Chapter 2
Chapter
Two
Elijah
I watched the certifiably insane woman in front of me as she told me what amounted to a bad, scary campfire story. Her auburn hair pulled back from her face in a severe ponytail, face free of makeup, brows pulled downward in concentration as she spoke, and hazel eyes that shone with the strength of her belief in what she said. She was tall for a woman, and in excellent shape. The woman obviously worked out. Her muscles weren’t overly large or defined, but her strength was evident in her motions.
Kainda had a great voice, though, even if the words spilling from her soft looking lips were pure insanity. I could sit here listening to her talk all day, even if she needed psychiatric intervention. The way she said my name was lyrical.
“Don’t you have any questions?” Kainda asked, her voice edging into frustrated anger. Hands flat on the table, she leaned in closer, waiting for me to say something.
What was there to say? She’d either just confirmed I wasn’t crazy or that she was as bat crap crazy as I am. Little imagery scales in my mind were bouncing up and down, weighing what I thought of her statement. The jury was still out. What I’d seen had been beyond what I’d ever imagined possible, and this woman was dangling a hope filled piece of meat in front of a starving beast. It was almost too good to be true.
I cleared my throat, trying to dislodge the cotton in my mouth from the sedatives. There were so many drugs in my system, there was a possibility that I was only dreaming up this madness. I drank the last of the water Nurse Helen had given me.
Kainda looked seconds away from bashing her head into the tabletop. It was almost cartoonish, the expression of thinly veiled rage at my sluggishness. I supposed if I wanted her to hurry up and leave me alone, then I should throw her a bone to prompt her to move this tall tale along. Something deep inside whispered to me that maybe it wasn’t as tall a tale as I was pretending.
“You think I was kidnapped and tortured by an ancient goddess turned demon. I’m not sure which of us deserves to be locked up here more. In any case, I’d really like to get back to my room for a nap before the afternoon session, so if you could hurry up and get to your point.” I looked her in the eyes for another quick moment before looking away to her clavicle bone again, spinning the empty paper cup in my hands.
Kainda’s hands clenched into fists on the table and teeth grinding almost audibly. She looked to the ceiling and muttered something under her breath, I couldn’t make out. This woman almost made me feel like laughing, though the meds were still too heavy in my bloodstream for me to actually feel the joy or the urge of uncontrolled laughter. It was uncomfortable that she was under my skin, and we’d met less than an hour ago. I needed her gone lickitysplit.
“I know you were abducted by Uttu. Those scars on your face and neck are proof whether you accept my word as truth or not. She must be stopped before she can torture anyone else the way she did you. I am sorry you suffered at her hands.” Kainda looked at me with a soft, sincere expression that stabbed me in the gut instead of lending me comfort.
“Just how do you plan to stop her? You want to vanquish the demon back to Hell or kill her or what?” The fog in my mind was slowly beginning to recede as the early morning medication wore off, and the lunchtime meds hadn’t kicked in yet. I still felt groggy, but things weren’t a haze of vagueness anymore.
Kainda huffed out a breath, looking put upon. “First, there is no such place as Hell. What human Christians believe of as Hell is an imagery, made up place. Christians have mashed together all the Underworlds into one place, when really they are a collection of different and distinct realms. I believe that’s where the theory of the seven levels of Hell came from. In reality, you have Gehenna, Tartarus, and a few others. But that’s not what’s important.”
I wasn’t sure I was buying what she was selling, but I might as well humor her. We’d gotten this far. “So why don’t you tell me what is important and how you think we can get rid of this demon.”
“She was originally defeated when tribesmen, witches, and the remaining deities of the Mesopotamian pantheon worked together to strip her of her goddess powers and immortality. They then banished her to Gehenna. All shrines to Uttu were destroyed until all that remained was her amulet, which her mother, the goddess Ninimma, couldn’t bear to part with. No one knew then that the amulet could be used to free Uttu from her prison.”
“Nice story and all, but that wasn't what I asked. I want to know what you plan to do to stop her now, here in the present. Do you even have a plan?” I stared at her, but she stayed rock steady. The woman had a hell of a poker face when she wanted.
“This isn’t some fairy tale, Mr. Henry. Uttu is very real and the carnage she leaves in her wake has devastating consequences. Of course, I have a plan to deal with her, it’s my job after all. Now, can I continue with my story?” She used air quotes around the word story and came within spitting distance of rolling her expressive eyes.
“Be my guest, Ms. Lane. It’s not as if I can escape from you in this padded walled cage.”
“The amulet was lost to time until an archaeological dig twelve years ago unearthed it. A professor who studies Mesopotamian artifacts got permission to remove the amulet from the dig site to examine it further. Two students broke into the professor’s private lab and opened the clasp on the amulet, which freed Uttu. She killed the students and the next morning killed the professor. Uttu must have gained enough strength to flee because no one else on campus was killed. A professor of Demonology at the university saw the carnage and did some research before calling in a demon hunter friend of his, Theron Lane.”
“You said Theron Lane, any relation?” The idea sparked the first real feeling other than terror, physical pain, and anxiety in me since I was rescued. Curiosity killed the cat, and all that was surely going to come true with where this conversation headed.
“Yes, Theron was my father.” Kainda had grief etched deep in her eyes. I could see her biting the inside of her cheek to keep from crying. The man had obviously died, given her reaction and use of the past tense.
“Please, continue, Kainda.” I hadn’t meant to sound like I was caving into her, but my body still wasn’t under my full control, with the drugs still wreaking havoc in my neural pathways. She straightened her shoulders and cleared her throat before speaking again.
“Theron tracked Uttu for two years before he caught up with her. Something happened during the confrontation, and Uttu killed Theron and his entire hunting party. Uttu went into hiding afterward, and I’ve been attempting to track her for the last two years. I’ve come close to catching Uttu only to miss her by a few hours. She can’t be allowed to remain in this realm. So I have to banish her again, and to do that I need your help, Elijah.”