Echoes of the Past

Chapter Fifteen

Back in Hell, I scanned the place to see if the voyeur was back. Not finding any trace of a stranger, I set the dread fiends to work guarding Lucifer’s chambers. I was getting real tired of surprise visits.

Once the book was back in its hiding place, and the guard dogs were on duty, I set up a gate to take me back to my house. With all the excitement up on Earth, I hadn’t had time to go back and collect Chatterbox or the last few vials of Lucifer’s blood. While it infuriated me to use the shit, it was an advantage no one else had. I could be as stubborn as I wanted to be, but even my dumb ass knew the blood was too useful to abandon.

The portal ramped up and I drew in a deep breath as I was transported to Earth. I thought about readying my magic or pulling out my gun, but honestly, had the DSI broken into my house, there wouldn’t be enough of them left to fill a body bag, let alone a bucket. A mop would be more useful.

The spare room of my house started to flicker into existence, and I wondered what surprises waited for me there. I didn’t have long to wait.

The instant I solidified, a shadow crashed into me and slammed me face down onto the ground. The portal hummed and carried us away immediately. I struggled but I was locked up good, my arm twisted behind my back at an ugly angle, far from my gun. In the whirl of the gate, my senses were blind and it’d be suicide to use magic. The shadow hadn’t done anything but wrap me up, so it made me think he wasn’t looking to kill me, but I still didn’t know who it was. I’d just have to wait it out.

As the portal began to wind down, I powered up and got ready to scrap. Turned out, I didn’t have to.

“Damn it, Frank, are you really that stupid?” I recognized Katon’s voice and let my energy fade. He loosened his grip on my arm and yanked me to my feet.

Katon was DRAC’s enforcer and all around vampiric badass. He and I have butted heads over the years, but we’d gotten closer through all the recent supernatural drama. He still wasn’t sure just how far he could trust me-an ancient deal I’d made with Baalth having soiled my good guy card-but he always dealt fairly with me. We’d fought side-by-side and risked our lives for one another, so he was willing to give me the benefit of the doubt as to whose side I was on, but the ugly uncertainty reared its head from time to time.

I met his dark gaze and saw the fury in his eyes. “You trying out for the Oakland Raiders?” I asked, rubbing my shoulder.

“Don’t start with me.” He huffed and pushed through me, storming off the portal. I followed. “Are you looking to get yourself killed?”

“Uh, no more than usual. Why?”

“The DSI have issued a warrant for you, Frank. You’re wanted for the murder of a DSI officer and for the questioning in the deaths of thirty-four citizens killed by whales.” He raised his hands into the WTF position. “By whales, Frank. Whales! What the hell happened?”

“I didn’t kill the guy.”

Katon shook his head and dropped into a chair. “I didn’t think you did, but the DSI does. They’ve got your house surrounded, and they’re just waiting for you to show up so they can return the favor.”

Shit. “Did they go inside?”

“No, not yet. They’re hoping to surprise you by making it look like they aren’t casing the place.”

“Good thing they didn’t or the surprise would have been on them. I assume you stayed in the portal room?”

“Yeah. I was going to take a look around, but I have to be honest, Frank, you really need to hire a maid. You’ve got some serious funk built up in there.”

I couldn’t help but laugh. Katon stared at me wondering what the joke was. “The smell is my dread fiend guard dogs.” He raised an eyebrow. “Long story, but between the DSI, the weres, and the whale-tosser, it’s been a hectic day. I needed a bit of insurance against another sneak attack at home.”

“Another?” He sighed

“Yeah. My day started off with me being shot in the head; it’s only gone downhill from there.”

Katon looked like a heavy metal Spock. “Let me call Rahim and-“

I cut him off. “Nah, man, it’s all good. He and I talked earlier and we decided it’s best if I stay out of DRAC’s way right now. There’s too much going on to drag Rachelle through it. I’m fine, Katon. I’ll get through it.”

He growled low in his throat. “Abraham wasn’t your fault. I know Rachelle’s hurt and angry, but I would have done the exact same thing had I been in your shoes. We all would have. She needed to be focused.”

“That doesn’t change the fact that I let Abe die and kept it from her.”

Katon loosed a barking laugh and shook his head, “Whatever, Frank. I don’t believe you let him. No one does. Stop blaming yourself. It’s a risk we all take being a part of DRAC. Abraham knew what he was getting into when he started the organization. He probably even knew he was going to die right then, and still put himself in the position to do so because it served a bigger purpose. He was a great man, but he’s gone. We all need to move on.”

The words stung, but I knew Katon was speaking the truth. A psychic of immense talent, Abe probably did know he was going to die and didn’t bother to avoid it because it would change the final outcome of the battle. That was something he would do. He’d formed DRAC to help stand against the supernatural world after God’s disappearance, and what better way to go out than by saving Heaven?

My stomach grumbled and a wave of nausea hit me as I thought about Abe. I went over and sat across from Katon.

“You all right?” he asked. “You look a little pale.”

“Been a lot going on today, from jumping across dimensions to being shot and ambushed by flying monkeys; I think I’m just run down, using my magic a bunch and I’m not used to it.”

Katon sat quiet for a moment as though he had a question but apparently chose to let it go. “What happened with the DSI agent?”

I knew he’d get to him eventually. “I’d just left Baalth’s and they were camped out there. They followed me and I tried to lose them, but the one guy kept up. I figured I’d give him a bit of a scare and buy myself some time. Next thing I know he’s going up in flames, and I’m sitting there like an idiot, powered up. His buddies show up and you can guess how that went down. Not much else to do then but run.”

“And the whales?” The emphasis told me he was still trying to work out how they figured in.

“Lucifer’s had some alien being locked up in a trophy case in Hell for the last millennium, apparently. The guy got loose and has been hunting for my uncle, but of course he can’t find him so he started shit with the next best thing: me.” I threw my hands in the air and sank into a chair. “He’s the one that cooked the agent, and then followed me to where he could attack without the DSI seeing him.”

“His weapon of choice was whales?”

“You just like the word whales don’t you?”

He shrugged. “Kind of.”

I shook my head. “His magic seems to draw on images, pictures. He attacked me with a witch and her flying monkey minions first, and then started dropping whales on me. I gotta tell you, it gave a whole new meaning to the term dick slapped.”

Katon rolled his eyes, but stayed on point. “With Hell to come back to, why did you go to your house? You knew the DSI would be there.”

“There was someone here spying on me earlier, so I can’t trust this place any more than I can anywhere else. Besides, I left Chatterbox and Lucifer’s blood in the house. I need to get those before anything happens.”

“I’ll get them for you. The DSI aren’t looking for a walking corpse, just someone that looks like one.”

I grinned. “If it’s any consolation, I’m starting to feel like one, too.” I thanked him for the help and explained where he would find the vials and CB.

“I’ll do some quiet research and see if Rahim or the DRAC archives know something about the alien, and I’ll see if there’s anything I can do to get the DSI off your back. I don’t have many contacts connected to them, though, so I don’t have much faith in a miracle.”

“That’s okay. I appreciate the effort, regardless.”

He nodded and went back to the portal, returning to Earth. I just sat there waiting, taking a moment to catch my breath. It seemed like every time I tried to do something, the pooch got screwed, so I figured it was safest to stay put.

After Katon returned and passed Chatterbox and the vials to me, he left again to see what he could do about the DSI. Not even a blip on the radar until the storms, I didn’t figure Katon would have any success getting them to back off. DRAC hadn’t bothered to cultivate a relationship with the group, so they didn’t have any influence. It was gonna be up to me to get my ass out of the mess I was in.

Good luck with that.

Hoping to cheer myself up, I hummed the opening riff to Slayer’s “Angel of Death” as a belated tribute to Azrael. Chatterbox jumped in with an Araya-esque rendition that sent chills down my spine. As we closed out the song, I had to admit I was feeling better. I dropped Chatterbox off in the God-proof room and stashed all but one of the vials. After saying goodbye to the knucklehead, I wandered off. I could hear CB belting out Pantera’s “Slaughtered” behind me and I really wished he would stop, seeing how I was going back to Asmoday’s prison.

Distracted by the spy, Karra and I hadn’t had the chance to search the rooms. As close to the case room as the room was, I was hoping Baalth had overlooked something when he made that section into Asmoday’s rooms. Unlikely, but who knows? Baalth had been pretty messed up by all the magic he’d inherited from Glorius, so it was possible he missed something I could use.

I wound my way through the halls and into the chambers, breathing a sigh of uncertainty. So far, I’d dug up nothing about the alien and way more about my mother and Lucifer’s relationship than I wanted to know. It was hard to find the motivation to start looking seeing what might turn up. I could end up being related to Justin Bieber, or something equally horrific. That would seriously fuck up my day.

Finally, I convinced myself to get to work. I dug through everything, tearing into Asmoday’s books and ripping apart the shelves, shredding the couches, chairs, and bed, making sure there was nothing stashed inside any of them. There wasn’t. I even examined all the paintings he had hanging on the walls. I felt a little bad about damaging some of them seeing how they were masterpieces long absconded with from Earth. Still, I didn’t find anything. I even went around the room knocking on the walls and stomping on the floor to see if there were any hollowed spaces where Asmoday might have stashed something. Locked away without his magic, he would have had to work hard to hide something where Baalth wouldn’t find it.

Then it hit me. When I’d come to visit Asmoday, he’d been covered in dirt. I didn’t give it much thought before, not even after I’d found the hole beneath his bed. I assumed that whatever was in the case had dug its way up to Asmoday, not the other way around. That changed things.

I went to the hole, which led to the case chamber, and peered inside. Nothing seemed strange or different, but it was hard to tell from the angle I was leaning at. No faith in my magic to let me hover like I’d seen McConnell do, I called for a couple of the dread fiends. Once they arrived, I dropped into the hole and had them pick me up. With the two of them doing a cute pirouette beneath me, I ran my hands across the walls, searching every inch. About a third of the way around, chunks of stone fell away against my hand. My pulse ramped up. I dug away the rest of the stone and moist dirt behind it and found a small cubby hole. Taking a deep breath, I reached inside. My fingers touched something soft and cool. I withdrew it to find a rolled parchment.

My find in hand, I shooed my helpers away and ran down the tunnel to the fiend room where I had better light-not to mention where I felt safer should the spy decide to come back. Hands trembling, I examined the parchment and realized it was a thin sheet of flesh. A Cradle of Filth song came to mind, but I pushed the image aside. Durable and well preserved, the parchment was most likely demon skin, and given the circumstances I’d found it under, I imagined it was Asmoday’s. I shook my head thinking about it. He’d a tough run of it, hacking a piece of his own skin off and then having his face used as decoration on an alien’s outfit. It couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy.

My attention back on the parchment, I unrolled it to see what was inside. A warm flush washed over me as I spied a number of the alien symbols etched across the sheet in dried, brown blood. Next to them, written in Latin, was what I imagined was the translation to the symbol beside it. I nearly shouted my excitement as I continued to examine the parchment. While it was clear the Latin key didn’t cover every single instance of the alien language, a number of empty spaces set beside the symbols, there were quite a few that were translated. It might not be enough for me to figure out what was written on the book or cage, but I had no doubt I could find someone more capable to wrap their head around it.

As I was in the process of high-fiving a dread fiend, I felt a cold chill come over me. I had a sudden feeling there was someone coming. An inner sense told me to hide. Not known for psychic tendencies or accurate gut feelings, I felt compelled to listen to this one because it was so clear. I scurried into the mass of dread fiends and quietly ordered them to close ranks to keep me out of sight. They complied. I was immediately surrounded by a wall of hairy, muscular funk that made me second guess my choice of hiding places. I peeked out between the legs of the fiends, doing my best to ignore the implications and the hanging dangly bits, and watched the tunnel. Time seemed to creep, but after a moment I heard the quiet slap of footsteps. My eyes locked on the entrance, I was surprised to recognize the person who slipped into the room.

It was Poe.

Without so much as a glance toward the fiends, who didn’t react to him at all, he made his way past and went into the case chamber. No clue why Poe would be here, let alone be ignored by the fiends, I circled around the back and peeked after him.

Poe stood in front of the case. He ran his hands across the remaining glass, tracing the symbols with his fingers. His eyes were narrowed as he focused, and it made me think he didn’t have any better an idea what it meant than I did. He spent a few minutes examining it, and then turned around. He headed straight toward me. I slipped behind the wall of fiends again and waited as Poe walked by.

He veered off near the center of the room and went to one of the side walls, the fiends shuffling a little to get out of his way without him saying a word. Once he was there, he raised his hand and I felt the sudden flicker of magic come alive, his fingertips lighted with shimmering green. The wall wavered and the gray stone appeared to melt away, dripping to the floor to disappear. After just a moment, there was a doorway where there’d been a wall. Poe went inside, the fiends shuffling into place to block the way.

I ran to the portal and pushed past the fiends, afraid the entrance would close before I could make it through. I peered down its length and saw the doorway led to a carved tunnel, which ran a short distance and then turned sharply left. I listened to the scuff of Poe’s footsteps and slipped into the tunnel once they’d faded some. Doing my best to stay quiet, I kept back a little ways. Not knowing what lay ahead, it was possible I’d run into Poe’s back if I wasn’t paying attention.

I continued following his footsteps and I was glad he wore his usual dress shoes. Had he been wearing anything else, I would have gotten lost as the tunnel turned into a maze. No idea where I was, it would have been easy to get turned around, never having even known these tunnels existed. There were no landmarks or anything to point the way to the exit. I only had Poe and his fashion sense.

Just before I turned another corner, I heard the sudden scuffle of movement. A whiff of dread fiend stink assailed my nose. There was the creak of old hinges and the thump of a heavy door being shut, and the shuffle sounded once more. I peeked around the corner.

Down the hall a ways, at what looked like a dead end, were a dozen dread fiends. They barricaded a wooden door set into the wall, which is where I presumed Poe went. The fiends didn’t even bother to look my direction, standing stiff at their duty. Unsure of what lay beyond, but certain the fiends wouldn’t be set out to guard an empty hallway-as there hadn’t been any up to now-I decided it best to wait until Poe came out.

He took his damn time.

After about an hour, I was leaning against the wall yawning when I heard the hinges squeal. The fiends shuffled. I darted the opposite direction from the door and slipped down another of the intersecting corridors, all the while hoping Poe went out the same way he came in. Hidden in the shadows, I heard the measured slap of Poe’s footsteps as he strode past. I let out the breath I was holding and waited another few minutes to make sure he was gone. Once I felt confident he’d gone back through to the fiend room, I drifted out and went back to the guarded door.

I waved the fiends aside and they obeyed without resistance. A deep breath to steady my nerves, I opened the door and stepped inside.