“See ya on the other side,” he said, his voice echoing in my mind. Then I felt like I was choking, and I let my head fall back. The black cloud that had shoved itself into me all of those years ago came pouring out of my mouth, pooling in front of me until it was completely external. I watched as it flowed towards the big guy, whose eyes grew wide with shock. Kafrit hadn’t told him he was the host. Ulnyx poured in, and a few moments later he smiled.

  “I never thought I would get the chance to do this,” he said. It suddenly occurred to me that maybe we weren’t on as good of terms as I had thought.

  Ulnyx walked towards me, his eyes menacing. I grabbed Kafrit’s hand, to pull him away, because he was still chanting and he hadn’t noticed the Were. Ulnyx reached me, a long, sharp smile extending across his face.

  “Boo,” he said, then he started laughing.

  “Shut up,” I whispered, finding my voice hoarse.

  I felt the process starting again, Josette’s soul being unwrapped from my own once more.

  “Goodbye, Josette,” I said. “I love you.”

  “Goodbye, brother. I love you too. Good luck.”

  Her spirit was torn away from me, gathering into one mass of white light that slipped more easily from my body. She floated for a second above the table and then shot towards Sarah, circling around her, enveloping her in one final hug, bringing more tears and a smile to her daughter’s face. Then she spun around Izak.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

  I woke up an hour later, my head resting on the poker table, surrounded by my friends and family. Well, most of them. I had lost two today, and one that hurt more than all of the others combined. I tried not to think too much about it, because there was nothing good to come of it. She had made her choice, and we all had to live with it.

  I picked up my head.

  “Welcome back, meat,” Ulnyx said. His voice was strange to me, outside of my body and in the form of the large Russian.

  “You’re still here,” I said. I hadn’t been sure he would stick around once he was free.

  “I’m not missing this action,” he said.

  “Landon.” Charis’ voice. I looked at her, almost doing a double-take at the violet eyes that looked back at me. I wasn’t expecting that.

  “Your eyes,” I said. “They’re amazing.”

  She smiled. “Yours too.”

  I turned my head, looking for Sarah. She wasn’t there.

  “She’s out in the truck with Izak and Alichino,” Obi said. “She couldn’t stand being in here, once Josie was gone.”

  “Why is Alichino in the truck?” I asked.

  “He’s working on the Box,” Charis replied. “He’s making the modifications.”

  “How long?”

  “Not long.”

  “So, my friend, you are awake!” Kafrit stepped into the room, a huge grin on his face. “I told you I could do it, didn’t I?”

  “You did. I guess I owe you one.”

  “Yes. You will do well to remember.”

  “I’m sure you won’t let me forget.” I pushed myself to my feet, ignoring my body’s complaints. It felt weaker than I remembered, without the Were to help augment my strength. Other things felt more dull too; my hearing, my sense of smell. It was going to take some readjustment. I could still remember some of Josette’s fighting style at least. I had learned something by practicing it for five years.

  “Ulnyx,” I said.

  “What’s up, meat?”

  “I’m glad you’re willing to help me out. What about the rest of your pack?”

  “What about them?”

  I looked at him. “Think you can get them to Mumbai?”

  He scowled, and then nodded. “Better for them to die in a blaze of glory. I’ll have to go round them up myself. It’s going to take a few hours, and I need some help with the rifts.”

  We had two demons who could manage them. I needed Izak. I turned to Vilya. “I don’t know you that well yet, but-“

  “You know me better than most,” she said, interrupting. I had Charis’ memories, so in a way that was true. “Consider it done.We’re all on the same side, right now.”

  “I’ll stay on your side,” Ulnyx said, his face a little too much of a leer.

  “Watch yourself, Were,” Charis said. “You’re dealing with a daughter of Baal.”

  He laughed. “Even sexier,” he said. “Just warn me if I’m going too far, and you’re tempted to hellfire my balls off.”

  “This should be interesting,” Obi said.

  Vilya scowled at the Were.

  “Kafrit, can you spare an extra car?”

  He sighed. “You take advantage of my friendship, diuscrucis. There’s a Maybach in the garage out back. Pietr will drive you.”

  His remaining stooge pulled a set of keys from his pocket and started walking. Ulnyx and Vilya trailed behind.

  “Sorry,” I said to Charis once Vilya was gone. “I know you’re worried about her, but she’s in good, if not overly hormone-driven hands.”

  Charis nodded. “I understand the need. Besides, she can take care of herself. I forget that sometimes.”

  “Now what?” Melody asked. She was sitting next to Obi, her hand on his shoulder.

  “Back to the rift. As soon as Alichino finishes with the Box, we head to Mumbai.”

  “So, we have the pure energy, and we’ll have the Box soon enough,” Charis said, “but the Beast is still trapped, isn’t he? Which means we need to get back to his original prison to try to catch him again.”

  “The prison we don’t know how to find,” I said. “We need to talk to Dante. He got us out of there, he must know how to get back.”

  “Sounds like a great plan,” Obi said. He stood and headed for the door. “Let’s do it from the truck. I’ll drive, you meditate; or whatever it is you do.”

  I couldn’t argue with that. “Kafrit, do you have a cell?”

  He reached into a pocket and pulled out a gold-plated smartphone. “What kind of respectable businessman would I be if I didn’t?”

  I took it from him, and put in my own phone number. “I can’t guarantee how long this number will work for, but I have a feeling you’ll be able to find me, when you’re ready.”

  He laughed, and wrapped me in a hug. “Good luck, my friend,” he said. “Don’t think dying will get you out of our bargain.”

  Most times, I would have thought it could. With Kafrit, I wasn’t too sure. I left the room without another word.

  We piled into the UPS truck. Alichino was tucked into the back corner, hunched so far over the Box I couldn’t see what he was doing to it. Sarah was sitting at the opposite corner with Izak, her head resting in his lap while she slept. The demon looked pained, and he didn’t acknowledge us when we joined him in the rear.

  Obi and Melody rode up front, while Charis and I took one of the free corners. We sat down with our shoulders pressed together. Obi started the engine, and got us on the move.

  “Hang in there, Landon,” Charis said, nothing but warmth in her eyes.

  “You too,” I replied, taking her hand in my own. “Let’s go find Dante.”

  I closed my eyes, focusing on the trickle of power coming through from Purgatory and following it back once more. The power looked and felt strange to me, no longer hued with the energy of the Were and the angel, and I felt a pang of sadness at the thought. Time seemed to stop, and I stepped forward out of my body, into a world so much like our own, but so much different. Charis was standing next to me.

  She reached out and took my hand. A thought, and we were at Dante’s ‘house’, but I knew right away he wasn’t there.

  “The library,” I said. We were there in a blink.

  Marble columns and lots of books and scrolls. That was the only way to describe the library. It was sixty feet high from floor to roof, with a tremendous dome in the center that made it look even more massive. There were a number of souls inside, some working returning items to the shelves, others reading, and a few just standing amidst the books, as if they didn’t know how they should be spending their eternity.

  We found Dante amidst his own pile of tomes, having amassed enough of them that he was using a larger stack as a stool to sit on. He was already looking at us when we approached. He didn’t look happy.

  “Millions of books,” he said. “Millions, and I have found nothing but a single scrap of paper. I did go to see an acquaintance of mine, to see if he could assist you with Avriel’s Box.”

  “Alichino,” Charis said. “He thinks we can trap the Beast. He’s altering the design right now.”

  His mood turned on a dime. “Excellente,” he shouted, drawing stares from the souls around him. “So, you will be able to stop the Beast?”

  “We’re going to try,” I said. “There’s one little problem.”

  “We don’t know how to find him,” Charis said.

  Dante hopped off his book-stool and held up a finger. Then he closed his eyes. “I have a connection to his prison, because it was leaking into this realm.” He was still for a minute, during which he began to shake his head. “This is very, very bad,” he said.

  I was used to it. “What?”

  “He isn’t there.”

  “What do you mean, he isn’t there?” I asked. “I thought he was trapped.”

  “Much of his power is still there, signore. Power that he cannot unlock without the rest of the true diuscrucis’ blood. He has gathered the rest faster than I would have thought possible, and has taken form to walk the Earth.”

  “And lure us in,” I said, the objective becoming clear. “He tried to stop us a few times, but it didn’t work out. Now he’s betting that he’ll be able to get Sarah, before we can get him. He wants us to go to Mumbai. He wants us to bring the Box. He has an army in the millions, not even counting the demons and angels on his side, and it only grows with each passing minute. We have to go to him, or he’ll destroy everything, and break the balance.”

  “He can’t know we’ve altered the Box,” Charis said.

  I smiled. “No, he doesn’t. He killed Avriel, believing that was enough to stop us. But he’d know we’d make a run for him anyway. We don’t have any other choice.”

  Dante rubbed his chin. “So you must walk right into a trap,” he said. “How will you get through these millions to reach him? How will you even know where he is?”

  I thought about it. They were tough questions, that I had to answer, but had no good answer to.

  “Do not be concerned, signore. I can help you with the second part. As I’ve said, I can feel his power and use it to find him, even as I can use it to find you. I will locate the Beast, and I will make his location known to you. There will be… consequences.”

  “What do you mean consequences?” I asked.

  “Every time I use my power in your world. Every time you use your power, or the Beast uses his power, it changes the very fabric of the reality that God shaped within the universe. Like any fabric, it can take a certain amount of pulling and twisting and still go back into form. Pull too hard, twist too tightly, and the fabric tears, or stretches, and never goes back the way it was.”

  I had always understood the principle. “But what is the consequence?”

  He shook his head. “I don’t know, signore. What I can tell you is that I have already stretched the fabric to deliver you from the Beast’s prison, and the Beast is stretching it even now. For me to use the strength of Purgatory, the true strength of Purgatory, in the mortal realm might be the proverbial straw that throws reality into chaos.”

  Charis laughed. We both looked at her, confusion on our faces.

  “There are a million plus human beings being possessed at one time by a single entity bent on destroying all of God’s creation, and every other mortal he kills becoming the walking dead. Haven’t we already thrown reality into chaos?”

  Dante smirked. “What about getting past these millions, to reach my signal?” he asked.

  “We’ll get by with a little help from our friends,” I replied.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

  Adam was waiting for us when we returned to Ivan the Great’s Bell Tower. So were Darya’s promised troops, in the form of fifty vampires and fifty weres. They were an interesting assortment of male and female, though most had athletic builds and the calm toughness that came from being a trained badass. They didn’t look too happy to be waiting outside anywhere near the angel, who had taken a perch above them.

  He dropped down when he saw us pile out of the truck. “Fredeline sent one of the Inquisitors to Mumbai to try to get a feel for the situation. They never came back.”

  I wasn’t surprised. I could feel the balance in my gut, and with it a coldness that I had never felt before. The demons had been winning when I had come onto the scene five years ago, but the scales were tipped even further on their side now. Except, it wasn’t their side. It was that the universe didn’t know it.

  “We’ve got it as good as it’s going to get,” I said. Alichino had complained about the bumpy ride in the back of the truck, but he had finished his changes and hopped out of the corner beaming and proud of himself for what he had accomplished. He had shown Charis the Box, and tried to describe the math before she diverted him to teaching Sarah how to activate it.

  It would take all of our power to ensnare the Beast, and to hold him. All three of us would have to have a hand on the Box, with Charis and I focusing our energy into it, powering it up. Sarah’s role was to use the gathered juice to Command the Beast into the prison. Since the energy was partly his own, according to Alichino he would be unable to resist, and would find himself trapped.

  “You even scrounged up a little morsel for them,” Adam said. “A distraction?”

  “With any luck.”

  “Fredeline is waiting. Once we’ve gone through the rift, I’ll put up a beacon for her to follow. She talked a few dozen seraph into following her, and outed a bunch more as servants. We locked them away until this is over. We can worry about their penitence if we win. Oh, I have something for you.” He held out his hand, and a sword materialized in it. It was a standard issue blessed seraphim blade, which was good enough. I took it from him.

  “Thanks.”

  I waded into the gathered demons, looking for whoever Darya had put in charge. I found an older vampire named Vincent. He had white hair and a bushy white mustache resting on top of a heavy frame, and he peered at me with cautious eyes when I approached.

  “Diuscrucis,” he said. “Darya Commanded me to come here with my best, to assist you with a small problem. I don’t know why she agreed to help you, but here we are.”

  I wasn’t friendly or gentle with him. He didn’t seem the type to warm to that approach. “We’re going to be attacked as soon as we step through the rift,” I said. “Your job is to make sure we don’t get killed before we can get our bearings, and then just to kill as many of them as you can, without getting killed yourself.”

  He smiled a fanged smile. “It’s been a while since I got into a real brawl. I’m looking forward to it.”

  It was because he didn’t understand what he was getting into. Otherwise, he wouldn’t be so eager. “Get your charges to the rift. Izak over there is going to activate it for you. As soon as me and mine get into the room, start going through. Be ready to get hit immediately.”

  It was the worst part of our otherwise desperate plan. A single transport rift that led to the High Court building, on the southern end of the city. It sucked because we couldn’t see what we were walking into, and it was a ridiculously easy place to stage an ambush, or even to pack a million possessed or dead mortals to rip all of us except for Sarah apart. Then, there was Gervais. I hadn’t forgotten he was out there, one of the Beast’s dead servants, a puppet on a string who could push Sarah to a bad place without much effort. I knew Izak would do his best to neutralize him whenever he made his appearance, but down a hand, I wasn’t sure the fiend could handle him.

  I made my way from the demons back to my group. They were all spread out around the area, Sarah and Izak in one spot, Alichino with Charis in another. Obi, Melody, and Adam made up their own group. I didn’t like the fracture.

  “How about a little togetherness,” I said, putting some force behind my voice. It was enough to rally the troops, and bring them all together.

  “Sorry, man,” Obi said. “Just trying to set up a date for after we stop the end of the world.”

  Melody punched him in the shoulder, and he laughed. It was nervous energy, because none of us really thought we were going to get out of this alive. I looked over at Sarah, whose slumped posture worried me.

  “Talk amongst yourselves,” I said to them. I took Sarah aside and tapped my head. We needed to talk in private.

  I felt the pressure of her knocking, and I opened her up to me. “Sarah. I’m worried about you.”

  “This is it, brother,” she said. “I’ve seen this part, this gathering.”

  “When you kill me?” I asked.

  “Yes. We make it to the Beast. Gervais is there. He tells me things, and I believe them. He promises me gifts, and I want them. All he asks is that I clear the way for him, and everything I want will be mine. I do it for him. I kill you and Charis. Without you, nothing can stop him. I do it because he says he can bring Mother and I together again in the world that he will create. I do it because he says I can have Gervais, to do whatever I please.”

  It was a chilling sequence of events, but not a believable one. “Sarah, the Beast can’t create, only destroy. That alone means your vision isn’t true.”

  Her voice was hopeful, but guarded. “How do we know that? I mean, can we be sure everything Malize says is right, or true? The Beast says he is a god. Maybe’s he has only destroyed because that is what war is? Maybe the creation comes after?”

  I had no way to know if Malize was right or not. I had no way to know which Sarah I was even talking to. She had calmed so much after being reunited with Josette, but now she had lost her again, at the very moment she needed the most strength. Sarah was a total unknown to me, a wildcard. I loved her, but I had no idea whose side she was on right now, or whose side she’d be on ten minutes from now.