Nephilim (9 page)

When the black fuzziness cleared from Ada’s sight she saw Dane had Travis pinned against the wall. Travis writhed in his arms, his teeth gnashing as he snarled. His skin had become encrusted with fur. His head pulled tight and wrinkled, his ears elongated into points, his hands and feet became gnarled. It was a beast that she didn’t recognise. It was like he was a cross between Werewolf and Demon. Travis had become the most hideous beast Ada had ever seen. She didn’t know what he was.

‘Frankie, please hear me’ Ada cried out her silent message.

‘I’m here’ Frankie replied.

Movement caught her eye as she saw the tail of a snake slide its way under her door. Ada watched as the snake moved its way to the feet of Travis and Frankie materialised.

“Ada you have the power of your ancestors, you need to stop this” Frankie spoke.

Dane looked over his shoulder. Ada stood frozen the dagger still grasped in her hand.

“Ada, I can only hold him for so long” Dane shouted, panic dripping from his voice.

Ada blinked and took hold of her amulet.  She closed her eyes and began to imagine a white light surrounding her, suddenly images of her Mother, her grandmother, her great grandmother and all the women of her ancestral line flooded her mind. They linked hands and stood in a semicircle surrounding her.

Ada raised her arms and began to chant the names given to each woman, calling on their power. The room became brighter, she could hear the distant pops of the light bulbs, but she continued to chant, calling the names over and over. The light extended itself from her aura and embraced the beast that Travis had become; his aura was a murky brown, a colour she had never seen before. Travis screamed out as the white light began to intermingle with his aura.  A rancid smell hit Ada’s nostrils as the white light began to sizzle the aura and puffs of black smoke bounced off Travis’s gnarled and twisted body.

As the light infiltrated through the aura and touched on Travis’s skin Ada heard her ancestors begin to ramp up their chants, it had become a shrill high pitched screech that pierced her inner ear. Travis’s screams turned to groans as the healing magic worked within him. Ada’s chants increased in fervour as she sent the healing light throughout Travis’s body, touching every nerve, vein, muscle, bone and sinew. Her body began to lift from the ground as the light held her suspended in the room.

The light around her began to ebb away and she was thrown violently into darkness. Ada hit the ground with a thud. She sent out her feelers and Ada could sense that she had fallen into Travis’s soul. She didn’t have time to let confusion set in as when Ada looked around she noticed a door.  It was a large wooden door, its heavy steel hinges were encrusted with rust and it appeared to be shut tight. As Ada looked closer she could see the door had no handle. She tentatively reached forward and ran her fingers over the hard rough wood feeling it splinter under her touch.

As she allowed her fingers to explore the door Ada noticed that it was held shut by a mark, a mark of the Demon. A gargoyle stained red, its eyes glowing a deep crimson and a low throaty growl was being emitted from its mouth. Ada delivered her light forward to touch on the door, she felt the heat that the door emitted and threw back at her, heating her core. Sweat began to bead on Ada’s forehead and she felt it dribble down between her breasts and over her shoulders.

The heat was immense, almost unbearable. Her eyes were stinging with a combination of the heat and the sweat that dripped down into them. She looked around at the ancestors who surrounded Ada. She caught the eyes of Kaia, the Nephilim from who all witches descended from.  Kaia nodded.  Her golden hair billowed behind her by some invisible wind source, her eyes a piercing blue and her face wrinkled in seriousness.

“Step through the door child, we have you, but he needs the healing” Kaia spoke gently.

Ada nodded and stepped towards the door; she reached her hand out tentatively and touched the mark. It was hot under her fingers; she wanted to retract her hand but continued to push forward. The gargoyle screamed a horrid screech as power ejected from her hand and lit the face in a golden fire.

As the door creaked open the heat blasted her face. Ada heard the chants of her ancestors increase in fervour. She could feel her physical body heating, sweat now poured from her body, her hair was dripping wet and stuck to her head. Ada lifted her hands toward the door and watched as the light flowed like a torrential river into the opening.

She could hear Travis scream in the distance, her eyes were burning and the room in which they all stood was so bright that she knew even Frankie and Dane wouldn’t be able to keep their eyes open. Travis screamed again. Ada stepped through the door deeper into Travis’s soul; she blocked the sounds that surrounded her, growls, screams, howls, sounds from a horror movie as she continued to send bolts of white light into the room.

Screams began to cry around her as the roars of thousands of souls raced out and surrounded her, like tiny spiders climbing over her skin. Ada swatted at them, as they crawled onto her body, into every orifice and mixed through her hair. She backed out of the doorway, scratching at her skin, flicking at the spiders that climbed over her, panic caught in her throat as she frantically tried to get away from the predatory arachnids that had started to nip at her and dig their way into her skin. She watched horrified as her skin began to bubble with movement while the spiders crawled beneath the surface of her body.

Ada screamed. Her mouth opened and terrified, the spiders spewed forth from her lips taking on the form of flies as they flew into the white light that surrounded her. The bubbling of Ada’s skin began to ease and the itching dissolved. As the bugs hit the light they exploded like tiny firecrackers. Ada shuddered as the last of the insects left her body and burned up, the smell of burnt flesh filled her nostrils and she became nauseous.

Just as she was about to purge her stomach, Ada felt a hand touch her shoulder and she looked to see Kaia standing beside her. Her eyes a bright blue soft and as gentle as her touch, Kaia placed her lips on Ada’s third eye, the invisible chakra space on her forehead. Ada closed her eyes as the soft warmth like that of a bath in winter or a fluffy dressing gown enveloped her. She felt her physical body drift down to the ground. The room felt familiar as Ada opened her eyes again. Ada looked around and saw that she was back in her room; out of Travis’s soul and that terrifying doorway.

Chapter Ten

“The wound is the place where the light enters you” Rumi

Ada looked around. Dane sat against the wall, his eyes wide and face pale. Frankie prowled the room in the form of a panther and Travis lay crumpled on the floor. The room looked like a tornado had ripped through, the couch was upturned, glass from bulbs were strewn across the floor, curtains were ripped and the television was smashed. Ada’s hair was stuck to her head. Her body was dripping wet from the sweat that had poured from her. She swept her hand over the room and everything righted itself back to normal. Ada looked down at Travis who slowly raised his head to meet Ada’s glance.

“You did it” he said croakily.

She smiled and moved towards him wrapping her arms around his neck and kissing his face as the overwhelming relief flooded her. She had never used the power of her ancestors before. She had never experienced such magic in her life. But now that she knew what power she had in that piece of jewellery she knew that she could defeat Abaddon without a problem. Frankie sidled up to her and rubbed his panther face on the side of hers. She leaned forward and kissed his head, stroking him behind his ear. Ada looked over at Dane, who seemed to be visibly shaken. He slowly looked over at her.

“Ada I’ve never seen anything like that before” he said quietly.

She smiled and touched his hand. It was cold under her touch and he seemed to flinch under her fingers. Ada excused herself to shower and change, the sweat caused her clothes to stick to her. As she stood under the shower tears flowed from her eyes and hit her cheeks. She crouched on the floor allowing her emotions to overwhelm her as she sobbed.

When Ada came out she felt a bit better, physically she was exhausted but emotionally she felt better.  When she came into the kitchen, Frankie, Travis and Dane were sitting at the table in silence all overwhelmed by the experience they had just shared. Ada was exhausted and she could see that Travis looked a little worse for wear now that the adrenalin had waned. Suddenly the door burst open and Kade filled the doorway. Ada turned and could read the look on his face, she could feel his energy.

“No” she screamed.

Within two steps Kade had Ada enveloped in his arms. She hadn’t given it a second thought that her Mother was part of the ancestors, which shouldn’t have been the case had she been alive. Kade kissed Ada’s hair and she could feel his tears dripping onto her forehead. Ada sunk to her knees on to the floor as gut wrenching sobs ebbed from her body. She felt a fluffy nudge on her arm and opened her eyes to see Frankie had transformed into a ginger kitten. Instinctively she reached out to pet his head as a second wave of tears flowed down her cheeks. After what seemed like an eternity of crying she looked up. Kade sat at the table, his head in his hands. Travis looked pale and shell shocked. Dane paced the kitchen.

“What happened?” she spoke croakily.

Kade looked over at her; she could see that his eyes were stained red under the weight of his own tears and grief.

“That bastard just left her laying out the front of the Authority” his voice cracked as he swiped at the fresh batch of tears threatening to roll down his cheeks. “I found her when I got there. I tried to heal her; we all tried to heal her. But she was cold and gone.”

Kade’s shoulders began to shake as he lowered his head. His aura grew a deep red.

“I’ll fucking kill him” he roared flipping the chair across the floor as he stood.

Ada flinched under the overwhelming anger that filled the room. Travis cowered and looked like he was trying to sink into his chair. Dane stopped pacing and carefully placed his hand on Kade’s shoulder.

“We will all find him and we will kill him. This isn’t a job just for you Kade” Dane spoke.

Kade turned to Dane, his teeth elongated and his eyes glowed red.

“What are you doing here?” Kade growled deep.

Dane dropped his eyes to the floor.

“I came to check on Ada. I came to see if she needed anything” he stammered.

“Right” Kade growled again shaking Danes hand off his shoulder. “My daughter has plenty of people to look after her, I’m sure she doesn’t need you sniffing around also”

“Dad” Ada shouted “That’s enough. I know you’re angry, we are all fucking angry. But you can’t take it out on people”

Kade growled again turning his back to Ada and leaning against the sink.

“Fuck” he shouted, punching his fist into the cabinet, the sound ricocheted through the whole house. “I can’t just sit around like this. I want to find him. But no one knows where he is. I feel so damned helpless”

Frankie leapt off Ada’s lap and transformed back to human form walking towards where Kade stood and put his arm across Kade’s shoulders.

“We will find him. Everyone is on this. He can’t hide forever, it’s not in his nature” Frankie said. “And when he does show his face we will take him out. I experienced tonight the power that Ada has and believe me she on her own could take him out”

Kade spun on his heel.

“What do you mean?” he asked frowning.

Ada explained to Kade what had happened with Travis, she explained calling on her ancestors, however she left out the part where she had seen her Mother. Not that it would have changed anything but she just felt it was better left unsaid. Ada told Kade about the locked door in Travis’s spirit and how she filled the room with light.

“The door held the mark of the Demon. I believe after seeing the door that it was Abaddon that attacked Travis, or at least a very close minion. I think he could be behind all the attacks in recent times” Ada said.

Kade nodded and frowned, stepping towards her and putting his hands on her shoulders.

“You have your Mother’s power now that she is...” his voice cracked again. “You are strong without the amulet, but I don’t want you to defeat Abaddon on your own. Your Mother was strong; yet look what happened to her. I can’t lose you too”

Ada stood and nuzzled her face into his chest.

“You won’t lose me. I know that I’m strong. But I’m also smart and I have all of you” she said sweeping her arm around the room.

Kade leaned forward and kissed the top of her head.

“I know you are smart” he said. “I just can’t lose you as well”

He pulled her into him closer. Ada’s mind was reeling. She wanted to be strong for Kade, she wanted revenge, she wanted nothing more than to kill Abaddon and make him suffer. But to kill an Angel would take more than just her power even with the amulet.

Chapter Eleven

“With her lips on my boomstick” Motionless in White.