Power (8 page)

“Since the rise of the modern religions, however, the story has been altered to make it more relatable. Think of Zeus as the God of the Christians, Cratos, Michael the Archangel, the lesser gods are angels, and the Titans as demons.” He paused again, making sure that I could make the connection. I was born and raised Catholic, so I knew the reference he was making. “It is said that Lucifer, the angel of light, became jealous of God, and began a revolt against Him. At that time, God sent Michael to cast Lucifer out of heaven and into Hell.”

This I already knew. “David, I was raised Catholic. I know that story.”

“Well, I am sorry if I am going too slow for you.” The sarcasm dripped from his words. Now I could add smart ass to his list of qualities. “As I was saying. This obviously infuriated Lucifer, who then built up his army in an attempt to rule the earth and take souls away from God. He and six other demons came to earth, one for each of the seven deadly sins, to start an uprising against God and anything good.” He paused, giving me a look that dared me to make any more dismissive comments.

So far the story was making sense though, so I nodded, hoping he would continue.

“Lucifer and his followers impregnated seven human women. Though it is not important, it is said that each woman died in childbirth, a horrible, painfully slow death. The first written record of these demons was published in 1589 by Peter Binsfeld, who was part of the Order. Though at that time, they believed the descendants of the demons were merely witches or warlocks.

“Each demon had a prominent evil. Lucifer – the leader, and worst of them all – had the evil of pride. Anyone we know of who has descended from him has been almost purely evil, and usually very powerful. The next two powerful demons were Amon, whose evil was anger, and Mammon, whose evil was greed. Almost all of the Rising has descended from one of these three demons.”

Thankfully he paused again, I shifted slightly, to readjust my position and stretch my aching back. And this time I had a question. I remembered hearing that term once before and wondered, “What is ‘the rising’?”

I noticed at that moment, when he was looking right into my eyes, that his eyes were the same rich green as when he had entered the Compound. No longer the hazel eyes that I had grown accustomed to, they were a deep emerald that seemed to bore straight into my mind. I wondered how long they had been like that. How could I not have noticed the change? Staring at him like that I was drawn into how handsome he was. Ha! Handsome didn’t even begin to cover it. He was gorgeous! His tan skin, with the tousled hair, and those eyes – either green or hazel, both were… I tried to focus. I had asked a question, I needed the answer.

“The Rising is the opposite of what we are. It is composed of those who have descended from the demons I am telling you about. Damien is currently the leader of the Rising.” Just hearing his name brought back the memories, the hate, the smell, the
pain
. I shook the feeling from me. And I nodded to show my understanding.

He continued, “The four others were Leviathan, whose evil was envy, Beelzebub – gluttony, Belphegor – sloth, and Asmedeous – lust. These four have ruined the way society sees so many things and have played up evil, however, they are not usually the ones
we
have to worry about.”

We didn’t have to worry about them? I might have a made a face. They were demons just the same. Surely something should be done about all of them. David looked down in his lap and took a deep breath. I must have been his worst student ever.

***David***

I consider myself a calm and decent man, but Allison just gets under my skin and drives me crazy. There she was, sitting not more than a few inches in front of me as I am telling her about the evil in the world and she has this expression on her face – like she thinks it is not important that we have to go up against this real evil on a nearly daily basis.

I dropped my head; it was hard for me to accept how difficult it was for me to look at her. She was beautiful, but that wasn’t all. It had been years since I have had any feelings other than friendship for a woman. But seeing her, being around her, was doing things to me I never thought would happen. Unfortunately for me, they were also feelings I couldn’t allow myself to feel. I took a deep breath, hoping my blood would stop trying to boil over. I needed to get away. “So, are you thirsty or anything? You want to get up and stretch your legs?”

She leaned back, curved her back inward, pushed her arms up over her head, and let out a small noise, something between a grunt and a sigh, as she stretched. She nodded, and started to stand, “Yes, I definitely need to stretch my legs.” I stood next to her and helped her rise, instinctively placing my hand at her back when she was beside me. She didn’t seem to mind, but I had to be careful. This urge to reach out to her, to touch her, even if just a touch as small and subtle as this was dangerous. I also had the strangest urge to protect her, like something special and precious. But I knew that wouldn’t go down well with her.

“How long have we been in here now?” She was asking because logically we couldn’t have been there any more than 10 or 15 minutes, but her body had to be feeling like we had been there for hours.

“We were only sitting 15 minutes or so.” I reached for her with both hands, placing them just below her waist, and let my power flow from me. Just enough that I could take away the stiffness, the pressure from the power flooding over her now, and the pain from the weight of the power in the Compound. She looked up suddenly, surprised at first by my hands, then at the relief I provided. It wasn’t fair how right it felt to hold her like this though, to lay both my hands on her curvy hips.

“What the hell was that?” There was not anger dripping from her voice, as I might have expected, rather, surprise, or maybe even excitement I heard. I smiled, I couldn’t help it.

“I felt something when you touched me. It was like… I can’t even explain it!” Her eyes lit up as she talked. It was a beautiful sight – to see her so helplessly excited.

As I was going to speak, she started again, “Your eyes turn bright green when you use your power. I know that is what you did!” As if I was going to deny that fact. I couldn’t help but laugh. It felt good to stand so close to her and just let go.

***Allison***

The whole place amazed me, but David most of all. Everything about him made me feel good, even the annoying parts. Not to mention the way I felt when he touched me. Obviously, he had meant to take away the uncomfortable stiffness, but with his hands also came a tingling sensation that sent a shiver up my spine and butterflies to my stomach.

He started laughing. Just being around someone when they laugh usually makes you smile, but around him, I had to start laughing too. It was contagious. But instantly felt dumb for doing so. He smiled and said, “Yes, Allison, I did use my power. I thought it would be nice of me. What is the point of you being uncomfortable when I can fix it?” Another priceless smile flashed before he turned and began walking, motioning for me to follow him. I did, and again his hand slipped to my back. “Besides, that is the only way I can use my power on you right now!” he winked and continued talking. I realized this break wasn’t really a break at all. He would still teach me our history, just walking instead of sitting.

He began right where he had left off, “So you now know about the demons, and the women they impregnated. Those children grew to be the first members of the Rising. It is said that the deeds they did just in their first 20 years of life were unimaginable.” He paused and I shuddered, thinking of what they may have done. “So, after these demons came to earth and their children grew to be nearly demons themselves, God chose to retaliate. He sent Michael to earth to find nine good women; women that were good in virtue and grace, women who seemed to have proven themselves worthy of glory, and most importantly, who were already pregnant. Each woman had great amount of virtue and a unique gift already, so when Michael came, he simply intensified what was already there. Unlike the members of the Rising, these children were all the same in the strength of their power. When the demons had come, some were more evil than others, so their offspring differed in the amount of power they had. These women were all given power directly from Michael, unadulterated power. We define it as the pure essence of strength beyond that of human capabilities.”

We had reached the edge of the room and he paused again, pulling me to a bench against the wall. To emphasize his point, his eyes changed from hazel to deep emerald, his already tousled hair started to rise with nonexistent winds and the tips turned green. It was as if there was an aura of green light around him like a halo above an angel. It was beautiful. And if my jaw had not already dropped at the scene, when he topped it off with one of his award winning smiles, I know it did.

Almost as instantly as it appeared, his smile was gone. “You will learn to control your power just as well as I have. The feeling is phenomenal, almost addicting once you have it under control.”

I believed that! Just seeing it could be addictive. However, when I recalled what it felt like to have my power flowing, I shuddered at the memory. David saw my reaction and reassured me, “Allison, I promise you will be able to control it. I will teach you how. It will not hurt you once you have control.” He looked so concerned and yet so very sure of himself. Despite my discomfort at the thought of that pain again, I wholeheartedly believed him. He was just so believable.

“So, I suppose I can just run down the list of the recipients of Michael’s gifts, I think that might be the easiest way.” I told myself to focus, since he was trying to teach me something. I nodded in agreement. “We call them the Primitus, which is Latin for first one or first time. As I said before, there were nine, and each had a prominent virtue. Their descendants had abilities corresponding to the virtue of who they descended from.” He hesitated, making sure that I understood.

I was not entirely sure if I did, so I asked, “So, someone who descends from one of these… first people will have different powers than someone who descends from a different of one of the first people?” It felt so hard to explain.

“Okay, well, firstly, they are called Primitus, not first people. Secondly, not different powers, we all only have power, but we manifest different abilities from said power. I think you have the basic understanding though, so I will continue. Peony was the first; she was the most charitable person on the earth at that time. So, she was given the ability to heal others, as do her most powerful descendants.”

I had to ask, “Only others, not themselves?” It seemed unfair that they would be able to help other people and not themselves.

“Correct, only others.”

I sighed. I couldn’t help it. It didn’t seem fair that you would have enough power to help and heal other people but you couldn’t heal or save yourself. I supposed there would be no use in arguing the point. I was very sure that David did not make the rules. In fact, probably no one on this earth decided what you could do with the power given to you, so I nodded for him to continue.

“Next was Minerva who was the wisest Michael could find. She was gifted the ability to teach someone things just by touching them.” He paused again. I guessed he was going to pause after every one. I wondered if he really thought I was that stupid.

I smiled and nodded again, and again he continued, “Arabella was the most beautiful and elegantly graceful person he found. Her power allowed her the ability to be an amazing artist, not only with mediums on paper, but with dance and sculpture as well. Her descendants are the dancers Sam is staying with and were the ones who did all the wonderful paintings and sculptures throughout the Compound.” Aha… another answer I craved was finally answered. I closed my eyes to remember the doors to the Compound, the intricacy, the beauty of them.

“Beatrice was the most joyful and patient person, and she was able to affect people’s emotions. For example, if someone was angry, she could take the anger away, or if someone was scared, she could make them feel brave.”

I was beginning to feel the stiffness from before. I knew, once again, that we couldn’t have been sitting any more than 15 minutes or so, yet again, it felt like hours. Despite being uncomfortable, I was too interested in what he was telling me for me to interrupt.

“Idadurant was a hard-working, diligent woman, and thus her power made her become fierce in battle. Her descendants are rarely beaten when they are at their prime. Castafonda loved her enemies as much as her neighbors, and thus was able to inspire love in people. Almost like a Cupid, but without the arrow.” He chuckled at himself and I chuckled with him, as the image of a grown woman flying around in a diaper, but with no arrow, casting love spells on people passed through my head.

“She was a little more than that though,” he resumed. “She was not just love… but pure love. It’s hard to explain.” He paused, thinking about something he wasn’t sure how to voice.

Moving on, he continued, “So let’s see, we have done Peony, Minerva, Arabella, Beatrice, Idadurant and Castafonda. That’s six. Next is Temperence, she had extreme amounts of self-discipline. After she was given power, she was able to move objects with her mind.”

“So she was a telekinetic? Are all of her descendants also?” I had to ask, not even waiting for him to pause this time. Being a telekinetic would be awesome.

“Yes she was, but no, not all of her descendants are.” I thought about that for a minute. What if I was a descendant of hers? I might be able to move things with my mind; that thought prompted my next question. “So, David, who do I descend from? How do we know?”

He leaned back to think deeply on that question. Did he know who I descended from, or would it only become apparent by what I would be able to do with my power? “How about we save that question for later. Would that be okay?” I could tell he knew something, something more than he was willing to share, or maybe more than he was allowed to share with me. I had never liked secrets; however, I could tell by the look in his eyes, he was also uncomfortable keeping them. He’d even asked ‘would that be okay?’ Well, what if I were to say no? What then? I wanted to know, and even more than that, I wanted to know
why
he would not tell me.