashing it in the God-proof room if he wanted it to be found. That was a pretty good indication someone would have cause to look for it. There was no way I wanted Karra in the middle of any more of Lucifer’s bullshit.

She glanced around the room and raised her hands after peeking into the side chamber. “Where’s it at?”

I went over to the bed and patted the mattress.

“Really? Do you think I’m that easy?”

“A guy can only hope.” I grinned and tossed the bed aside, revealing the hole that had been dug beneath it. “Follow me.” I hopped down inside, and Karra dropped beside me a moment later.

As we made our way through the tunnel, which led to the case chamber, I could hear Karra snorting behind me. “If this is your idea of a good time, I’m going to have to reassess our relationship, buddy.”

The stench of dread fiends was in the air. The room before the chamber was filled with thousands of them, all awaiting orders. It made for a horrific cloud of funk, but you couldn’t find a better guard dog to protect your valuables. They didn’t chew up your furniture or shit on the rug…unless you’re into that kind of stuff.

“Once we’re through the next chamber, the stink will taper off.” I heard her laugh and mumble something under her breath. I could only assume it was a joke about men and their penchant for fun smells.

Inside the massive fiend room, I waved the creatures aside and they parted like a brown and stinky Red Sea. Moses would be so jealous. Once they were out of the way, I headed for the room that contained the case. As soon as we walked inside, flares sprung to life along the walls, illuminating the room with magical light. Karra gasped. Fortunately I’d been right about the smell dying down.

The walls had been carved into the shape of a pentagram, sharp corners jutting inward and then back out, giving the chamber a very claustrophobic feeling. It made you want to get to the middle quickly to avoid being impaled on the walls.

In the center sat the case, shards of warded glass still on the ground. I hadn’t instructed the fiends to clean that up, because there was no telling what kind of latent magic might still be embedded into the glass. It was better to leave it alone rather than risk unleashing something.

The hole in the wall, where the case’s guest had tunneled its way out, was something more mundane. The fiends had filled that, and I’d posted a couple dozen of them on the other side, just in case the thing wanted to come back. It worried me the dread fiends hadn’t ripped the guy-for lack of a better word-apart when he killed Asmoday. I hoped he’d just avoided the creatures somehow and didn’t have the means to make them obey him. It had been a surprise to learn they would listen to me, so there was no telling who else they took orders from. I wasn’t completely happy with the illusion of safety, but it’d have to do.

Karra went to the case and examined it. I watched her as she did, her eyes growing wider at every turn. Smartly, she avoided the pile of broken glass as she circled.

“This is amazing. The script is so fluid, so perfect. Whatever was in here must be unbelievably powerful to have escaped.”

Yeah, that’s what I wanted to hear. “You understand any of the gibberish.”

She shook her head. “Only that it was used to lock something inside, but you already knew that.” She ran her hand along one of the intact panes. “It’s two problems in one. I’ve no clue what language it’s written in, so not knowing that screws me out of understanding the manner in which the spell is being applied.”

“So, it’s still a mystery,” I mumbled. “Maybe Lucifer has some information stashed somewhere that sheds a little light on his ex-trophy.” A bit frustrated, I headed toward the fiend room. Karra followed me after a moment, clearly reluctant to leave the case.

Once we were back in my uncle’s private chambers, we split off and headed to different sides. I’d been in here a bunch of times recently, but I’d never really torn the place apart looking for anything. I’d always felt it was some kind of violation of my uncle’s private space to be digging through it all. Now, having learned about his efforts to keep me and Karra apart-and his lies to me-that feeling was long gone; dead and buried. It was one thing to play errand boy and stash the book he’d sent, but it was another to believe his world was sacrosanct any more. If hiding the tome helped the Earth, I was all for it, but I wasn’t gonna worry about his feelings when it came to me rifling his shit. Karra didn’t care to begin with.

She was perusing the shelves across the room, pulling each book off and shaking it out, then dropping it before moving on to the next. Normally, I’d have said something, but I had the fiends to clean up the mess. If trashing Lucifer’s chambers made her feel better about all the crap he put her through, then I was all for it.

I went to work.

Hours later, I’d found squat to do with the case or the strange language, and absolutely nothing about any dimensions beyond ours. My eyes blurred and my back throbbed. I fell back into a pile of scattered papers and growled. The beer I’d missed out on earlier was calling my name.

I listened to the carnage Karra was creating for a while, and it took me a minute to realize she’d gone silent. Thinking she might have moved on to another room, this one being our third, I rolled my head and looked for her. She was standing stiffly by a hefty pile of tossed books. A small leather case was in her hand. She peered inside it with a fierce intensity, her fingers spreading it open. I noticed her hand trembled.

“What is it?”

“You need to see this, Frankie.”

I got to my feet and went over with slow, deliberate steps. Something in her voice told me I didn’t want to rush; I didn’t want to know what she found. When I got there, she let out a loud sigh and took me by the arm. She wouldn’t hand me the case.

“What is it?” I repeated, and she ignored me again, guiding me to the bed. I knew right then it was bad news. No woman in her right mind would lead me to a bed if she wasn’t about to tell me something that would kill my libido.

I dropped on the mattress and Karra kneeled down before me, handing me the case, at last. She stared into my eyes, hands on my calves, rubbing them gently, almost unconsciously. Whatever she’d found had to be horrific for her to cling to me as though I’d fall apart. She swallowed hard, and I couldn’t bring myself to take my eyes off her, as if I could will away whatever she found and chase away the worry that had so infected her expression. At last, I looked to the case in my shaking hands and pulled out what was inside.

It was old parchment: letters of some kind. Written in faded ink, the writing was plain, lacking confidence, but it had the graceful line of a woman’s hand. It struck me as familiar, but I couldn’t imagine how. I read the first line:

Dearest Lucifer,

I have missed you these past moons, and worry for your safety. I pray you are well.

Still unsure what Karra had read to worry her so much, I continued on, skimming the missive through squinted eyes. It read as a love letter, though the woman appeared to have no idea who my uncle truly was. The line about her praying for him was absurd. It made it obvious the writer was human.

I have seen no sign of Arol since our abrupt parting.

A sudden tremble shook my hands, my fingers clenching and nearly tearing the page in half. Arol was Lucifer’s brother; my father. His name hadn’t passed my lips in nearly five hundred years. Karra tightened her grip on my legs, but I barely noticed, my eyes devouring the words before me. Should you encounter him, I beg you do not tell him of us, for it would only enrage him beyond control. The child grows strong within me, and I would not have it without its father. This is the only request I would ask of you, fair Lucifer. Return to me soon, my love. Charlotte

My heart went still in my chest, the papers slipping from numb fingers and fluttering to the floor.

My love. Charlotte.

Darkness fluttered before my eyes and I fell back onto the bed, staring up at the carved stone ceiling. My head spun as a churning sickness welled inside me. Had Azrael been telling the truth?

Charlotte.

The name repeated inside my thoughts, circling inside my brain like a vulture, swooping over and over to tear away tiny pieces of my sanity.

My love. Charlotte.

The bed shifted, and I felt Karra’s warm breath on my cheek. She spoke to me, but I couldn’t understand her, the words muffled and unclear. The only thing that mattered right then was the name- Charlotte — and what these letters meant.

They were written by my mother.

Stiff fingers wiped the tears from my cheeks I hadn’t known I’d shed until I felt their warm wetness smeared across my face. Karra cradled me as confusion crashed over in tsunami waves, battering my memories and washing away the lies that had collected on the shore of my life.

There was so much I didn’t know, so much I was raised to believe; so many lies fed to me. Just as the rest of the Demonarch had always wondered what Lucifer saw in me, I, too, had always wondered. Here before me, in the papers scattered across the floor, was the answer.

For all that Lucifer had hidden from me, this was by far the worst violation of the trust I placed in him. Bile filled my throat as the pieces fell into place, fury burning away my confusion. I sat up in a rush, Karra clinging to me to keep me on the bed.

“Lucifer had an affair with my mother and had gotten her pregnant. He stole her away from my father.” I pulled away and got to my feet. Karra jumped up beside me, sympathy etched across her face. She had understood what the letters meant when she stumbled across them. “My mother was killed because she was carrying my uncle’s child. No matter who killed her… Lucifer caused her death!”

Blinded by the realization, I shrugged away from Karra and ran for the nearest of Lucifer’s thing. She let me go. At the bookshelves, my fists flung loose of their own volition, smashing into the shelves. Splinters of wood and the books we hadn’t yet rifled went flying, torn pages filling the air with a confetti rain. Continuing around the room, I destroyed everything in my path. Marble statues and priceless works of art exploded in my wake. I felt my fingers snapping like twigs against the cold stone of the monuments, but I didn’t care. I wanted to hurt; needed to.

Blood splattered my face as I pounded another statue into dust, droplets landing in my mouth and stinging my eyes. The coppery taste on my tongue riled my senses as I reared back to strike another blow.

“Rough day?”

I spun around at the sound of the calm voice, and growled. Baalth stood in the doorway looking like he’d just come back from an island vacation. Dressed in his customary suit and tie, his skin was tanned and his black hair and goatee were immaculate. There was no sign of his recent battles with the power he’d stolen from Glorius.

For some reason, seeing him so rested and at peace with his personal demons only infuriated me more. “Fuck you!” I scooped up the letters and stormed over to Baalth, throwing them in his face. Blood soaked into the paper and splattered across Baalth’s expensive suit.

He stared at me without flinching as the letters fluttered to the floor. A shadowy darkness swirled in his eyes. “I suggest you watch your mouth, Frank.” His voice was quiet, a gentle breeze. It only pissed me off more.

“Fuck you, fuck you, and fuck you! You knew!” I shouted, poking him the chest to punctuate every word.

I didn’t even see him move.

Something slammed into my chest and sent me hurtling across the room. I crashed into the bed frame, the thick exotic wood snapping into tinder with the force. My skull smacked into the wall behind it, its solidness stopping my momentum with a bone-jarring thump. Karra was at my side immediately. She was a blur of movement and sound, my brain rattled into near incoherence.

“Don’t ever presume to touch me again, Triggaltheron.” The steel of Baalth’s voice cut through the clutter in my head.

I felt Karra stiffen and move to stand, but I managed enough presence of mind to grab hold of her wrist. “No.” My voice sounded like brittle glass. She tensed against my grasp but didn’t break away despite how easy it would have been.

A shadow hovered over me and I felt the wash of Baalth’s power as though I were being stung by a million wasps. “I don’t know what’s caused you to be so foolish, Frank, but I will not entertain such blatant disrespect. Not now, not ever.”

“You were Lucifer’s lieutenant,” I heard Karra tell him through the fog in my head. “You had to know what was going on between Lucifer and Frank’s mother.”

“And you would be Longinus’ daughter, I presume. I can smell his stink on you,” Baalth answered. I felt Karra’s rage and tightened my grip. “What I know is no concern of yours. If Frank wants to have a civil discussion, he knows how to find me. Until that time, I can’t be bothered with either of you.”

I opened my eyes just in time to see Baalth wave his hand, tracers of magic at his fingertips. Then we were gone.