LAILAH
THIRTY-ONE
Here I was, standing on the edge of a cliff, a plunge into the river below my only choice if I didn’t want to deal with the evil, demonic man in front of me.
Would I choose to fight knowing that I would put everyone’s lives in danger, or would I make the hard choice and surrender?
No matter what choice I made, I lost, but I couldn’t see any other option.
Okay, there was a third option, but martyrdom was not at the top of the list either.
“I can see how much this choice weighs on you. How about I put a time limit on things?” Ubel offered.
“Personally, I find that the threat of death really clears the mind and shows you what your heart truly wants. There is no second-guessing when you just let pure instinct take over. So you have five minutes to make your choice before I push this detonator and trigger the bombs.”
Ubel made a big show of pulling out a phone and setting the timer, placing it on the ground so that I could clearly see the time ticking away.
Dropping to my knees on the ground, I covered my face with my hands, wracking my brain to find some way that I could get out of this situation that I just wasn’t seeing.
What would happen if I fought him? All I needed to do was get the trigger away from him, and that would give everyone more time. No, that was stupid. He could just poof away from me and set the bombs off then.
Okay, well, what would giving in do? Oh, sure the Dark Lord said he would save my men, but that didn’t mean he changed his plans for everyone else getting wiped off the face of the planet or turned into demon bodysuits. Think, Lailah, think!
Then the flicker of an idea crossed my brain. It was risky and foolish and probably would get me hurt or killed. What other option did I really have, though?
“Okay, I have an answer for you,” I said, looking up from where I knelt.
Ubel squatted down in front of me with a grin on his face. “Speak quickly. You only have a minute left.”
“I surrender to the Dark Lord,” I whispered, unable to utter the words any louder. My heart twisted and despair rolled over me, knowing that I never had another choice to make than this.
Before I could even react, Ubel slipped a syringe out of his pocket and injected me with the serum. “Welcome to the family, Synergy. I can’t wait to see what happens next!”
Pain burst through my body, much like it had when I was attacked by the demons on our scouting mission months ago.
This time, though, I felt it scorching over every nerve, altering my cells, and even slowing my pulse as I was being morphed into a new being.
Gasping, I clawed at the dirt floor as my body spasmed, fighting against the toxin, ripping a scream from my lungs.
All the while, Ubel watched with excitement, even clapping his hands at one point.
Once the serum had done its damage, I lay sprawled out on the ground, coated in sweat and lungs heaving.
What had I done?
“Rest a moment. That first dose really does a number on ya,” Ubel crooned, patting the top of my head. “Close your eyes. I’m sure the Dark Lord will want to talk with you.”
As if he’d used some sort of power on me, I drifted off to sleep, and sure enough, I found myself in that void where the Dark Lord always found me.
“Oh, my Little Synergy, I’m so glad to see that you’ve come to your senses and realized this is for the best. Although I admire how you made me work much harder than I anticipated to get you to see reason.
Ubel tried to tell me you were a lost cause and I should just kill you and the others while I could.
Now, here you are,” the Dark Lord cheered as he gathered me up in his arms, my body still unable to move.
The smell of sulfur and smoke curled around me, almost choking me with the acrid scent.
“We have a very special person for you to meet. Unfortunately, she is still asleep, but you are going to fix that, much like Ubel is with Dantalion.”
It felt as though I was being pulled through a thick substance, every sense registering in slow motion.
I couldn’t see well, but this time I could see the outline of objects like I was still underground in the dark.
This was not the catacombs I’d left behind, though.
This was somewhere totally different that set my hairs on end.
A soft, light-green light glowed in the distance, growing brighter as we approached, and finally I could see a woman laying on a stone slab much like I’d seen for the preparation of burial.
Only this woman looked very much alive, just deep in slumber.
“This is the mother of all, Lady Lilith. She was punished by the Seven Princes of Hell because she wanted to free all her children and let them own the Earth as was their right,” the Dark Lord intoned as he laid me down next to her on the stone slab.
“You have been chosen to carry her essence so that you will become her conduit to gain her powers back. Once the All Mother is back with us, then our plan can proceed, even without the support of the Princes and the other Greater Demons.”
I looked up at the Dark Lord, and even with empty voids where his eyes should have been, I could tell he was looking tenderly upon Lilith.
Was this whole thing just a way to gain favor with the one woman he couldn’t have?
Destroy the Earth so that Lilith and her children could be free from Hell or wherever this was?
The Dark Lord paused and listened. I could hear sounds in the distance, as if someone was heading our direction.
Quickly he turned back to me, grabbing Lilith’s arm and holding it over my face.
Taking a claw, he cut her wrist, letting her blood splatter all over my face and body as he chanted.
The blood started to burn and smoke against my skin, causing me to scream until I felt like my voice was going to be raspy forever.
The Dark Lord didn’t stop. He ignored me and proceeded with whatever ritual he was doing, blending in some of his own blood for good measure, which felt like more acid being dripped onto my skin.
Rage contorted his face as he spoke louder, forcing more power into his actions.
Then he started to make small cuts into my flesh, drawing jagged symbols just like I’d seen on the poor woman’s body on stage.
Just when I didn’t think this could hurt any more than it already did, it ratcheted up to another level of pure agony.
All I could do was pray that I would pass out or just be killed so it would stop.
“Why won’t this work,” the Dark Lord bellowed, his anger so strong that his words shook the ground around us. “I don’t have enough time for this not to work. You accepted this fate, been given the serum, you should be mine.”
“No, never yours. I belong to them,” I rasped out, tears streaming from my face as the pain lessened.
The Dark Lord leaned over me, his sharp black teeth gnashing in front of me, his saliva dripping from his chin on to my face.
“This cannot be! You are not Bonded to them all, you can still be taken. More serum, that’s what you need.
I will send you back to Ubel and he will give you another dose—yes, that’s it.
You are just too strong to be defeated by one dose. That has to be it.”
Seconds later, I felt as if the Dark Lord had picked me up like a football and chucked me back into reality, causing my eyes to burst open and my lungs to gasp for breath like I’d been drowning.
“It didn’t work. Why? Why wouldn’t it work? I made the perfect serum, what have you done?” Ubel asked before he froze. “No, Dark One, don’t take me under…”
Ubel’s eyes became vacant, and he crumbled to the ground like he was absent from his body.
Now. It needed to happen now, or none of us were going to live through this.
Rolling over, I dragged myself over to him, knowing this was going to be my only chance to end this particular nightmare for good.
Shoving Ubel over onto his back, I straddled his hips, sobbing at the pain of forcing my battered body to move.
Reaching inward, I called my powers forward, pulling strength from Hudson and Brayden’s presence, forever a part of me, and the tentative connections I had with Jay and Parker waiting to be completed.
Gathering all the love they’d each given me, the comforting touches and reassurance that I was always stronger than I believed, I plunged that right into Ubel’s heart, guiding it with the razor-sharp tip of my sai.
Ubel bucked under me, trying to fight me off, the demonic connection in him screeching at me, attacking every insecurity that I had, ripping my soul apart as he tried to cling to this body in the hope it would still free him.
“You are not welcome here, Dantalion, nor is any other who plans to destroy my home or the people I love. Make sure to tell everyone in the pit of Hell you call home that the Elementi Knights will not fail in their mission and we will take on anyone who gets in our way,” I vowed, sending another surge of power crashing into him.
I felt all six of our powers flowing through me, casting Dantalion back to where he came from, severing him from his conduit.
Unable to handle the power flowing through me, I released my sai and fell to the side, crying and shaking as I met Marvin’s gaze for the first time.
“You might have killed me, but I’m not the only one…” he gasped as I watched the light go out in his eyes.
Curling up, I took his still warm hand and let my grief take over, knowing I had done the right thing but also knowing that I was responsible for his death.
This was the thing that people who’ve been in war say you never understand until you’ve experienced it.
Marvin Brown, evil as he may have been, was still a casualty of war.
A man who had done unspeakable things, some I’m sure we still had yet to discover.
I’d been charged with keeping this world and the people in it safe from men and demons like him, but his death would always be on my hands.
The angels, the Elementi, and even my guys would forgive me and tell me I did nothing wrong—but I would carry it with me forever.
That was the cost, and I was willing to pay it, but for the sake of my soul, I prayed I didn’t need to do it often.
“We found her and she’s alive,” Micah shouted, pulling me out of my haze to look up at him. “God, what have they done to you, sweetheart?”
Hudson came rushing out of the tunnel with the radio up to his face, talking quickly to someone on the other end. “Micah found her. We’re by the underground river. Looks like the bridge collapsed. We are gonna need a medical team, though—she’s covered in blood.”
“What do you mean she’s covered in blood?!” Brayden demanded. “I’m going to need a little more information than that after what we’ve been through. God, it wasn’t even happening to me and I thought I was gonna die.”
Micah gently pulled Marvin’s hand out of my grasp and lifted me up, bridal style, close to his chest. “Let’s get you out of here,” he murmured, pressing his lips to the top of my head.
I clutched onto the fabric of his t-shirt as he turned to head back into the tunnels. “Wait! There’s bombs! He had the detonator—we might need that.”
“Shh, it’s fine,” Micah soothed as he kept walking at a fairly quick pace.
“The other three disabled the bombs and have almost gotten everyone out. We were able to make a larger exit from a tunnel closer to the surface with the help of the teams on the outside,” Hudson informed me, freeing me from the last thing I needed to worry about before I passed out again.
I was safe… for now. But the battle was far from over.
To be continued in Taming Fire