Infernal Father of Mine Page 13

  "You're one of those agents?"

  He shook his head. "Possession drives the human host insane after too long, at least in most cases. Even though the demons were chosen for their loyalty to the king, there were those who couldn't resist the temptation to do their own thing and wreak havoc in the general population."

  "Guess I know where the Bible got its stories," I said.

  My father made a noise like someone hawking up broken teeth.

  "What in the world was that?"

  "That's how you pronounce the king's name."

  "Does he have an easier name in the mortal realm?"

  My father thought about it for a moment. "I know one of his favorite names is Baal. He always got a kick out of creating fake religions."

  "The name sounds familiar."

  His lips tightened. "He also happens to be my father."

  "Whoa."

  David shrugged. "Let's just say the king of demons isn't the best father figure to have."

  "I don't get it. If you're a demon, how haven't you driven your host insane?"

  "Because I am not possessing this body." He massaged his temples with his fingers. "The greatest minds could not solve the problem of keeping a demon in the mortal world without a body. They finally realized only the permanent melding of human and demon would work."

  I felt my forehead wrinkle. "Like fusing the souls together?"

  David tossed a handful of cheesy poofs in the air and caught most of them in his mouth. "Something like that. They had to find a human soul and demon that were perfectly compatible. This meant the demon and human parts would need to be congruent, otherwise one would fall out of alignment and the human would go crazy."

  "Sounds impossible."

  "It very nearly was, and the tests took decades."

  I cringed. "That was a long time while Seraphim were tearing up the world."

  He nodded. "Hundreds of humans volunteered for the test, desperate to save their world from the Seraphim. Many were training to be Arcanes. I possessed several candidates without success. When I reached a young shepherd, I felt this very odd sense of wellbeing I hadn't felt in the others."

  "You just naturally clicked."

  He nodded. "Yeah. The man cried. I felt his emotions, all a jumble. He was happy because he knew the fit was perfect. He was sad because he knew he'd have to leave his wife and family behind. He knew he would seed a whole new race of beings."

  "By having sex with humans?"

  He nodded. "Truth be told, he was actually kind of excited about all the sex."

  "I'll bet." I pursed my lips. "So is this other man still inside you?"

  He waggled his hand in a so-so gesture. "We absorbed each other. Our original entities expanded into a new being. We were the first true demon spawn to walk the earth."

  "So you're not the same dude who started this joy ride?"

  David shook his head. "While we have some memories of our original lives, there is no division. We are now 'I'."

  "Well, it still confuses the hell out of me." I grabbed another granola bar and chewed on it. "Was dear old dad proud of you?"

  My father burst into laughter. "He was horrified. He said that our very existence now relies on the weakest among us."

  "What a bastard."

  David shrugged. "He referred to me as the Prince of Weaklings."

  I grimaced. "Baal is the king of asshats."

  He chuckled.

  Another question occurred to me. "Why possess humans when you can possess Seraphim?"

  He wiped orange cheese dust from his hands. "We tried that. They're just too powerful spiritually. Other Seraphim know when one of their kind has been spiritually compromised. It's like they can smell the demon presence."

  "Nothing like brimstone-scented body spray."

  "Yeah. Our attempts at possessing Seraphim ended with the annihilation of the demons who tried it."

  "Seraphim sound like the perfect meld between physical and spiritual."

  "Not perfect," he said, "but darned close. The only demons powerful enough to possess someone like Daelissa are afraid to try."

  "So they decided to use humans and demon spawn as cannon fodder," I said.

  "You hit the proverbial nail on the head, son."

  I opened my mouth to protest his use of the word "son", but the word actually sounded kind of good right then.

  I felt a tremble in my body, and thought it was fatigue at first. My mind ran in circles with the information I'd learned. My father was the first demon spawn. I already knew my mother was the first angel to set foot in the mortal realm. But to find out even demons were afraid of Seraphim scared the padooky out of me. I shuddered grimaced at the pain it caused in my back.

  My nerves knotted. My stomach tried to twist into an origami swan. This wasn't just exhaustion or aftereffects of the painkillers. The future terrified me. Daelissa was gathering her old allies, the vampires. She wasn't stopping there. Now she was going so far as to draft the Arcane Council into her lineup through Cyphanis Rax, the man running in the special election to replace Shelton's late father, Jarrod Sager. If the demons were afraid of the Seraphim, what hope did the rest of us have for defeating them?

  "You're right," I said. "I wasn't ready for this."

  "And I haven't even told you half of it yet," David said with a rueful look. "I was the first demon to meld with humans, but I wasn't the last."

  "Who are the others?"

  His lips curved up. "You've already met two other originals."

  "I have?" I hadn't met many Daemos in fact, the only ones I remembered were—I felt my eyes widen.

  David gave me a knowing look. "Your sweet Aunt Vallaena and my soon-to-be bride, Kassallandra."

  Chapter 16

  I couldn't believe what I was hearing. "Aunt Vallaena and Kassallandra are originals?"

  He nodded. "Mine and Kassallandra's mates were killed in separate battles during the war. Two other houses of Daemos were annihilated by Seraphim assassins. Kassallandra came to me and demanded I marry her to unite our houses or she would defect to the Seraphim."

  Why would she do that when the Seraphim are a threat to humans and demons?"

  "Kassallandra didn't merge with her human. She had the woman poisoned and took over the body at the moment of death." His lip curled into a snarl. "The melding of human and demon souls tempers our demon edge. Even after all this time, she doesn't have a shred of humanity in her, though she's good at hiding it."

  "What did Vallaena think about this marriage proposal?" I asked.

  "Like me, she is also a scion of Baal and my true sister, but he actually has some small respect for her." He looked away. "She told me it was my duty."

  "Obviously you never went through with it."

  "No. I met Alysea, fell in love, and the Desecration ended the war and tore her from me." He ran a hand down his face. "I thought she was gone forever."

  "She's back," I said.

  His eyes diverted from my gaze, and he spoke in a whisper. "I know."

  I still didn't understand. "Then why do you insist on marrying Kassallandra?"

  "When the war ended, House Slade was reduced to a handful of members. Vallaena and I decided it would be best to hide my identity as the Paetros, and assigned two of my offspring as the patriarch and matriarch of House Slade. I pose as their son." He chuckled. "You ask me why I'm marrying Kassallandra, and the answer is very simple. If I refuse her hand again, if I don't agree to unite the two most powerful Daemos houses and declare her my right hand, she will enter negotiations with Daelissa and create an alliance with the enemy."

  His words sent a shock into my heart. "That's crazy! Why would she help Daelissa?"

  "Power, Justin." He blew out a long breath. "She has no concept of love, nor does she care for others. All she wants is power."

  "At any cost?" I couldn't believe how short-sighted she was. "Daelissa will betray her the minute the war is won."

  David nodded. "Kassallandra's demon sire is
second only to Baal in Haedaemos. She sees herself as having less power than me, and is obsessed with proving to her sire that she can be the most powerful spawn in Eden."

  I face-palmed. "Good lord. Does everyone in the universe have daddy issues?"

  He burst into deep throated laughter. "At least she didn't become a stripper."

  A snort burst from my nose, followed by a chuckle, each jolt of laughter sending knives of pain into my back. "Oh, ow, ow, ow." I gritted my teeth to stop the laughter. "You're an asshole, but at least you have a sense of humor."

  He knelt next to me, pulled up my shirt, and looked at my back. "The skin is red and swollen. Maybe I should get you some antibiotics."

  "Some anti-bacterial cream would be nice."

  "You should take a painkiller. You're pale as a ghost." He grabbed the bottle of pills, took out one and gave me a bottle of water.

  I popped the pill and swallowed.

  My father arranged some blankets on the floor. "Lie down, and I'll be back in a jiffy, okay?"

  I nodded, lying on my side, and resting my head on a bundled blanket.

  My father placed a hand on my shoulder. "You're going to be okay."

  His words sent a calming comfort through me. The world blurred as the painkiller kicked in. I tried to say something, but my lips no longer wanted to move. Thanks, Dad.

  Once again, strange dreams of floating orbs haunted my sleep. I woke up face-down on a small mattress. I felt a warm smooth hand caress my cheek. It reminded me of another amazing dream I'd been having. I looked up and saw Elyssa smile down at me.

  "Hey, baby," she said, and kissed me, her lips soft on my skin. "Sleep well?"

  I nodded. "I was having such a bizarre nightmare. My father and I were captured by these crazy Exorcist people, and then we had to run from dinosaurs and vampires through the Gloom."

  "You're home with me now."

  "I'm so happy," I said, and rolled over to pull her into my arms and kiss her. Dull pain raced up my back and snapped me fully awake. Elyssa's raven hair hung like a curtain over me.

  "Baby?" she asked, as her face started to melt.

  I stifled a shout of surprise as I remembered where I was. Wincing, I pushed myself upright, and told the dream Elyssa to give me some space. My eyes caught the face of my mother and the flash of blonde hair as she vanished into the darkness around our circle of light. David's guilty eyes met mine.

  "You certainly dream of your girlfriend a lot," he said with a smile that failed to hide a hint of sadness in his eyes.

  A lump caught in my throat. Here we were, two men trapped in purgatory, both dreaming of the women we loved. "You miss her, don't you?"

  His lips pressed tight, erasing the smirk. "Every minute of every day."

  "For the first time, I think I can say I know exactly how you feel."

  A nod. "I think this is one of those father-son bonding moments. Maybe we should share a beer to commemorate the occasion."

  I shuddered at the memory of the last time we'd shared a beer. "Maybe you should stop using humor to deflect real emotions."

  "You took that page right out of my book."

  I groaned, and with great effort, pushed to my feet. "Guess you could say I'm a chip off the old demonic block."

  "More than you know, son."

  A stab of pain hit me in the gut. "You can't just throw that word around casually. It used to mean something to me, you know."

  "It still means something to me."

  I shook my head. "Remember the whole, 'he will serve and die' convo?"

  "Of course, but—"

  "Yeah. I don't think the word 'son' carries any weight with you." I shrugged. "Then again, the universe is full of daddy issues."

  "Don't forget dad jokes," he said.

  "Like the time when I was five and you convinced me roaches were aliens, and when I tried to talk to one, you squished it and said we'd just started an intergalactic war?"

  He beamed. "Gotta admit it was hilarious."

  I pinched my eyebrows. "I lived in constant fear of roaches for months after that. I thought they were all out to assassinate us."

  David roared with laughter. "Really?"

  "Yes, really, you jackass. Worst dad joke ever!" I looked around for something to throw at him but a glimmer of light caught my eyes. I looked up as the space between the columns of the Obsidian arch rippled and undulated. A thin line split the air, and I saw people standing across the room.

  "What the—" my father stood next to me. "Isn't that the Grotto way station?"

  "Yes," I said. "And those are people. We can go home!" I watched as a man riding an elephant guided it toward us and the arch. "Let's go."

  "Hang on," David said, and stepped toward the portal. He stopped in front of it, and reached out a tentative hand. His palm pressed against the air. "I don't think we can go through."

  I limped over, each step sending sharp pains into my body from the slice across my back. My fingers probed the glimmering gateway to freedom, and found solid resistance. "No, this can't be."

  "What a tease," David said, and pounded a fist against the invisible barrier. "Son of a—"

  "Remember, use that dad humor to deflect the anger," I said, unable to resist curling my lip with frustration. I shouted out the worst curse words I knew, and started waving my arms at the man on the elephant. "Help! Send in the Templars, we're trapped in the Gloom!"

  Neither man nor elephant seemed to hear a thing as they walked straight toward us. In fact, I couldn't hear them, even when the elephant curled its trunk upward as if trumpeting. Just when it looked like man and beast were about to hit us, they vanished.

  "It's like looking through a mirror," I said.

  The looking glass vanished, leaving the room in a still dimness. As if to put an exclamation point on the depression blooming in my chest, the aether fog rolled in on us, thick and suffocating.

  A moment later, another portal winked into being, and we watched helplessly as a family of laughing people floated toward us on a flying carpet until they vanished. Judging from the line of people waiting across the room, I had a feeling the portal would be opening often. Sure enough, we witnessed everything from a pack of werewolves to vampires dressed in business suits go about their travel in the real world while we could only sit by and watch.

  There was at least one positive to the torture. It was daytime in the real world. The Exorcists had tossed us in the Gloom in the late afternoon. We'd been here less than twenty-four hours, but it felt like days.

  Once I got over the bitter taste in my mouth, I decided to be productive, and analyzed the situation. As a young girl wearing a sari rode a Bengal tiger the size of a car toward the arch, I realized something interesting. Each time the arch activated, the aether fog retreated, leaving a bubble of space around the traversion zone within the large silver circle.

  A metal spear whistled past, bounced off the portal, and sent a ripple across it. I flinched, and grunted in pain thanks to the wound in my back. I looked back at David. "Did you really think a spear gun would work?"

  He snarled, teeth flashing fiercely, picked up a ten-pound weightlifting plate, and hurled it at the portal. It bounced off and clanged to the ground. "This is really pissing me off."

  "I'm not happy about it either," I said. "It's like the frigging Gloom is taunting us."

  The faint echo of laughter reached my ears, followed by voices.

  David and I looked at each other.

  "Sounds like a group of real people," he said. "I don't think they're dreams."

  Chapter 17

  David's eyes ran over our little campsite and widened. "Go hide," he said, bundling my mattress and throwing it into the fog where it vanished from view.

  "What are you doing?" I asked.

  "We don't want them to know we're here."

  "Why are they coming here?" I asked.

  He jabbed a finger at the place where the arch usually stood. "What do you think?"

  I grabbed a
satchel with food and dragged it into the fog. My stomach rumbled nervously, or maybe it was just sick of all the granola bars and cheesy poofs. Locking down my nerves, I opened my incubus senses. A shock of delight ran through me the moment I found the newcomers—not because I knew them, but because two of them were female. I sensed at least five men. Most of them seemed in good spirits—all except for one woman who seemed immensely sad. Her mood matched mine. I couldn't imagine how anyone could be happy in this hellhole.

  David suddenly appeared next to me.

  "Is that dried blood?" a man said from the direction of the arch ring, he and his companions hidden by the dense fog. I realized with a shock, the man sounded like one of the two who'd come for us in the church right after we'd arrived.

  "My god, I think you're right," replied one of the females in a disgusted voice. "It's real blood."

  "Poor soul," said another woman, her voice soft and compassionate. "How awful."

  Another man sighed. "Calm down, Theresa. Probably another newbie who killed himself with a dream apparition."

  "Not the first time," suggested the first male voice.

  "So much blood," said Theresa. "I hope they didn't suffer."

  Someone shouted. "I found the body. Looks like something bit his head off."

  "I don't want to see it," Theresa cried out.

  "Enough of the drama," a gruff male voice said. "We've got a quota to fill."

  "What's on the list, Jarvis?" the other female asked. Her voice sounded deeper than Theresa's.

  "Two more Arcanes and a vampire," Jarvis replied, his rough voice easily discernible from the others. "Set up the ripper."

  I heard scuffling and a squeaking noise.

  "When are you going to learn to dreamcast a cart that doesn't have a bad wheel, Gavin?" the other female said in a chiding voice. "Do you know how annoying it is listening to that thing?"

  "Carts always have squeaky wheels," replied one of the men whose voice I recognized from the church—presumably Gavin. He had a deep southern accent. "Besides, Pat, don't you always need something to complain about?"

  "I knew you did it just to bug me," Pat grumbled.