The Gate wasn't located in the most convenient of locations, but I'd visited worse in times of need.
It lay nestled in the earth's crust, some fifteen feet below the surface. Such dynamics were trivial when a Sin could pass through the Realm and thus bypass the material world—but when travel through the alternate plane was impossible, having the gate fifteen feet underground was problematic.
That was the reason why I was parking the car on an arid, abandoned lot by the interstate's underpass. When construction of the highway had begun decades ago, Amoroth—being the clever wretch that she is—influenced the building of the road and had its course altered to cross over the Gate. Footings for the bridge had to be dug, and while those had been created, a tunnel had been burrowed to the Gate itself and disguised as an access to the sewers.
Rank steam billowed from the tunnel's grate in defiance of the untempered rain. The concrete supports of the overpass were defaced with several layers of graffiti—but where the grate lay, the walls were clear of all markings aside from a line of crimson scripture: "the sting of death is sin, the power of sin is law."
"Everything should be in order for you," Amoroth said from the backseat, her fingers pale as exposed bone as she gripped them together. "Your accounts, your identity, and a sizable share of K.I.I stock have been procured. It should be more than adequate for the duration of your—." Life. For the duration of my short, mortal life. "—time here. I've contingencies set up for the event of my 'disappearance,' though things would have gone smoother had my assistant not been torn to bits by vampires."
From the passenger's seat came Cage's low, inappropriate chuckling. "I bet that wasn't in the job description."
The back door opened and Amoroth moved out into the rain, spurred on by the relentless presence of the Absolian's power thrashing in the city behind us. I got out as well, though I wasn't needed. I was simply uneasy with the idea of waiting in the car for Cage to finish opening the Gate for Amoroth.
Why, by the Pit, I asked myself with no small amount of irritation. Am I waiting for the mage anyway? I should leave him here. I should leave this damnable city, mortal or no. The Absolians presence has me far too uneasy.
I glanced at the mage as he followed us from the vehicle, his lips moving in silent incantation to shift the fall of the rain away from himself. He caught my annoyed stare and grinned.
If I abandon him, I'll never find out if what he said about Sara is true.
My brow lowered, but I said nothing.
Amoroth was the first to reach the grate, and she didn't bother to fumble with the latch or the lock. She curled her fingers through the rusted latticework and yanked, ripping the entire cover from its place with an ear-piercing shriek of protesting metal. Without thought, Amoroth tossed the grate aside and peered into the fuliginous depths of the tunnel below.
"Does it always smell like that?" Cage asked over the boom of the cars speeding overhead and the clash of falling rain. He covered his nose as a new plume of brimstone-scented steam took to the skies.
"Yes," I said from behind the two of them. "The barrier between the realms is exceptionally thin here, which brings their environments close to one another. The Realm is quite hot, while much of the Pit is very cold. The friction between the two causes this." I jerked my chin toward the greasy exhaust.
There were no more questions as Amoroth removed her shoes and hopped into the dark. The mage was leerier of the black passage—but I wordlessly shoved him forward, and the man fell with a short yell and a rustle of flailing cloth. Smirking, I jumped in.
Cage had enough sense to move before I landed on him. The impact was harder on my joints than I thought it'd be, but I managed to stand and not waver—unlike Cage, who was sprawled on the muddy ground with one hand pressed to his lower back.
"You don't even have to work at being a bastard," he growled as he clamored to his feet and beat the dust from his coat. "It just comes naturally to you, like you're a bastard protégée."
"Quiet." I started down the narrow tunnel after Amoroth, kicking bits of garbage and debris off my shoes. The Sin was moving with stiff, jolting steps, almost invisible in the dark but for the few stray shafts of urban light that managed to fall through the open grate and illuminate her. The tentative set of her face and limbs was uncharacteristic of the inimical woman.
"Something's...wrong."
"Wrong?" I stopped at her side, and though my night vision was worse than it used to be, I was almost positive there was nothing in the tunnel ahead.
That was until I heard the scrape of shoes meandering over rock, and the shadows started to coalesce into solid, bipedal forms.
Amoroth held her arm out and forced me to retreat several steps. "Your brother created these nasty things," she muttered as the first glassy-eyed vampire came into focus. It moved with unconscious ineptitude, shambling like an undead cretin from a mortal-made film. "What, by God, is wrong with them? How are they here?"
I didn't have an answer for her, and knew the woman must be at wit's end if she'd reverted to saying "by God."
"Cage," I said in a low voice, hoping I wouldn't provoke the creatures while I stood in their path of destruction. "Cage, do something."
"If you're expecting me to just twiddle my thumbs and solve everything," the man replied in the same low, gruff tone. "I can't set them ablaze."
Another vampire appeared with her ear cocked toward the sound of Cage's voice. The third and fourth weren't far behind. "Why not?" I demanded. Worthless. Utterly worthless—
"Do remember what fire uses," he snapped in a rare show of temper. "The air down here is thin enough as is. We'll suffocate if I light them up."
Amoroth swore, her English accent prevalent as she stripped her suit jacket from her arms and threw it to the mud. "Get out of the way."
She grabbed the first vampire by the neck and slammed him into the wall with enough force to make the tunnel and its concrete struts tremble. Cage recoiled, but I stood without reacting, even when the coppery mist of the leech's blood hit my face.
My tongue flicked over my lip—and I spat on the ground. "Tastes like poison. Disgusting."
The creatures hadn't moved when Amoroth attacked, nor did they notice when she extracted her hand from their fellow's skull and gore dripped from her feminine fingers. The Sin eyed the stoic leech with her vivid gaze narrowed in distaste before deliberately prodding the next vampire in the eye.
No reaction.
"What is going on, Darius?" Amoroth demanded. "Tell me something useful."
"I don't know." Frustrated, I grabbed the next leech by the jaw and stared it in the face, inhaling, willing the essence to come to me though I knew it would not. The vampire didn't blink or stir.
"For a man who was alive when dinosaurs roamed the damn earth, you sure don't know a lot." Her swearing became more flagrant as Amoroth started forward again. "I haven't the time for this."
Amoroth threw the next vampire aside and didn't pause to eliminate it, her mind set on the Gate located at the tunnel's opposing end. Cage went to follow her, though his discomfort with the situation was visible—but I took him by the arm to stop him.
"Amoroth, come back," I ordered, drawing her to a stop. She gave me a furious look—but noted that my attention had risen to the tunnel's low ceiling. "It's...moving...."
The tunnel wasn't moving—but the all-consuming pall of dread had drifted from the city's heart and was coming nearer. Like a blanket sown by threads of menace and fear, I felt the Absolian's power being pulled over my body until I was smothering beneath its folds.
One of the dazed leeches blinked and sucked in a deep, rasping breath as the others began to stir.
That didn't bode well.
"Get out!" Amoroth shouted as she leapt backward and avoided a sudden lunge from the waking creatures. A younger leech with faster reflexes sprung around her and used the wall to propel itself toward me, its uncut nails shaped like genuine talons on the ends of its fingers. I dodged and threw my foot into the creature's gut, tossing it aside.
Cage was already gone, vanishing up the half-corroded ladder without another word. I jumped for a higher rung and looped my arm around it, gritting my teeth against the sharp burn of the rusted metal biting into my bare skin. My wet shoe slid and my grip faltered. For half a moment I feared I would fall back into the now swarming leeches—but Amoroth, jumping ahead, snatched me by the collar and hauled my body up.
I cursed my slowed reaction speed. My mind was keen and my reflexes were sharper than a normal human's, but I didn't have the strength of a Sin or whatever preternatural thing gave Cage his freakish might. I was deficient, and I loathed that deficiency with a cold, uncompromising hatred. When Amoroth tried again to assist me, I refused her with a vicious snarl and told her to climb faster. I threw myself higher, straining every muscle I had, and didn't dare look down.
My breath left me in a shuddering gasp as my hands scrabbled at the tunnel's opening, though my shortness of breath had nothing to do with my strength and everything to do with how cold the air had become. The rain had ceased falling and now hung in midair, torn between the impetus of gravity's pull and the violent absorption of kinetic energy streaming into the sky.
I was out of the tunnel. The mage, Amoroth, and I were running, our footsteps noiseless, our exhalations expelled without a sound as that, too, was eaten by the sucking power. Like the rain, time was suspended in those few stolen seconds, stretched thin as we fled from a foe who couldn't be outraced, who couldn't be matched by the strength of any being in this realm. Fear I hadn't felt in many eons turned my head and had my eyes scouring the clouds above.
There, minuscule and silhouetted against the gray haze, was a winged harridan.
Magic is usually a sightless, soundless thing, an insidious phenomena that only manifests when its user wills it to do so. Such is its nature—but when the Absolian hurled a single bolt of his power toward the earth, it rent the air with a hellacious scream as the friction it created rippled through the realm's molecular frame. White light bloomed, and I had just enough sense to throw myself to the ground and to cover my head before the Absolian's blow hit the earth.
The highway and its bridge were of little consequence to the sky-bound predator. Both crumpled like paper when set on fire, the edges curling in upon themselves as the heat began to liquefy the asphalt. Rocks and stones were scattered in the blast as the rebar glowed red-hot within the concrete like radiated skeletons, pebbles and bits of shredded cars striking my face as my eyes watered from the light.
The earth stopped heaving as the explosion's sonic boom chased the light to the horizon. The temperature climbed in unwilling increments, and steam issued from the warped forms of vehicles and peeled pavement scattered like so many broken, unwanted toys. Amoroth and Cage were quick to regain their feet while I took longer, my head spinning from hitting the ground. The blast's inertia had twisted my balance, and even Amoroth struggled to keep herself from swaying.
Above the hollow ringing in my ears came the steady thump of wings beating at the air. The Absolian fell through the wafting smoke to perch upon a fallen section of the freeway.
Sweat dripped from my temples.
I had never been so close to one—not while I was a Sin, at least. I'd always seen them from a distance or had drawn my knowledge of their appearances from the stories of others. The one who had just demolished Amoroth's best hope at escaping Terrestria held a glamour fully in place to hide his unnatural features. His energy receded into his demure form as the tide does before a tsunami annihilates a coastline.
"Darius," Amoroth whispered, stepping back. "Darius, he looks like you."
What?
The smoke began to clear. Sirens began to howl in the distance as I looked upon the Absolian and he rose from his adopted perch. His carmine hair was clipped short and was mussed by the misting rain, while his black tunic and slacks were both kept clean of any mud or debris. His features were all symmetrical, pleasing, and unerringly proportionate in a way that wasn't innate in nature. He lacked a defining flaw, a balancing inequality that would have given the creature his defining character. The Absolian was beautiful—but grotesque in his perfection.
Amoroth wasn't lying. He did look like me.
It wasn't in his face; it was in his stance, in the width of his shoulders and in the imperious grace of his posture—and those eyes. His eyes were cyan, a cool, clear color that'd once been my own before the Baal stole my mind away.
Dying mortals caught in his attack screamed beyond the veil of steam and rubble, but the Absolian only blinked at the sound.
They're not allowed to hurt the humans, my thoughts supplied as I stared at the winged monster. The High King forbade it long ago. What is this thing doing?
His black and crimson wings dispersed before the Absolian hopped from the broken bridge. He landed, knees bent to absorb the impact, and the earth trembled underfoot. I'd forgotten how heavy the Absolians were in Terrestria. They held so much energy in their souls in manifested as a physical weight.
"Which one are you?" the Absolian asked as he raised himself up once more. For an instant, the glamour flickered and the taller, leaner creature below its façade was unmasked. His voice was warm—but monotonous and bored. He stared at Amoroth, giving Cage a bare ounce of attention while I was disregarded entirely. "Which?"
"Don't answer," I told Amoroth without looking away. "Don't." It's the only thing keeping your head on your shoulders.
"It matters little in the end." The Absolian paced nearer. Behind Amoroth, Sara's car had been flipped on its side and was of no use to us. "You and your kind will not be returning to the Realm. And you—." He lifted his arm to display gilded fingers dripping with latent power. Lust's eyes were wide with unspoken terror. "You won't be leaving this field."
The Absolian's arm began to lower.
"Stop!" I yelled. Before I knew what I was doing, I was standing in front of Amoroth, ready to die so the stupid woman could escape. I hated her—had always hated her, and yet...yet I worried what life the Sins would be condemned to if she didn't survive, if she wasn't there to guide them.
An illogical voice in my head kept whispering and murmuring in the recesses of my mind—and it warned that Sara could become a Sin without intervention. It was possible, and though I willed it not to happen, if that possibility existed, so did Sara's need for Amoroth. I would keep Amoroth alive if only for that fleeting chance.
The Absolian sneered as his eyes met mine—and he froze. His brows lowered, then came together to create a deep furrow as his chin tilted in confusion. He opened his mouth, shut it, and finally said, "Brother?"
Cage took advantage of his distraction. His hand flew to his throat and tugged part of the ribbon free while his other hand twisted into a furious spell. The mage's power swelled faster than I had ever known a mage's power to grow before and charged forth with explosive speed. The oxygen in the air surrounding the Absolian burst into a nebula of writhing green flames.
The creature stumbled, momentarily blinded.
Amoroth's hand landed on my shoulder, and we disappeared into the Realm.