"We should have turned and taken the road that I suggested," I grumbled under my nose while squeezing through a thick vegetation of the woods. Thirty minutes into a walk and despite all our so-called extrasensory abilities we got lost. It seemed that the woods were supposed to end any moment now, but the further we walked down the path, the more concentrated the grove turned. Besides, I was still unsettled about leaving the place without cleaning up the mess that left behind first.
"And we shouldn't just up and went, leaving two dozens of bodies just laying there."
"Don't worry," came a calm and quite disinterested response from Oengus. "Once Abysmal will recover, he'll sort it out. After all," I felt his eyes on me. "It is in his best interest to keep his profile low and clean."
"How long will it take for him to recover," I inquired thinking back to the moment when Abysmal attacked me. If I weren't what I had become, I'd sure be dead just from one glare he gave me when sprung on me after I managed to knock him out the first time. His eyes were void of any human emotion, something that was absolutely familiar to me. But even I could control my rage, able to snap out of fury whenever I wanted.
Him not so much.
Abysmal wasn't just evil. He was hundred present animalistic. From the human side, he inherited only the worst of it. He was proud, greedy, insolent and simply obtuse. The rage and burning desire to conquer me were all he wanted. He wanted to prove his strength and made me fear of him. Little did he know that fear was something I forgot, and so I smiled when he jumped on me. I kept my smile when he went back flying landing roughly to the bottom of the same tree as before. Then he uttered a roar shaking his head in confusion and getting to his feet. He kept attacking me again, and again, and again...until his strength left him and he dropped limply on his side and fell into unconsciousness. And I still stood rooted watching him, not making even one move.
"He's most probably already up and fussing over his defeat. It takes a bit more to kill a demonic offspring. I'm sure you know it, don't you?" He cast me a quick glance over his shoulder as he forced himself to walk ahead of me.
I'm sure it was exactly as he said, even though I never tried to kill anyone on purpose.
A few minutes later, my hearing caught a sound of a car honking in distance. I glanced at Oengus's back watching him wordlessly taking the course on to where the noise came from. He definitely had no sense of direction. I clicked my tongue and followed him without commenting on it.
In approximately twenty minutes the woods started clearing up, and a swoosh of passing by cars increased indicating that we've finally found ourselves nearing a highway. Oengus stopped walking making me pause as well and moved out of his way a leafy branch peeking from behind the shrubs.
"The coast is clear," he commented.
"Should we trust your expertise or let me investigate," I asked calmly.
"There's nothing to investigate. Let's go." He straightened up and pushing himself ahead, walked right into the shrubs.
"Very well," I agreed not feeling any kind of pull of danger and moving the branches away from my face squeezed myself through the shrubs, too.
While walking by the side of the road, a few cars passed not paying us any attention. It was better that way. Really. Every time a vehicle would fly by, Oengus would tense and grab the shoulder straps of his travel bag. Some time later, he developed quite a habit of it, which was rather annoying. I kept my eyes ahead on the road, not bothering to take a notice of the surrounding. It was just the forest from the both sides of the road. Nothing else.
At some point, a certain familiar feeling pierced through my chest, and I gasped softly. I couldn't identify what it was, but it was getting strong, and the anticipation was all I could comprehend. In the distance right behind us, a roar of the car's engine drew my attention. It was something or someone worth focusing on. Oengus stilled, making me stop walking, as well. Casually, as if looking for a pan, he checked his pockets. Then he straightened up and when the roar of the car was just a few hundred feet away he sharply rotated and threw something at the driver.
My own heart sunk deeper, but it was not because of fear. It was of recognition. I raised my hand willing for the object that Oengus threw to miss its aim, and spun around myself. It was a small army knife, and as it reached the windshield, it bounced back and successfully flew straight to my hand. I grabbed the knife on the move, feeling as the blade scratched my skin.
The car's brake screeched to a stop, but nobody moved. I closed the knife, glaring at Oengus.
"What the hell, Stacy Ann?" he glared back.
I squeezed my fist tight holding my blood from spilling on the ground and headed to the car.
"Since when are you defending fera?" he asked me mused.
"Since the moment when I recognized him as mine," I replied not turning to look at him.
"What do you mean yours?" he stirred to walked after me.
A few more cars were coming this way. I could hear the noise approaching. This time, my senses flared and what I could remotely call panic, chilled me from inside. It seemed that Oengus sensed the same thing and wordlessly followed me to the car.
I opened the passenger side and jumped on the seat shutting the door. With a scowl, Oengus opened the back door and hopped into the middle, sitting right behind me. Astus coldly glanced at him into the rearview mirror and pressed the gas pedal to the floor, speeding away.
"Astus," I purred, amazed at my own happiness at seeing the loyalty of my fera.
"Mistress," he purred back.
"Oh, I see what is going on here," Oengus piped up. "You stole one of my subjects, successfully employing Astus under your beginning."
I shrugged my shoulders. "He recognized me as his patron. What could I do? Tell his fera that I wasn't interested. Besides, my inner guidance kind of connected with him."
After a few moments of silence, Oengus made a clicking sound. I glanced at him into the side mirror, locking our gazes. "It's deeper than I thought," he uttered under his breath, and my arm shot out on its own accord, blocking him from harming Astus.
My personal shield flared to life, stinging Oengus. I fought back three of his attempts feeling anger rising in. Finally, he sat back in the seat with concern written in his eyes, rubbing his skin from the burning sensation that has left after the encounter. I rubbed my wrist too, feeling the same burning sensation. "So much deeper," he uttered and fell silent.
In four hours we arrived at a small gas station. It was one of the cheap once that had motel nearby with rooms basically smashed one into another. There was no café or diner nearby. Only two vending machines with sodas and cigarettes.
Astus parked the car by one of the gas pumps and wordlessly stepped outside to fill up the tank. He shut the door behind him and headed for a small kiosk. I watched his retrieving back until he reached the kiosk's door.
"We should get out of here," Oengus hissed through his teeth.
"Why?" I asked calmly glancing at him through the side mirror.
"He took the ignition key with him," he replied knowingly.
"But he is my subordinate," I insisted.
"But he is also a fiend," he bickered back.
"And who do you think I am?" I turned my head and looked at him straight into the eyes.
"You're partially me and partially a spirit."
"And who are you?" My eyebrow cocked.
"Beelzebub?" he offered. "The Prince of Damned. The soul collector."
"So what do you propose, oh the evil one?" I asked still staring at him.
"He is not yours. He belongs to the upper level of fera. He felt in you his superior, but you are not his ultimate master. Not you anyway."
"Then who is?" I asked feeling curious. That demonic hierarchy was still something I didn't know in full details.
"His maker...the mother of all the damned."
I redirected my gaze back to the kiosk. Doubt that Oengus installed in me grew deeper. Too deep to fight it off and reconsider my new thoughts. I reached for the car panel and opened the dashboard. It was empty. But I put my hand inside anyway and swiped the top, bumping on the way to something that felt like a spare key. Immediately, I withdrew my hand and sat back, shutting the dashboard.
Astus stepped out of the kiosk. Moving confidently, he stomped over to the car and began filling the tank with gas. I glanced at Oengus into a side mirror silently giving him my decision.
No allies.
And since, Oengus wasn't my ally...more like a sad predicament. He understood it. We were on our own. Therefore, needed to get the hell out of here as soon as possible.
Ten minutes into the ride we've approached a narrow deserted road. From the left side of the road stretched out a crops field that didn't look like it was used for a while. The other side still belonged to the wood. The field was only about two acres, but it was appealing in certain ways. The tension in the air was invisible. In fact, it felt almost fair. I kept my eyes on the road ahead of me just waiting. Something was going to happen any moment now.
Just as I thought that Astus missed the opportunity at using this perfect for criminal activities piece of land, he took a sharp turn to the left. The tires screeched underneath the vehicle, and I was thrown into the side, hitting my head on the window. My body filled with electricity reacting on the impact. The vibration surrounded me muting every other sound in the salon. Then I felt a tug on my shoulder and realized that the car flipped upside-down in the air. The hood of the car collided with the ground and my entire body has jolted ahead from the impact. The seatbelt has held me in the place and for a second I closed my eyes restarting my breath. My body was aching, but the ache didn't belong to me.
My eyes instantly flew open, and I looked to my left. Astus was in the same position as mine, hanging upside down. I studied his posture finding it oddly stiffened. The metallic smell reached my nose, and I realized what it was.
Blood...demonic blood to be exact.
"Take the knife out of him and cut your seatbelt," Oengus instructed me and groaned rising up from the car's bottom. He kicked the back door open and fell out of the salon onto the ground.
I looked closer at Astus, finally noticing a knife sticking out of his chest. I stretched my hand out and with all my force pulled the knife out him. A black liquid dripped down from the tip of the knife and fell on the car's body inside upholstery with a hiss. Paying no attention to that fact, I grabbed with my free hand the strap that was cutting into my shoulder and began to saw the hard material. The door from my side was suddenly ripped off, and a steady hand that my body recognized grabbed the knife out of mine and in a few quick moved cut the material on two. Gravity pulled me down, and I fell in the heap on the ground.
Feeling finally free, I grabbed the side of the car and crawled outside. Without much fuss, I pushed myself off my knees and rose onto my legs. Oengus was looking around. His clothes were torn in some places, and bloody patches were decorating his head and shoulders. I noticed my own shabby state, but the thing was that the blood that was now leaking down my shoulders wasn't inflicted on me during the crash. It was all Oengus.
"What now?" I asked calmly looking around myself.
"Nothing. Let's get our stuff and get the hell out of here."
"Sound like a plan," I approved and went back to the car to find my backpack.
Meanwhile...
Lilith sighed studying her nails and glanced at her twin. Adam was at the window, curiously eyeing the street that was visible from their floor. His gaze slipped from one pedestrian to another. He wanted to see at least one of his children that looked remotely like him, but to no avail, he didn't catch even a trace of him in any of them. He was bored out of his mind, but there was a certain longing in him that called for one person in particular. Nope, it wasn't his only truthful offspring and the only daughter that he had left or rather managed to acquire after many millennia. In utter honesty, he wasn't too interested in her. Just that she was his ticket back home to the upper realm. He was thinking about his Eve. The woman that he despised and loved at the same time. He knew that she felt the same about him. In was unavoidable.
Out of sudden, Lilith groaned and stood up from her comfortable seat.
"We lost him. We need to send after her a more able person who can lure her alone and bring here unsuspected. It seems that my oldest of Angelic sons took a liking of her. He infatuated with Stacy half a century ago. I was hoping that it was in the past now. How wrong I was."
"She's with Oen?" Adam raised his eyebrow but didn't turn around to look at Lilith.
"Apparently..." she trailed off. "However, maybe it's better this way. Tyrious is reckless. He can ruin my entire plan. If he gets to her first, he will try to figure her out. And we don't want that, do we?" she smirked.
"What if Luci knows about her? We mustn't dwell in thinking that we're the smartest ones here." Adam frowned and finally graced his twin with a sharp gaze.
"Oh, he knows about her, alright," Lilith muttered feeling annoyed.
"Which means..." Adam pursed his lips.
"The hunt is in full swing."