Divinity: Transcendence: Book Two (The Divinity Saga) (8 page)

S
tudents and faculty members meandered through the large parking lot, either leaving or just arriving.

It felt like
a century since I had been here last, but I know it hasn’t been that long by any means. Before heading back to the University, I cloaked myself and surveyed the vicinity of the Wayford Hall apartments, where Starling and China lived. I wanted to make sure that all was normal, and that China was okay.

She wasn’t
there though, and Starling’s room remained the same as it had been that night. It was untouched, just as I had left it when I cleaned it up— yet again.

There was defin
itely a dark energy looming. China was accurate in picking up on it. I could both sense and see it already. I panned the entire campus lot thoroughly. Ever since I had taken brief possession of China, it opened her awareness. It made her more sensitive to the spirit world elements. It was nothing unusual. That’s what typically happens to mortals in those instances, which is why possession is forbidden. True demons never played by that rule, but many have suffered the ultimate price for having done so thereafter too.

Something devastating was about to happen. The qualm was negative, but it wasn’t powerful. Though there were many shadows hovering about,
I don’t think it was demonic related necessarily…this time.

I pushed my sight
out and above the campus, scanning and zoning in on the dark aura that I had automatically pinpointed. He was casually walking up the stone steps of the outer main courtyard. His destination appeared to be the most crowded part of the largest common atrium, near the food court.

             
              He was a young male. A long, plain, brown coat was draped over his wiry frame, and a shabby, gray cap hid most of his jet black and purple hair.

H
is aura was wild, with both black and red tones smeared together. Black was devoid of any emotion or feeling, and it was what the majority of demons and their ilk gave off.

Red
was anger and hatred, which was also a common color among the dark ones. However, this male didn’t seem to be overtaken or possessed by any demon— at the moment. I did see a few shadows lurking about in his wake though. They were more than likely hanging around to both encourage, and feed off of his emotions; given what I think he was about to do.

             
              I didn’t want to do this, but it looks like I’ll have no other choice. It was daylight, and there was no way I’d get to him in time if I physically walked there. I spied a row of box bushes lining the side of the building off to the left of the outer main courtyard. I was going to have to cloak myself, and then materialize from there, making it appear as though I were simply walking the grounds.

             
              I was too late. Gunshots popped off in rapid succession. Screams rang out, and students began to scatter, run, and clamber underneath tables for protection.

As soon as I
ghosted back into solid form, the scent of gunpowder hit me. Several more gunshots went off like firecrackers.

The scent of
blood was fresh.

Scanning the courtyard,
I saw that two students had been hit. Both the male and the female still had pulses. The tangible odor of their pain and fear was heavy. Chaos ensued as the shadows dashed about excitedly, hovering with anticipation…until they noticed my presence. They kept their distance, proceeding to move among the eaves of the building, out of my focus range and attention.

Three more people were gunned down, making it
a senseless total of five too many.

I immediately pushed dark
power forward, quickly silencing the gun. He continued to pull the trigger, but it clicked uselessly. I took that opportunity to move in behind him. There was no way that I was going to take possession of his dark, ruined vessel. Then again, I could have; making him turn the gun on himself. However, I’d have no quick place to expend the dark energy that I would absorb from the act.

             
              He fumbled inside his coat, reaching for another weapon. I was already one-step ahead of him.

He turned
around, seeing me coming straight for him. His face flashed initial surprise and then slowly morphed into determined malevolence.

He whipp
ed out a solid black pistol, leveling it at me. I immediately flashed heat into its handle, and dissolved the bullets in its chamber. The now empty gun sizzled against his palm. The smell of his burning flesh was nauseating to me.

He stifled a cry of pain, instantly dropping the burning hot weapon to the floor. It hit with a sharp, metallic thud, and slid smoking across the concrete.

His drive and mission to cause extreme havoc and pain
, was clearly in control of him. He ignored his blistered and burned hand, proving my assessment.

As a last ditch attempt
, he swung the butt end of the useless rifle that he still held in his other hand at me. I manipulated it to whip backwards, causing him to bash himself in the forehead and face. He clumsily collapsed onto his back, temporarily stunned. He ignored the growing bump on his forehead, and the trickle of blood that began to run from his nose; continuing to challenge me with defiance.

S
eeing me as a police officer didn’t even faze him. He tried to both shoot and assault me. Even as I towered over him, he was insolent. There was no light in his eyes. He was already dead.

This mortal’s soul had
already been claimed, but he was trying to get it back. I was sure that whichever arch demon he’s been listening to, or did favors for, told him that this would be the way to do it.

Si
rens rang out in the distance. Doors were being slammed shut and locked. The emotions of anger, fear, and hysteria hung thick in the air.

Most everyone had
successfully evacuated the courtyard and atrium, save for those who had been injured. More shadows attempted to sneak past me to avoid my detection and suck it all up.

I
yanked the rifle from him with the ease of taking it from a child. Tossing it away, I reached down and grabbed the inane moron by the front of his shirt, leaving his feet to dangle in the air. I was sure that he had no idea of what a demon really looked like, let alone ever spoken to one face to face— until now. I pulled him close to my face, and he grinned.

“If you kill me, I get my soul back
.”

I had been correct in my assumptions of his actions. It was all too common when these idiot humans dealt with darkness
, and the demons controlling it.

As soon as my eyes began to glow, the smug confident look in his
cold, flat, dark brown eyes, turned to sheer horror. Suddenly, he was the weak, pathetic, and cowardly human that he truly was.

I lowered my voice purposefully
, to give it that deep, ominous, demonic quality that humans feared so much. I leaned in close to his ear. “Wrong. Personally, I would love nothing more than to disembowel and force-feed your own entrails to you, if I thought that would be enough. I’m going to let you live, simply because you’ve already been marked and claimed, and he’ll want you— still mortal.” I began.

He began to urinate
on himself as his eyes glazed over in terror. I continued with an impish smirk. “Demons with cocks the size of your forearm are waiting to rape, beat, and torture you for all of eternity. They want you alive, so you can beg and scream for mercy— you worthless piece of shit!” I hissed, adding extra demonic fervor into my voice.

             
              I forced him to look into my eyes, now glowing with the intensity that represented the torture and damnation that was coming for him. His skin grew pallid, his mouth was a frozen agape, and his hair had literally morphed into a near steel gray hue.                           

H
e went limp in my grip. I dropped him and he crumbled to the ground, hitting his head hard on the concrete. Cradling his burnt palm, he curled up into a fetal ball, rocking himself and babbling incoherently.

His insane fear
had been my purpose. I roughly checked him for more weapons. He had two additional loaded handguns. I gathered them up, including the suicide note that he planned to leave. This filth was not going to off himself. I’d leave him for Morning Star; I already knew he would send his henchmen to collect him soon. I examined all of the weapons he had on him, to ensure that they wouldn’t fire.

He was already gone mentally
, far more than he had been before to even notice or care at this point. To everyone else who may have been watching, I made it appear as if I were simply apprehending and subduing him.

I finally left him cuffed in the walkway, to be found by the real police when they arrived. That wouldn’t be long. The sirens were louder now, and flashing lights soon surrounded the parking lot that flanked the main outer atrium.

To my surprise,
Angels began descending. I wondered why this time, because although there were injuries, no one was killed. This would be interference. Maybe they were here to scold me, but there weren’t any chosen here among them that I could see.

I surveyed the rest of th
e courtyard and the atrium, tuning into the rapid heartbeats, the muted crying, and the whispering of prayers. Fear still lingered on high, as shouts from law enforcement officers broke into the unnatural quiet. Crowds of teachers and students were being told to stay in dorms and classrooms. Others were being herded across the street, while guarded by mobs of SWAT team members.

This was quick.

I assumed that they already had a damned good emergency plan and alert system in place at this University.

             
              I took an alternate route to make my way back to the parking lot, where an entire fleet of police cars, SWAT and fire trucks were parked at different angles. The wail of ambulances sounded in the distance. Half of the officers were trying to maintain crowd control. Worried and hysterical students watched on in terror and shock, hugging each other for comfort.

Two news vans were pulling up just outside of the barricade. At first, none of the other officers really paid any attention to me. I drifted through the onrush of armed officers, all wearing bulletproof vests, while scouring the grounds for all possible suspects.

“Straight ahead, the atrium hallway to the right. He’s
already down and cuffed. There was just one.” I told the leader of the first wave of the SWAT members that approached me cautiously.

A little persuasive magik
kept him from asking more questions, or becoming overly suspicious about me.

“Ten-four.” The
SWAT officer in the front replied, with a wave onward to the other five behind him.

A
familiar, unwelcoming stench stopped me in my tracks. One of the SWAT team members slowed, lagging behind all of the others, and then nodded at me.

“Thanks
, I owe you one.” He said to me with a grin.

The appearance of the
Angels suddenly made sense now.

“Look at you attempting t
o play the hero again.” He grinned.

I shot a quick glance
around, not that anyone was paying attention to us, but I didn’t want to make it obvious.

“You came all this way for one?” I replied, not really wanting to speak to him at all.

He smirked. “No, but I have been waiting for him. I appreciate your helping that along, though I’d rather he wasn’t insane.” He replied.

I
walked away from him, heading towards the cruiser, and hoping to lose him in the crowd.

“He was obviously already insane before this happened.” I mumbled under my breath.

                            I should have cloaked myself. It took a while to make it through the chaotic throng of law enforcement, news and paramedic crews, frightened students and faculty. When I finally located the cruiser, I climbed in with a heavy sigh of agitation. Morning Star was already in the passenger seat.

My initial
reflex was to attack him first, but I knew he wouldn’t do anything— not in the human realm, and definitely not with angels here. Their presence however, wouldn’t stop me from doing humans and the future of Earth, a huge favor.

Though he wore an all-black SWAT uniform, he
was copying my look to no doubt to mock me, I was sure.

“
Believe it or not, I had nothing to do with this.” He mused.

I narrowed my eyes at hi
m. “Which one of your off-springs did?” I asked nonchalantly.

He laughed
, holding his hands up with feigned innocence. “Damned if I know. Honestly, this is a waste of my time. They’ll all live. The angels are seeing to that, but there will be more just like him to come in places all over the world. I have so many I.O.U’s out there; I can’t even remember all of them at times. I don’t suggest they to do things like this for penance. It never ends well for them. Although, many of them think they can solve their debts by simply taking their own lives.” He laughed. “They make for good torture party pieces.” He then smiled.