23. The vault.
23
The vault.
“Dr. Emily Eames, specializing in bio-engineering, created with her team one of the best inventions to fight demons. The Eames vessel is an incredible little device containing human cells which imitates a living host. It enables State Exorcists to store demons and keep their souls—or Qi—in stasis as long as the device remains intact. We will not expand on the technology behind it, for it is a government-owned project and an important asset, but we will study the use of the Eames vessels during an exorcism in the following chapter […]
The Eames vessels require a stable environment and proper nutrition to keep the cells alive. We store them in secret facilities, referred to as vaults. During your career, you might be called upon to guard a vault […]”
-Extract from the State Exorcist’s Manual , edition of 2047.
LOS ANGELES, 2052
“Where are you going?” I ask Leo as he walks to the door of the apartment.
The sun is rising, turning the sky beyond the tall windows a dirty orange. Azeroth took flight a few hours ago, to stretch his wings after such a long time earthbound.
I recall my stilted wings, and wonder if I could have flown, eventually, if Robb hadn’t carved them off my back. I doubt it.
“Tina opens soon. I’ll order a few breakfast plates,” Leo says.
My assistant looks worse for wear. He hasn’t slept since Robb woke up last night. He’s been catering to his every need, like a mother hen.
“He’s still eating?”
“Yes,” Leo answers with a fond smile.
I know that hunger well. Robb’s mutating body needs fuel.
“He’ll bring me to financial ruin,” I joke. “Could you bring up a pot of Tina’s coffee, please?”
He grins. “Already planning to, boss.” And he closes the door behind him.
I sigh. Time to face the Minotaur.
Robb has been in the kitchen for hours, eating his way through the massive amount of take-away food I ordered, then what we had left in the fridge and pantry. I’ve left him be, figuring he needed time to adjust to his new reality, but we’re running out of time and we need to get to the vault where the State Exorcists are keeping the demons we’re looking for.
As I walk into the kitchen, Robb is whispering angrily under his breath. Arguing with Lilith, no doubt. He already looks a hundred times better than a few hours ago. His face is filling up, and the bruises under his eyes are less pronounced. The demon queen’s healing power is even better than I expected.
“You should just ignore her,” I say, leaning on the counter. “Or she’ll drive you crazy.”
Robb levels a scorching glare at me. Am I imagining things, or have his irises turned a deep shade of red already?
“Is that what you’re doing?” he says. “Ignore your demon until the moment you let him out to play?”
I raise an eyebrow. “My demon is gone. He left me years ago.”
He doesn’t need to know the details of Lucifer’s demise. Especially not with Lilith listening. I doubt she’ll be accepting of her old lover having gotten devoured by a human.
Robb watches me for a long time. Searching for the lie on my features, no doubt.
Eventually, he gestures at our surroundings. “Is this the headquarters of the infamous White Exorcist? An old apartment with dusty wallpaper and a demon whore to warm his bed after a tough job?”
Lilith must have told him Azeroth was an incubus. I chuckle. I could tell him to say that to his face, but I think the hybrid might actually enjoy being called my whore .
“Still better than the wastewater facility where I found you, old man,” I retort.
A muscle ticks on Robb’s jaw, and he surprises me by smiling. Against all odds, he still has all of his teeth. With Lilith’s help, he’ll be handsome again in no time.
“Do you expect a thank you?” he asks.
“For saving your junky ass? Yes. Oh, and by the way, you won’t find any Angels’ Tears here. I don’t use that shit.”
Robb levels a disgusted look at me, but it’s not enough to hide the longing etched on his face. He already craves the next hit. I hope Lilith’s power will be enough to keep his addiction on a tight leash.
A moth flies around the kitchen’s fixture, attracted to the light. If it finds the entry at the top, it’ll die like the others, burned to a crisp. That’s a metaphor if I’ve ever seen one.
“Finish eating, then go take a shower, old man,” I say. “You still stink of rotten eggs and sulfur. Once you’re done, we need to have a talk. The demons are planning to attack the vault to free their generals. We have to get there first, and you’ll take us. I hope you’re still half of the exorcist you used to be. Don’t disappoint me again by making a run for it.”
Before Robb has time to argue, I walk out.
If he tries to run while I have my back turned, it’ll be a pleasure to track him down. This time, I won’t hesitate to put him and Lilith in chains, even if it pains me. I’m not a seventeen-year-old who thinks the sun shines out of his ass anymore.
By the time Robb gets into the shower an hour later, grumpily accepting the towel and toothbrush Leo is offering him, Azeroth has come back. I hear the great beat of his wings before his dark energy settles over the apartment. It’s subtle, and not enough to tip off Leo, but I’ve been attuned to it for the past few days.
My pulse picks up as he descends the stairs in his full demonic glory, wings, horns, tail, and all. He looks down at me, as if sensing the flustering in my chest, and smiles wickedly.
I still don’t know what this is—what we’re doing. He’s a creature from Hell, one of humanity’s sworn enemies, and I’m an exorcist. But being an exorcist never stopped me from getting attached to Lucifer. Maybe I was doomed to love the company of demons from the very start.
Azeroth is an incubus, and he likes to play with his food, and I am his food. There’s no deeper meaning than that.
Memories from last night, when I was on my knees sucking his cock, invade my mind and awaken my senses. It was—
Robb comes out of the bathroom, billowing steam in his wake, and I’m dragged out of my fantasies. He must have found an electric hair clipper, because the mess of dirty hair is gone, replaced by a ginger buzz cut. Unwanted feelings get stuck in my throat as I behold the man who was once my friend. Lilith’s mutations are working. He’s almost looking as he used to before the drug and abuse got to him, if not a little more rugged. He has put on the clothes Leo gave him earlier, but his new tattoos are peeking from the collar of his t-shirt and on his arms. They’re different from Azeroth’s. More symmetrical. The ink, of course, is black.
I get out of my stupor long enough to notice Leo’s tired eyes sparkling with something akin to idolization. From the knowing look Azeroth shares with me over the couch, there might even be something more than just admiration. I’ll need to have a talk with him about the dangers of such men. Even though I am well aware of the hypocrisy.
“Good,” I say, turning my attention back to my old friend. “We can start.”
Robb throws the wet towel over his shoulder. “Start by telling me the full story, from the beginning, and then I’ll decide if you’re full of shit or not.”
I exhale. “It’s a long story.”
“Lucky for you, we have all day.”
I hesitate, watching the three men in the room. They all deserve some piece of the truth. “Very well.”
It takes me some time to get to the full story of my life. The House Shaw Massacre, when my mother tried to sacrifice me. Lucifer’s possession. The first years as a lonely child in the mansion in Williamsburg, to the boarding school of Noble and Greendough. Arthur’s betrayal and his death. My first improvised exorcism at the lake during summer camp and my arrival on Ketron Island.
Robb smiles when I recount our time together, and there is a painful squeeze in my chest.
I tell them about my first mission in Hulett and how it turned into a nightmare, but gloss over the part where Robb butchered my wings. I avoid looking at him until I finish talking about Erin and her help. That wound still hasn’t healed and it certainly never will.
Leo gasps from time to time, but Azeroth only watches me, expressionless. I’m offering him the missing pieces of what he knew of Lucifer’s last years on Earth.
I tell them about my time in New York, and the various jobs along the coast. But then I lie about the train wreck, only to appease Robb and his demon queen. They don’t need to know that I devoured the Devil’s soul.
“I died that day, and Lucifer disappeared.”
Azeroth frowns, but says nothing.
From then on, the story is simple to sum up. My search for the gate of Hell brought me to Los Angeles. I met Tina and Leo, and later freed Azeroth and Robb from their captivity.
“Now you have it,” I say to Robb. “Happy?”
I feel flayed to the bones, all my sins in the open, for all to see.
Leo walks over to me and offers me a hug. I accept it, a little reluctantly, but then he says, “I’m sorry for all that you had to endure, boss,” and shame, affection, and relief threaten to swallow me up.
Leo lets me go and I make a point of not looking at Azeroth. He must know what I feel, and I don’t want to see it on his face. Does my pain matter to him, or does he only care about Lucifer’s part in my story?
Instead, I focus my attention on Robb. He looks torn for a second, then says, “Vault number two is on San Miguel. It’s a small government-owned island four hours away from the coast by boat. They’ve built it in a cave along the cliff.”
Leo gasps. “I knew it!”
Smart. Most demons hate water and can’t swim. Lucifer was an oddity.
I’m already grabbing my tablet from the coffee table and opening a map of the California coast.
“Give me all the details you recall,” I say.
By evening, we have a boat awaiting us on the docks of a town called Ventura, an hour’s drive from Los Angeles. Leo drove us in the van and tried to join us on the dock, ignoring my order to stay back.
I was about to throw him in the harbor when Robb said, “Go take a nap in the van, kid. I don’t want to have to protect you if things go south out there.”
To my surprise, Leo nodded and stayed back, flustered.
The sea is tranquil tonight as we unmoor the speedboat and leave the harbor. The moon is nowhere to be seen, and the ocean is pitch black as we get farther away from the coast, guided by the GPS. Azeroth takes to the sky to scout ahead, and Robb and I find ourselves alone with only the noise coming from the engine and the waves lapping at the hull to distract us.
I wasn’t planning on saying anything, and so I’m taken by surprise by my sudden outburst.
“I was just a kid when you cut my wings.”
Robb’s turns to me, eyes glowing in the dark just like Azeroth’s. I was right; he’s already turning into something more.
“I know,” he says so quietly he’s barely audible above the splashing of the waves.
I want to throttle him. “You were my only friend.”
“I know.”
“That’s all you have to say?” I hit him in the chest and he stumbles away from the helm. “You should have protected me like I protected you. Not leave me to the wolves.”
We should focus on the mission, but I can’t seem to reign in my anger and resentment. I want a fight, and I almost don’t care if we fall in the dark waters. Since I absorbed Lucifer, I’ve developed a fascination for the ocean. Swimming to San Miguel Island almost sounds like a good idea, as long as I get to punch Robb in his stupid face.
I square up to hit him, but he raises his hands in surrender.
“I know,” he says through clenched teeth. “What I did haunted me for years after—”
“Oh, it haunted you? How convenient.”
I can feel Lucifer’s power rising in my core, ready to turn who threatens my peace of mind into ashes. But I reel it in, barely, and tackle Robb to the side of the boat. With satisfaction, I watch his eyes widen before he falls overboard and into the waves.
I turn off the engine and look back to the ocean. His head is barely above water.
Azeroth chooses that moment to drop from the sky and land on the boat.
“Do you feel better?” he asks, trailing his fingers on my lower back.
I snort. “As a matter of fact, I do.”
“We can leave him,” he says with a smile. “He won’t drown. It’ll just take him a day or two to get back on land.”
“Tempting.”
But I turn to the helm and steer the boat to pick up Robb. The man himself is treading water, looking contrite.
“I’m not sorry,” I say to him. “And I hope you’re cold.”
“But I am. I’m sorry, Jon,” Robb says, taking the wind out of my sails. “I’m sorry…”
I didn’t realize how much I’d been expecting those words. Or at least some kind of closure for what happened between us years ago. His betrayal cut me deeper than his carving knife.
“Well, fuck you,” I say. “You’re ten years late.” But I offer him a hand to help him back on board.
Azeroth watches Robb for an instant and I swear I can feel the change in his energy. It feels… murderous.
“Did you find it?” I ask him.
He’s been scouting ahead.
“The cave entrance is right where he told us it would be. I felt four people guarding it.”
I nod. “Good. Then it should be fairly easy.”
“I’m afraid not, ashy one. There are boats in front of us. At least a dozen. It looks like they’re heading that way, too.”
“Demons?” Robb asks. He’s dripping water all over the deck.
“Most likely, if my nose is right. The wind reeks of sulfur.”
I sigh. “They’ve located the vault. Get ready for a fight.”
By the time we reach San Miguel, the demons have surrounded the cave entrance with their boats. Gunfire echoes along the cliffs like thunder. Azeroth takes to the sky once again to pick them out from above while we drop the anchor in the cove near a small beach.
“We’ll have to swim,” I say, taking my coat off.
Robb nods, but then curses under his breath. “Shut up, demon! We’ll be fine.”
“What is it?”
“She doesn’t like the idea of diving.”
“Didn’t Lucifer teach you how to swim, Lilith?” I tease.
Robb sighs. “She has a lot of colorful names and threats for you. More than a few involve things up your ass and down your throat.”
“I bet she does. Come on, let’s go.”
I make sure my weapons are secure around my chest in the baldric, and I dive into the cold water. Seconds later, Robb jumps in after me. Our mutated eyes allow us to see well enough in the darkness and we swim along the rocks to reach the cave.
Screams and roars echo in the night as Azeroth lands on boats and butchers the occupants or throws them overboard to drown.
“How can you trust such a creature?” Robb asks me as he catches up.
“He hasn’t let me down yet, unlike most humans in my life.”
It’s a dig at him, but he has enough brain to keep his mouth shut.
It takes us ten minutes to reach the cave entrance. We cross paths with a few possessed, sobbing while treading water. Their demons abandoned the wheel as soon as they realized their hosts could swim better than they did. We don’t stop to exorcise any of them; there’s no time.
Corpses float out of the entrance to the cave; the State Exorcists are still holding the fort. The hole in the cliff is big enough to let a small boat in before widening into an enormous cavern. There’s a floating pier—to be used no matter the tide—and steps carved into stone that go up to a metal door.
Robb shouts, announcing our arrival. The woman guarding the door asks him to climb onto the pier. He obeys, hands raised, to let her see his face.
“Robb Warden, you tough motherfucker!” she says. “Where have you been?” Then she watches me rise from the sea and under the spotlight. “Holy shit. Is that the White Exorcist?”
“Long story,” says Robb. “How are you holding up, Nora?”
Nora looks to be in her late thirties, with short hair and a crooked nose.
“Not good. I’m the only one left,” she says matter-of-factly. The other State Exorcists might be among the floating corpses we met on the way. “Are you my rescue team?”
“No. We’re here to grab some of the class-two demons you have on ice before the demons can get to them. They have valuable intel to help us win this war.”
Nora’s frown deepens as she declares, “There’s no use. You can’t go inside. We initiated a full lockdown half an hour ago. The vault will get flooded.”
Robb and I share a glance.
“Shit. How long do we have?” I ask.
Nora hesitates. “Five minutes?”
“Good enough,” then Robb, rushing up the stone steps. “Open the door for us, Nora.”
“You can’t—”
“Open for us, or we lose the fight!”
“Shit,” she rasps before shooting at a boat appearing near the cave entrance. “The code is eight-one-five-six-nine-zero! And the second one will be five-nine-five-nine.”
Robb enters the code and pushes the door open. Alarms are blaring inside, loud and ominous.
I say to Nora, “Our boat is anchored near the beach. If you swim underwater for most of the distance, the demons will ignore you. You should go while you still can. If you see a flying demon, don’t shoot at him. He’s fighting on our side. Tell him you’re with Jon.”
She nods, looking unsure.
There’s blood on the stone steps and my right foot slides in it as I rush to the door of the vault. Robb is already making his way through the brightly lit corridor going deeper into the cave. There’s a room that was built to house the exorcists guarding the place, with beds, a kitchen, and a bathroom. We keep going until we reach another heavy door. A warning flashes on the screen beside it, and Robb enters the second code. The door opens, revealing a cold chamber.
My breath fogs as I say, “Holy shit.”
Rows and rows of cryo shelves line the walls and reach the ceiling. A library of demons in bottles of human cells. There must be hundreds of them stored on ice.
“The class-two are at the very end,” Robb says, walking in that direction.
We reach a shelf with barely a dozen vessels on it. Higher-level demons.
“Let’s take them all,” I say, right as the ground shakes.
We barely have time to look at each other and grab a handful of Eames vessels before the sea water rushes in. The wave knocks us off our feet, and we hit the end of the vault, crashing on the shelves. I manage to put two vessels in my baldric to free my hands, but lose the third one.
The vault becomes plunged into such darkness that even my pale eyes can’t pierce it. I don’t know which way is up or down anymore as the water settles around us. I didn’t have time to take a deep breath and my lungs are already burning. We’re trapped in an underwater tomb.
Is this how it ends? I wonder. After everything I’ve survived, I’ll just drown? Lucifer’s sacrifice… wasted on me?
But Robb finds me and I feel his hands on my body. He pulls me through what must be the corridor. Lights flicker above us and I know we’re on the right track. My skin scrapes against rocks, and the water is too murky to keep my eyes open. The explosion has destroyed parts of the vault. It’s a miracle it didn’t just bury us alive. Robb pushes me through. I’m about to give in to the pain in my lungs and swallow salt water when two more hands pull me out of the rubble. I take a breath of cold and delicious air.
“Fools,” Azeroth says angrily, dragging me away from the churning water.
Robb emerges seconds later, coughing. I get to my knees to help him get out of the crumbling vault.
“Thank you, old man,” I say, patting him on the back. I would have drowned if not for his help.
Robb grunts in acknowledgment, then says, “I’ve lost the vessels.”
“I’ve got two,” I wheeze. “It’ll have to be enough.”
Azeroth puts a hand on my lower back. “We need to go before they rally again. I’ll distract them. Can you swim back to the boat?”
I’m reluctant to go back in the water after the ordeal, but we have no choice.
By the time we make it back, Nora is nowhere to be seen. Azeroth flies over while we call her name, but we get no answer. She never made it out. We sail out of the cove and into the open water. Some demons try to give chase, but our speedboat is faster.
Once we’re at a safe distance, Azeroth lands heavily on the deck.
“Helicopters incoming,” he says.
We turn off the engine and watch as three helicopters fly over the dark sea. It’s the rescue team. They’re far too late; the vault has fallen and the State Exorcists are dead.
Robb drops on a chair, exhausted and somber. “Fuckers… Let’s go find that gate and close it.”
His eyes glow bright red in the darkness, and the ocean seems suddenly to be such a quiet place. I shiver in my wet clothes and look up at the stars.