XXXVII
They were all standing about in the empty great room, all furniture having been removed since Turiel didn't want to risk any unnecessary interference (or damage) if the ritual ended up going awry. The entire group was huddled a bit at one side near the wall, everyone silently watching as Freya added the final finishing touches.
The ceremony required to activate the blade appeared simple enough.
A large circle had been painted on the floor with Eva's blood and four sigils in each corner marked out a square that surrounded the circle. Offering bowls were then positioned on top of the sigils, where the witch was now placing the four elements – water from the lake outside; earth from the garden; a bound bundle of twigs soaked in oil, which Freya ignited after placing it in the bowl; and the fourth was left empty to represent the air.
After the prepared bundle had been lit, the energy in the room changed and Lailah, whose arm was interlocked with Eva's, squeezed the girl's hand as if to encourage her – or perhaps it was to reassure herself?
"Are you sure you want to do this?" the angel asked, a picturesque image of calm. But even though her heart was beating steadily, Eva could sense Lailah's anxiety.
"I'm sure," the vampire said, glancing down at the woman's hand in hers, examining the small tattoo-looking mark on her left ring finger as she had done several times in the last couple of days. A look of affectionate approval filled her eyes. Raphael had the same mark on the same finger and as far as Eva could tell, the identical marks had shown up around the same time.
Eva didn't require an explanation to know what had happened between Lailah and Raphael, and though she never said so, she approved greatly of the pairing.
"Because I would completely understand if you didn't want to do this," Lailah continued, pulling the young woman out of her private thoughts. Eva watched as Raphael gently placed his hand on Lailah's shoulder in an effort to reassure her.
"I want to do this," Eva said, trying to sound more confident than she felt. "It needs to be done. It's the only way."
"She'll be fine," Raphael insisted. "Eva is strong enough."
The girl silently thanked him with a nod of acknowledgement before releasing Lailah's hand and then turning to Freya.
"You about ready?"
"Just about," Freya announced, making her way over Michael, who was holding something long and wrapped in a soft, aged suede leather. He held it out to Freya and watched her carefully as she delicately unwrapped the artifact within, revealing arguably the most terrifying looking sword Eva had ever laid eyes on.
"So that's the sword of Mephisto," Gabriel noted aloud, clearly impressed. "Certainly looks creepy enough to belong to a demon."
"Yes, but right now it's only steel," Freya said, using scraps of cloth as a barrier between her hands and the actual long sword so her flesh wouldn't come in contact with it and she held it out for everyone to see.
The hilt was a frightening piece of work, the blackened steel blade appearing to come out of the mouth of a horned skull. The horns curved around the cross-guard where the respective ends erupted from the carved mouths of what appeared to be demons, their bodies encrusted with red and orange jewels that looked like glittering flames, the colors contrasting with the dark grey of the material which the decorative hilt had been engraved from. The grip was ribbed and fairly simple in comparison to the cross-guard, but the pommel balanced it nicely with a disturbing set of horns that almost looked like sharp claws.
The blade itself was strong and impossibly sharp, the portion closest to the hilt lined with large, jagged teeth, which only added to its fierceness. And right down the middle of the blade along the fuller and the central ridge were symbols that Eva could not read, but their very appearance made her uncomfortable.
"What are those markings?"
"It's a bastardized form of Enochian," Gabriel explained, motioning with his finger along the center of the weapon, though careful not to touch it.
"What does it say?" Eva asked lightly.
"That the blade and its master are linked – I'm assuming it means once it's activated and since it'll be in your hands, only you will be able to wield it."
"Let us hope that's what it means," Michael said warily.
Eva turned to look over at Lailah.
"Well, here goes nothing," the vampire said what courage she could muster, and though Lailah could appreciate Eva's bravery, she could see that the girl's concerns mirrored her own, so she pulled her into a hug, holding her tightly. It was still so strange for Lailah to be hugging an adult version of Eva, but despite the taller frame and the womanly curves, all Lailah could see in that instant was the little girl she had helped raise from infancy and putting her in this kind of danger brought out the angel's inherent maternal instincts.
"You can do this," was all Lailah could think to say, and though she said the words but once, she repeated them silently in her head, as if doing so would make her feel better.
But they didn't.
That blade in Freya's hands had been forged in one of the deepest realms of the netherworld and though it presently lacked its power, it still possessed a darkness to it that made all of the angels uneasy, even the fallen Turiel. But Lailah could not hold onto Eva forever, as much as she wanted to, and so she let the girl go, taking one last look into those brilliant blue eyes before Eva followed Freya towards the circle in the heart of the room.
When Eva crossed over the threshold of the circle drawn in her blood, there was a notable change in the air and the candles that marked the prepared space lit of their own volition as soon as the vampire was inside.
Every hair on the back of Eva's neck seemed to be standing on end when her hand finally grasped the hilt of the sword, and the instant she lifted the weapon in her hand and the steel was within the circle, the temperature in the room started to drop.
"What do you need me to do?" Eva asked the witch.
"Just stand where you are and don't let go of the sword. Your body needs to be in contact with it at all times until the power transfer is complete."
Eva nodded in understanding and took the massive hilt of the sword in both hands, holding it upright, trying to distract herself by examining the craftsmanship more closely as Freya tied back her hair before removing the pendant from around her neck. The witch wrapped the chain once or twice around her palm and then allowed the jewel hang in the air in front of her.
As Freya began to recite the incantation, that oppressive feeling in the room slowly began to intensify and Lailah, unable to shake the sensation that something was about to go horribly wrong, reached for Raphael's hand.
Freya continued to repeat the invocation, her tone growing in force and volume as the pressure in the room increased and with each repetition, the flames on the candles grew higher and higher and Lailah watched as the blood circle that surrounded Eva started to glow just as the pendant did.
Cracks began to appear in the floor around the circle, a brilliant light shooting out from underneath as if something was trying to get out.
The witch's voice began to change, taking on deeper notes until the sound coming out of her mouth was clearly not of this world. Every syllable Freya uttered was like a chorus of people, men and women alike, echoing in unison, a slight screeching noise hidden in the background.
A light erupted from the four sacrificial bowls, firing up into the ceiling as more illuminated cracks appeared in the hardwood floor. The pendant in Freya's hand, though blacker than anything Lailah had ever seen, was glowing a purple-red hue and the gold skeleton hand that had been coiled around the cylinder-shaped black diamond melted away from the intensity of the heat that was radiating from it.
Although Eva held fast to the blade, Lailah watched as the girl's expression began to change while she continued to look at Freya who stood across from her. The vampire's eyes had started to glow an electrified blue and her fangs slowly began to protrude from her mouth, as if her very body was preparing to defend itself – but against what, Lailah couldn't be certain.
Freya's incantations were now being yelled as the floor began to shake and a violent wind tore through the sealed room. Eva was trembling as her gaze remained fixed on Freya's eyes which had rolled into the back of her head, leaving nothing but the white of her eyeballs visible.
As she uttered the words to the spell one last time, the power from within the pendant erupted and beamed directly into the blade of the sword, knocking Freya flat on her back and skidding across the floor, the jewel hovering in the air of its own accord.
As Gabriel and Turiel quickly rushed to the unconscious witch's aid, the four pillars of light surrounding the circle were suddenly consuming Eva as the energy from the stone continued to shoot into the sword.
The blade glowed red with heat and Eva's hands and arms began to burn, the veins beneath her skin glowing as though they were rivers of fire.
The vampire did her best not to cry out, but the pain soon became unbearable and she let out an ear-piercing scream as the energy and light ripped through her, incinerating her clothes, flesh, and hair.
Before Lailah could even move, a powerful shockwave radiated from the blade, forcing all those who were still on their feet flying into the wall as thick, glacial sheets of ice poured like a river from the cracks in the floor, devouring the room in a single wave, sealing the doors and windows.
The cold was so intense that it burned, sinking through the skin and down to the bone, burning in the lungs of all who drew breath.
But just as quickly as it came, the floor began to shake as the cracks, which had been frozen over, exploded, sending shards of ice through the room like shattered glass, slicing through flesh and severely damaging the walls and ceiling.
The floor surrounding Eva was now consumed in flames as a chasm appeared around her and the overwhelming stench of sulfur and burning flesh flooded the chamber, Eva's screams soon mingled with those of the damned.
The activation of the blade had opened a portal to Hell, and through the noise of chaos, a deep rumbling growl could be heard from deep in the pit.
"Mephisto," Michael whispered in horror. "He's awake."
"He must have sensed the reactivation of his sword," Turiel said. "That's what the inscription on the blade must have meant – that the master was tied to the sword."
"It took an entire legion of angels to bind him last time," Michael added. "We need to get out of here now."
Turiel hastily gathered Freya into his arms and was out the door with Gabriel following close behind.
"What about Eva? And what about the portal? We can't just leave that thing open!" Lailah exclaimed.
"It's going to take a lot more power than what any of us has to close that thing," Michael shouted over the noise, heading towards the door.
"We have to go, Lailah, now," Raphael pleaded, grabbing her hand and he started to lead her towards the exit but the sound of Eva's screams were like deep claw-marks in her brain.
"I can't leave her like this!" she insisted.
"We can't save her, Lailah. She is beyond any of our reach," Raphael said as calmly as he could, though it was clear he was just as pained as she.
Lailah knew he was right – she had heard the tales of Mephisto, the sorcerer turned demon, and if he wanted his sword, he'd take Eva with it.
But as Lailah turned to look back at the vampire, something in her clicked.
She couldn't explain what it was – perhaps a moment of sheer insanity – but the barely untapped power that was flowing through Lailah's veins suddenly came to life and her eyes narrowed on the flaming pit beneath Eva's desecrated feet as all fear drained from her face. The girl's ankles and calves were littered with lacerations and burns as the rest of her was rapidly turning to ash, even though her body fought to heal itself, it couldn't keep up with the onslaught.
"I won't leave her," Lailah whispered resolutely and with a sharp yank, she freed her wrist from Raphael's hold and the door slammed shut between them.
"Lailah, no! What are you doing?" Raphael shouted from the hall as he slammed his fists against the door.
"Is she still in there?" Turiel called.
"What the hell is she doing? She could be killed!" Michael shouted.
"I can't get the door open. Gabriel, help me break it down!"
Lailah could hear the sound of the men throwing their bodies against the pair of double doors, but the wood hardly even bowed against their weight.
"Lailah, open this door right now!" Turiel bellowed from the other side and Lailah stepped back to see a brilliant heavenly light trying to crawl underneath the small gap between the door and the floor, but it could not penetrate the space.
She said nothing as she turned to look at Eva, the sounds of Hell and the roar of Mephisto drowning out the desperate shouts and pleas of the men on the other side of the door.
Lailah should have been terrified.
In fact, before her rebirth, she would have been. Every square-inch of her brain would have been screaming at her, telling her to get out of there. No single angel had ever been a match for this particular demon, why would she be any different?
But her mind was unnervingly calm, serene even, as she walked towards the center of the room. Lailah could feel the heat of the underworld around her, the dark power that pulsated from its depths – all of that animosity and rage and agony and misery, a whirlwind of hot air that blew her hair about her head.
The woman took a deep breath, letting it fill her lungs as she felt a power come to life in her, starting in the center of her chest and then spreading and consuming every fiber of her being in a way that was simultaneously rapid and slow. A radiant light started to emanate from her as she reached the edge of the chasm and looked down into the raging inferno below. The walls were a swarm of bodies and souls – flayed and covered in blood and a black tar as they clambered over each other like ants, trying to reach the surface.
Another roar came from Mephisto down below and Lailah looked deeper in to the pit and could see the demon staring right back at her.
His eyes were an endless black, a sea of torment and silence that chilled her down to her core. When he saw her, a lone angel, standing at the top of the chasm, he let out another howl and his body morphed into that of a beast, horned and enormous, with giant wings and terrible claws that tore through rock as though it were a soft cheese and he started to climb up the walls of the pit, smashing the tortured beings that were still swarming the walls.
"You cannot have her," Lailah said calmly, her voice firm and unshaken.
Her words seemed to make the demon angrier, his roared response was deafening as it shook the very foundation of the house. He started to climb faster up the wall of the abyss and Lailah could feel the raging heat as his nearing presence started to char and burn up the floor, the wood surrounding the open crater glowing white – and yet she remained unharmed.
"You cannot have her," Lailah repeated, reaching into thin air and revealing a longbow, which appeared to be made of white gold, and the demon paused in his ascent as if he recognized the weapon. There was a moment of hesitation, but he ended up continuing onward, determined to retrieve the weapon that had been stolen from him all those centuries ago. But Lailah would not be taken lightly and she grasped behind her as though she had a quiver on her back and she retrieved an arrow. After loading the bow, she aimed directly at Mephisto who stopped dead in his tracks, snarling angrily at her.
"I said no," she hissed.
The beast opened his mouth to speak, though to the untrained ear, his "words" sounded more like growls.
"I don't care if that's your sword, you're not getting it," she replied matter-of-factly, rolling her eyes when he responded back. "Yes, well, I'm not so lesser anymore," she said. "Are you sure you want to test your luck. I'm certain I could hit you square between the eyes if I wanted to. Try healing from that!"
Mephisto hit the side of the wall angrily, clearly arguing with her. As he did so, Lailah noticed that the light from the pendant was waning, signaling that the power transfer between it and the blade was nearly complete – and though Eva had stopped screaming, she appeared to still be intact – just severely wounded, her flesh still burning and curling back like paper.
But she was still holding tightly to the sword.
Eva's eyes, which were remarkably undamaged, found Lailah's gaze and the angel offered the girl a reassuring smile.
It was almost done.
"What, you don't think I'm strong enough to close this hole back up?" Lailah challenged back at Mephisto. "Oh, darling, you must have missed the memo. I'm no ordinary archangel anymore."
She unleashed her arrow and, as promised, it hit the demon right between the eyes. Though the blow didn't kill him, its heaven-blessed tip caused him an inordinate amount of pain. Lailah watched as a blinding white light began to push past the shaft from inside the demon's head. The flesh surrounding the arrow began to ooze and dissolve and Mephisto howled as he grabbed hold of the arrow, struggling to pull it out of his skull.
"I got an upgrade," she announced, her voice deadly calm and even a twinge arrogant and the second the power transfer between the sword and the black diamond was complete, Lailah swooped her arm forward and the chasm slammed shut just before one of the tormented souls could reach the surface.
The instant the entrance to Hell was closed, the light that had been burning Eva up abruptly went out and the girl fell to the floor with a crash. She was still clenching the hilt of the sword, as it appeared to have fused to the skin of her palm.
Lailah immediately tossed the heavenly bow aside, the weapon skidding across the floor before disappearing into thin air just as she fell to her knees beside Eva.
It was when she touched the ground that that strange calm from earlier suddenly vanished and the panic set in again in one violent wave that nearly knocked the air right out of her. Eva's body was no longer healing the way it should have been and her present state shook Lailah to her core. The girl's beautiful brown hair was gone, her clothes incinerated, and her flesh a scabbed and steaming shell of charcoal black.
"Eva? Eva can you hear me?" Lailah called, hovering her hands over the vampire, eager to touch and console her, but almost afraid that doing so would cause more harm than good. She still couldn't account for that bipolar personality change back there with Mephisto – it was her but it wasn't her and she couldn't decide if that was a good thing or not.
Lailah eventually became conscious of an insistent pounding sound which appeared far away at first. She looked up to see where it was coming from and remembered that the others were still out in the hall trying to break down the door.
As that oppressive feeling in the air rapidly dissipated, the pounding seemed to grow louder until the magic from the ritual was gone and the doors finally gave way, swinging violently open as Raphael and Gabriel nearly fell to the ground from the unexpected lack of resistance. Lailah could see the others standing in the hall, Freya apparently conscious again and all eyes directly fell on Eva, their expressions very much the same.
Gabriel looked devastated when he saw the state Eva was in and he barely noticed when Freya pushed past him, shouting Eva's name and rushing towards the girl's side.
It was strange how everything sounded almost muted in Lailah's ears as her eyes found Raphael's, volumes of unspoken words passing between them before her eyes diverted back down to the unconscious girl on the floor who was now being bathed by Freya's desperate tears. The witch could barely contain herself as she wept, begging Eva for forgiveness as if the entire thing was her fault. Turiel gently took Freya by the shoulders and very gingerly pulled her away from Eva's charred body and into his arms where she willingly fell, crying into his shoulder.
Lailah caught her father's eyes for a moment, his gaze intense and full of pleading, as if he were silently begging her to somehow fix this.
It was an unfair and unreasonable request, really – she wasn't even sure if Michael or the combined powers of the archangels could perform such a miracle, especially without council consent.
But there it was again – that switch that went off in Lailah's head that swiftly silenced the panic and the sorrow and replaced it with an unsettling calm that swallowed her whole as she instinctively held her hand over Eva's chest where her heart would have been. Lailah's expression was stoic, but her eyes glowed with an affection and pleasure that seemed almost inappropriate given the dismal circumstances.
"Lailah, what are you…" Gabriel began, but he was silenced when a noticeable rush of warmth entered the room and the angels felt a strange shiver run down the length of their spines as they recognized an unfathomable power now present among them – a power that seemed to be coming from Lailah. Her entire person was illuminated as she continued to hover her hand over the presumably dead Eva and they watched with wonder as the girl's body began to miraculously heal.
The thick, scab-like substance that had consumed her dissolved away, replaced by supple and flawless flesh, dark brown curls pushing through the follicles in her scalp until the hair pooled around her head like a soft halo.
While the others watched as Eva was restored, Turiel and Raphael observed Lailah closely.
Her eyes were not her own – they shone with an intensity equal to that of a burning star and the focus and concentration in her gaze was unlike anything either of them had seen in her before.
It was like she was there – and yet, she wasn't.
Everything about Lailah seemed off – from the unnatural, raw, and seemingly limitless power radiating from her body, to just her very presence and aura. It didn't feel right.
The woman sitting before them didn't feel like the Lailah they knew and loved – she felt more like a deity. As if the power flowing through her came directly from…
Before the thought could even be finished, Eva's entire form had been restored. Though the light emanating from Lailah's hand was bright, concealing her nudity from the eyes of the others, Freya quickly realized the girl's vulnerable state and she used some magic of her own to at least cover the vampire with a long shift before Eva's eyes opened as consciousness overtook her suddenly, causing her to gasp for air.
When it was done, the light from Lailah vanished and the angel blinked a couple of times as the world came rushing back to her. Once again, she was left feeling mildly disoriented, a bit taken aback when Eva sat up and threw her arms around Lailah's neck, Freya joining in on the hug as Lailah kind of sat there, dazed. But when she felt like herself again, she returned the embraces she received and an overwhelming wave of relief washed over her.
Though everyone was pleased that Eva would live to fight another day, Lailah could sense the eyes of the four men who were still standing around her and the two other women, their gazes silently requesting an answer, but she could think of none to give them.
There was already so much to her new powers that she couldn't even begin to understand.
"Are you alright?" Michael asked her, offering his hand to help her to her feet when she continued to sit on the ground after Eva and Freya had stood. Lailah was staring at the hand that had just saved Eva's life with confusion and the faintest hint of concern. But the sound of Michael's voice snapped her out of her stupor and she forced a smile.
"I believe so," she said, accepting his assistance and he pulled her to her feet.
"What happened in here? How did you stop Mephisto?" Gabriel asked, clearly seeing not point in avoiding what everyone else was wondering.
"I shot him with an arrow and then closed the portal," she answered simply.
"Closed it how?"
"With my hand, I guess."
"And that's it?"
"Yes?"
"Are you sure?"
"Of course I'm sure! I just waved my arm over it and it snapped shut like a door."
"Why? Is that not normal?" Freya asked, one arm wrapped over Eva's shoulders.
"No, it's not," Turiel explained. "Most archangels require assistance when travelling to the netherworld, which is why they never do so alone."
"And the only ones with that ability to do so alone are Michael, Raphael, and myself," Gabriel continued. "And even then, we can't just open and close portals willy-nilly. Especially ones that were opened using the kind of magic Mephisto possesses."
"But she did close it," Eva said. "And she healed me and now we have the sword. I don't see what the problem is."
"It's not a matter of it being a problem," Raphael explained delicately. "It's just – no angel has had that kind of power before," and he glanced over at Lailah with an unreadable expression. "I believe there was more power to the angel stone than we initially believed."
Lailah shrugged, still silent.
"Perhaps," Michael said with a sigh. "But, we can discuss Lailah's new abilities at length at another time. As long as you're alright…?"
"Yes, I feel fine," Lailah replied, and that seemed to be enough for Michael.
"That's all I care about. Eva, I'm pleased that you're well, too," he said with a smile as the girl bent down to pick up the sword she had left on the ground. "So – we have the means of neutralizing Dracula, then."
"It looks like we do," Eva exclaimed, holding the blade out in front of her.
Lailah was sitting on the edge of her bed, half undressed, staring at her hands with a blank expression. The room was dark, save the bright glow of the full moon outside, its light streaming through the window and the divides in the drapes.
She heard Raphael enter, quietly shutting the door behind him, but she never looked up. She only continued to stare at her hands.
"I don't know what I am," she whispered as he made his way over to her. "I'm not a human or a nephilim or an archangel. I'm not even sure if I'm even an angel anymore." She glanced up and discovered him standing in front of her and her gaze caught his. "Raphael, what am I?" Lailah breathed a twinge of fear in her eyes.
When he didn't reply, she continued.
"I've never felt anything like this before. It's like, I can feel this – this raw, visceral power flowing through every fiber and cell inside of me and it doesn't feel wrong, but it doesn't feel normal either. It's just… it's so much and I don't understand it and after what happened back there with Eva, it's scaring the hell out of me."
She stopped, voice trembling as she began to recall that unnerving calm she had experienced earlier that evening and how disembodied she felt during the experience and her breath shuddered.
Now was not the time to be having an identity crisis, yet here she was, scared out of her wits and she couldn't even properly articulate why.
But Raphael was there – as he always was – and he pulled her into an embrace as he continued to stand in front of her, allowing her to bury her face into his abdomen and he gently stroked the back of her head as she took deep, slow breaths, gradually calming herself down.
"What am I, Raphael?" she asked, her voice full of a regret that pained him. He very gingerly took her face in his hands, the side of one of his fingers stroking up her neck to her chin so he could tilt her head back and bring her eyes to his. The look he gave her was not one of fear or concern, but of an unfathomable love that warmed her down to her toes.
"You are Lailah," he said simply. "You are an angel of heaven, the daughter of one of the greatest men I've ever had the pleasure of knowing, and you are loved and adored by more people than you will ever know."
He caressed her cheek with the back of his fingers with a tenderness that soothed her in ways nothing else could have. He then placed his hands on either side of her on the bed so he could lean in, his face in front of hers.
"And you are mine," he whispered. "And I am yours. And this newfound power of yours, though none of us may yet understand it, does not change the fact that I still love you – deeply, unfathomably, senselessly, and terribly."
"I don't deserve you," Lailah replied, smiling up at him.
"Yes you do," he insisted with a hint of playfulness as he kissed her brow before resting his forehead against hers. "Now stop overthinking what is out of your control."
"And what do you propose I think about instead?" she asked, eyes fluttering shut. "Because right now, I don't want to be thinking about anything."
"I may be able to help you with that," he said, the hint of suggestiveness in his tone unmistakable. It made her lips curve into a subtly mischievous smile and she opened her eyes to look at him idly fiddling with the end of his tie.
"I am yours to command, my husband," she said, her voice low and sensuous.
He smirked as he leaned in to kiss her.
"Mmm, I never thought I'd love the sound of that as much as I do," and he kissed her on the lips, nice and deep until she sighed beneath him. "If you are mine to command then, please finish taking off that dress and lie down on the bed, so I can have my way with you," he whispered.