Sinister Seraphim of Mine (Overworld Chronicles Book 8) (12 page)

I scrolled through the blueprints until I found the details about assembling the silver rings. To the side was an annotation:
Runes and pattern required. See MK for details.
"Son of a—" I clenched my teeth.

Nightliss touched my arm. "What's wrong, Justin?"

"I know who can provide the information." The man I'd literally chased over half the planet for one drop of his blood so I could free my mother. "Maulin Kassus."

"He's in Templar custody," Nightliss said. "Thomas Borathen still has him at his compound."

"Lovely," I said. "I guess I know who I'll be interrogating soon." I turned off the ASE and pocketed it. "Thanks, Cinder."

Nightliss gave me a hopeful look. "Justin, if we can build pods of our own, I can resurrect friends and allies much faster than the dragons."

"Is there someone special you're looking for?"

She nodded. "As my memories have returned over the centuries, I began to see people in my dreams and feel intense emotions associated with them, even if I didn't know who they were. One of them was my best friend, Valissa." She looked at the floor. "I should be ashamed to want such wondrous devices for my own selfish needs."

I put a hand on her shoulder. "Nightliss, you've done so much for everyone, if anyone deserves to be selfish, it's you." I gave the petite Seraphim a hug. "I'll do what it takes to make Kassus talk. We'll build our own aether pods and find your friend."

She looked up at me with grateful eyes. "Thank you, Justin."

Elyssa left a conversation with my mother and came to the front of the room. She sucked down the remainder of a blood pack and sighed in relief. "Are you ready to start?"

"Almost." I told her about the aether pods.

She made a face. "Well, I have to visit my father tomorrow. You might as well tag along and talk to Kassus."

"Much as I hate to admit it, having Jeremiah along might be helpful." I looked at the man. He sat alone in the far corner of the room, eyes alert and watching the others. I saw his gaze catch on Ivy and Mom and noticed how his face saddened ever so slightly before looking away.

Elyssa looked at me for a moment without speaking. "Jeremiah has done some awful things to you, Justin. Unfortunately, we all need to get along or we won't survive what's to come."

"Don't you think I know that?" I rubbed my forehead to relieve some tension.

Elyssa turned to Nightliss. "I assume you'll be coming to the compound as well?"

The angel nodded.

A yawn cracked my jaw. "Let's get this meeting going. I'm exhausted."

Elyssa called the meeting to order and replayed the ASE recording of our recent adventure, pausing when it reached the part where we found the Brightling twins torturing Otaleon and Joss.

I couldn't help but look at our two new additions. Joss looked angry. Otaleon closed his eyes and looked at the floor as if ashamed. It occurred to me I might not enjoy others seeing how I reacted while being tortured and skipped the video forward.

"This is terrible," Mom said, eyes troubled. "Qualan and Qualas were the perpetrators of innumerable murders and tortures of Darklings and humans alike."

"I remember those two," Dad said. "They personally assassinated several top Daemos and mutilated scores of prisoners just for the fun of it." He shook his head. "They make demons look like saints."

"I do not yet remember much of the war," Joss said, "but I can tell you from recent personal experience those two are more sick and twisted than you can imagine."

I played back the rest of the video. A lot of the recording was blurry thanks to all the fighting after we encountered the third Brightling. It was a wonder the ASE had made it out of there.

"Just great," Shelton said. "Now there are at least three Brightlings in Daelissa's arsenal that we know of."

"It changes nothing." Jeremiah stood from his chair. "The facility must be destroyed before Daelissa resurrects more horrors like the twins."

"We've lost the element of surprise," Shelton said. "An attack now would be suicidal."

"Any idea who the third Brightling is?" I asked, looking from Mom to Dad to Jeremiah. Unlike most of us, they'd been alive during the first war. Nightliss had been as well, but she obviously hadn't recognized the elfin female.

Elyssa rewound the video, trying to find a place to pause where the image wasn't blurred from action. She paused the image when the Brightling levitated to avoid our attacks and magnified the girl's face. "Can you sharpen the image, Cinder?"

The golem fiddled with the unfocused image. "Ah, this should do it." The girl's face crystalized.

Mom gasped, put a hand over her mouth. "It can't be."

Dad tilted his head slightly. "She looks a lot like—" his head snapped toward Mom. "Is that your sister?"

"You have a sister?" I blurted. I'd been so busy bringing my immediate family back together I hadn't even thought about asking Mom about her relatives. Dad's side was simple and complicated all at the same time since demons didn't have kids in quite the same way humans did. Also, my grandfather, Baal, was quite the bigwig in Haedaemos. I could just imagine my first grade teacher, Mrs. Scafutti's, reaction when I put "King of Hell" atop the family tree she assigned us to draw.

Mom apparently hadn't registered my question because her wide eyes hadn't left the image.

"It's not her," Jeremiah said, his dark gaze narrowed. "I'm certain it's her daughter."

"Yes." Mom nodded slowly. "Lanaeia."

"She said she was looking for her family." I gave Mom a pointed look. "What other long-lost family members might be awaiting resurrection?"

"My sister, Kalysea, and her mate, Bjoerrin." She looked away from the image of her niece. "It is of no matter."

"No matter?" I raised my eyebrows in question. "Isn't this good news?" I glanced at Jeremiah. "Or are they on Daelissa's side?"

Mom closed her eyes, pinched the bridge of her nose. "Bjoerrin was a member of the original government. When he discovered Daelissa's intentions, he betrayed the Trivectus to her. The rest of the government folded after she murdered them."

"Trivectus?" I asked.

"The Trivectus is equivalent to the president in the mortal government, except there are three Seraphim who fill the role." She furrowed her brow as if trying to remember something. "They were all Brightlings, of course, though there had been serious talks of allowing Darkling representation."

"Yes, I remember this," Nightliss said. "There were Brightling protests against such a thing. Then Daelissa returned, murdered the Trivectus, and promised there would never be Darklings in the government. This made her popular among the majority."

"If Bjoerrin supported Daelissa, I guess that means your sister did too?" I asked.

Mom nodded. "She always was blindly devoted to him."

I cast a sideways glance at Dad. "I hate finding out I have evil relatives."

He grinned. "Hey, at least that's three less birthdays you have to remember."

Elyssa cleared her throat. "We've gotten far afield here."

"As usual," Shelton added.

"Let's back up a bit," Dad said. "Did you find any more crawlers lurking around the perimeter?"

I nodded. "There was one more during our escape." The ASE hadn't reached that part yet.

He crossed his arms. "Something's off here." He turned to Jeremiah. "Have you ever summoned a crawler or any other low level spawn?"

"Heavens no," the Arcane replied. "Those infernal creatures require more concentration than they're worth. One mistake and even someone of my skill would lose his soul."

"Exactly." Dad turned back to Mom. "Can a Seraphim summon spawn?"

She grimaced. "Of course not. Seraphim can't summon any form of demon."

Dad snapped his fingers. "Bingo."

I'd already figured where this was heading. "They have a Daemos on their side."

"Precisely." He pursed his lips. "I have a terrible feeling I know who it is."

"Vadaemos," Elyssa said. "After his arrest, we shipped him to the Synod for processing. Since Daelissa now controls them…well, it doesn't take a genius to deduct that she's freed him and god knows who else."

A shard of cold ice penetrated my guts. Vadaemos Slade had run away with his lover, Orionas Assad, but the two great Daemos houses hunted them down. House Assad had supposedly killed Orionas for her betrayal. Vadaemos had escaped and joined with Daelissa in a bid for vengeance. "Does that mean Maximus might be out too?" He'd lost his vampire abilities thanks to me, but that didn't mean Daelissa couldn't gift him with a new set of powers.

"We'll have to assume so," Elyssa said.

"This night just keeps getting better and better," Shelton said.

Bella nudged him in the ribs. "At least we have some idea what we're up against."

"No," Jeremiah said. "You have no idea what you're up against."

"But we know names—"

He cut off the rest of Bella's statement. "You have not fought against the Seraphim. It will take the cupids some time to return to full strength, though few could ever hope to match Daelissa's raw power. Even at their current strength, they are more powerful than most Arcanes."

"In other words," I said, slamming a fist into my palm, "we have to destroy Kobol Prison at all costs."

"Yes." Fire seemed to blaze in Jeremiah's eyes. "We must focus on the prison and killing Daelissa."

The room went silent as everyone seemed to contemplate the enormity of such a task.

Dad stood, walked to the front of the room and casually sat on the table to face the others. "You're looking at this all wrong."

"Seems pretty straightforward to me," Shelton said. "We blow up some buildings and most likely die in the process."

My father grinned. "Why be open about everything when subterfuge is so much more fun?"

If there was anything I knew about my father, it was how much he loved being sneaky, though others might refer to him as being insidious, like slowly poisoning someone with arsenic in their drinking water. Not that my father would do such a thing to anyone unless he really disliked them. I'd seen the man murder in cold blood when he felt it was necessary. I'd seen him nearly seduce Daelissa and inferred that he'd tried the same thing before the Seraphim War in an attempt to assassinate her.

In other words, if anyone could come up with a better plan, it was probably David Slade.

"I know how much you love to build suspense," I said, "but can we please move this along?"

He looked a little disappointed. "If you insist." Dad turned to Jeremiah. "Every battle you ever saw Daelissa participate in, what did she do?"

The Arcane raised an eyebrow. "She threw everything at us. I watched her burn a hundred men to ash in seconds before she had to withdraw and recharge."

"Alysea"—Dad turned to her—"You were best friends with Daelissa. When she wanted something, what did she do?"

Mom gave him a curious look. "When we were younger, she threw tantrums until her father acquiesced. When she realized how powerful feeding from humans made her, she took what she wanted."

"By overwhelming force, correct?"

She nodded. "If I recall correctly, we discussed these traits at great length centuries ago during the war."

Dad nodded. "True, but we've got a few new faces in the room, so a refresher might not hurt."

"Where are you going with this?" I asked. "Are you saying she'll have all her forces defending Kobol Prison when we attack?"

"Almost certainly," he said. "But that's not my point. She'll be so focused on countering any further attacks with overwhelming force it means assaulting the prison with an army would be suicidal." He paused, looking around as if feeding off all the attention. "We have to work out one tiny kink, and then we'll be able to jerk the rug right out from underneath her."

"How tiny a kink?" Shelton asked.

"We have to disable the portal-blocking magic." Dad put a hand on my shoulder. "I'd be willing to bet Kassus knows how to do that, and it just so happens you have to ask him some other questions anyway."

My stomach twisted at the thought.

"Let's say we disable it," Shelton said. "What then? We sneak our army in behind her?"

"Absolutely not," Dad said. "We sneak her army out." He made a circle in the air with his finger. "Daelissa will erroneously assume there is no way for us to penetrate the prison. After all, she has portal-blocking and more than enough minions to annihilate any attackers."

"Ah!" Shelton snapped his fingers. "We steal all her cherubs, take them to our own aether pod facility where we build our own Darkling army, and let the dragons put the Brightlings in a safe place like they're doing now."

Dad smacked his hands together. "Exactly."

Aside from the problem of getting Kassus to tell us how to disable the portal blocker, his plan sounded pretty good. Unfortunately, it also put a heck of a lot more pressure on me. Kassus was tough, and he hated my guts. I wasn't sure what sort of bait I could use to make him talk.

Elyssa fought off a yawn. "David, that's an excellent plan, but I vote we table this discussion until tomorrow."

I raised my hand in agreement. "I'm pooped."

And a pivotal day loomed ahead of me.

Chapter 11

The next morning Elyssa, Nightliss, and I took the omniarch portal to her father's horse ranch in Decatur, the city bordering Atlanta where I'd grown up. The large pastures, the huge house, and the ginormous barns disguised the true nature of the compound. In truth, it used to be the regional Templar headquarters for the southeastern United States, Mexico, Cuba, Haiti, and several other neighboring islands. National borders recognized by the noms didn't mean much to the Overworld.

The Synod had been the governing body of the Templars, at least until we'd discovered Daelissa was pulling the strings. Thomas Borathen and the commander of the Colombian Templars, Christian Salazar had cut ties with the Synod. Now the organizational hierarchy made even less sense.

The three of us entered the sprawling plantation-style ranch house and took a hidden staircase down into the sublevels. Thomas Borathen was in the war room with Christian Salazar and another hulking figure I recognized as Elyssa's brother, Michael. The three of them were studying a holographic map of the world with sections shaded in one of three colors: red, blue, and beige.