The Lack of
Conscience
Author: Darkness. Address: darknessdescending2000@yahoo.co.uk
Author's Note: Once again, I don't own the Malus Codicium, it was created by sci-fi author Dan Abnett (who rocks!), now that that's cleared up, don't sue me!
An apartment block in Graz, Austria: Two days ago
Picture the inside of an elevator, nothing overtly fancy or anything, just four metal walls, a floor and grilled ceiling. There is some very poor excuse for elevator music playing. Inside the elevator is a young woman who looks like she is in her late teens or very early twenties. She has a shy face with a button nose, light green eyes that hide behind a pair of black rimmed glasses, she has short ash-blonde hair tied back in a ponytail and was wearing the sort of outfit people automatically assume is the type worn by a prostitute. Black hooker boots and a skimpy red silk skirt with black trimming that left little to the imagination, covering this was a light- brown trench coat that hung open loosely. On either side of her lay a black suitcase, as well as a plastic bag from a local supermarket.
When the elevator stopped and the doors slide open, the girl picked the suitcases and supermarket bag up and walked quickly out into the apartment corridor. There were doors at regular intervals along the opposite side of where the door to the elevator lay. She took a right and walked down the corridor cautiously, looking behind her every few steps as if she feared she was being followed. She checked each door number with a quick glance until she came to the one she was looking for.
She placed the suitcases a little down the corridor a bit before stepping back to the door. She knocked nervously on it while looking down both ways down the corridor. When she heard someone on the other side of the door mumble something and start fiddling with the locks, she placed both her hands, still holding the plastic bag, behind her back. The door swung open to reveal a middle-aged man with unruly black hair and an ugly, unshaven face, there was a stench of scotch from his breath.
"Hey there sexy," he slurred, "So, you decided to accept my offer after all? Eh?"
"I...I need the money," said the young girl sadly.
"I thought so," replied the hoar taker. He had driven around the streets earlier and had seen her there. He could tell that she had never done anything like this before from the nervous way she stood and kept looking left and right every few seconds as if she thought something might jump her if she wasn't careful and vigilant. He had driven right up to her in his fabulous rented "Mercedes-Benz CLK55" with its Obsidian Black Metallic paint job and given her (in his not so humble opinion) an offer she couldn't refuse. While she thought about it he had given her the address of the apartment he was staying in for the week and had driven off rather speedily to get everything prepared.
He had picked her because she was young, fearful, vulnerable, and desperate for money. If she pleased him tonight then he might consider hiring her services again before he returned from his "business trip" at the end of the week to his forty-two year old wife in Holland.
He beckoned her in with one finger and turned his back to go to the kitchen and pour her some of the scotch he himself had been drinking as he had awaited her arrival.
The girl quickly pulled a Glock semi-automatic, complete with silencer from her plastic bag with her right hand while quickly covering the man's head with the open bag with her left. Before he could react to the sudden attack, she pressed the nozzle against the back of his head, where the spine and skull were connected, and fired one shot.
Her victim crumpled to the floor without a sound.
Smiling happily, she picked the man's corpse up with worrying ease, found the bathroom and unceremoniously dumped his body in the tub. She then put the plug in and began running the cold water so as to slow his decomposition. She walked over to where she had shot him and examined the floor, smiling. The bag had done its job perfectly; the mess one would expect was reduced to a minimum. Easily solved with a little cleaning.
"Excellent."
She walked outside and picked up the two suitcases and brought them before locking the door behind her. She saw the open door leading to the bedroom and walked inside. She examined the wide variety of sex toys spread out on the sheets and shook her head disapprovingly.
"A man who still needs toys at his age wouldn't have been any fun at all," she said to herself, picking up a black leather whip and examining it. "Very poor quality too," she mumbled.
She went to the bathroom to check how full the tub was and turned the tap off after she was sure enough was in. All she had to do was get her hands on some ice she could slow his decomposition for up to a week.
According to Furcifer, she only needed to wait a few days at most for the Anointed to arrive by bus.
She walked over to her suitcases and began to remove her disguise as quickly as possible.
-If I don't get some damn leather rubbing against my skin in the next few minutes I'll fucking scream!-
A café opposite the Graz bus station: back to present
This café was similar to the ones you tend to find everywhere on the continent, about two dozen wooden tables littered the area outside of it where many patrons had chosen to refresh themselves due to the fine weather.
At one of these tables sat two gentlemen. They didn't stand out in anyway. One in his mid-fifties with a Mediterranean tan, neat black hair going grey, dark green eyes, and a strong chin and was well shaven. He wore a dark green tank top, black jeans, boots, and a black leather coat that fell to his ankles.
His associate was in his early thirties with a lighter tan on his skin, his head was completely shaven, no hair, moustache or anything. He had penetrating chestnut coloured eyes, a hawk like nose and a scar running across his right cheek. He wore a black leather coat similar to his older associate, as well as black chinos, shoes, and a dark grey shirt.
Both were sipping café lattes.
Across the street they could see buses arriving at the station and depositing their passengers. After several minutes a bus from Vienna arrived and a handful of passengers disembarked. Among them was a young man clad completely in black, with a leather coat similar to theirs and with long white hair tied back in a ponytail. He was holding several brand new travelling bags, one, quite thin and about sword length, was hanging over his shoulder, another was so long it appeared to be holding a very long fishing rod. He was glancing around suspiciously at his companion. A black man in his mid-forties in blue jeans, hiking boots, a red T-shirt and a grey raincoat with his hood pulled up. He was saying something to him that his two watchers couldn't hear.
The black man in the hood scanned the crowd around them, his eyes resting on the two men watching them at the café, for a brief second, he smiled at them before continuing to look around at all the people in the street. He turned to his young companion and shook his head.
The young man seemed satisfied, handed some of his bags to him, and gestured for him to follow.
"That is indeed interesting. Wouldn't you agree Eric?" asked the older man as he watched the pair head off.
"It is Inquisit-" his companion stopped at the look the older man was giving, "I mean, Emmanuel. Very interesting. The daemon didn't tell him that he was being watched."
Emmanuel nodded, still watching the two men heading into a nearby hotel. "Don't address me by my title Eric. We don't know if there are already any cultists or anything watching for us," he whispered.
"Of course sir, forgive me."
"No harm done. Just be careful in the future."
"I will sir, but are you sure it's that's the kid we're looking for?"
"Undoubtedly. I can feel the Dark Powers converging around him even this far away from us."
"What shall we do with them?"
"When he goes to look for the first piece of Lucifer's equipment. We shall intercept and kill him."
"And the daemon host?"
Emmanuel frowned, "We shall prevail Eric. As we must. We are soldiers of God, we cannot afford to fail in our holy mission."
Several tables away, a very young woman sat sipping a cappuccino and listening to every word the two men said. She looked over to the hotel where the hot young guy with white hair and the black threads and his assistant had entered.
-So- she thought calmly as she sipped her coffee, -He's the one I have been waiting for. Nice ass. I will have to get a piece of that.-
She looked over at the two men who appeared to be totally oblivious to her presence and smiled darkly.
-They are certainly going to make this much more interesting.-
With that in mind, she finished her coffee and strolled over to her brand new Mercedes-Benz CLK55, got in, and drove off.
A hotel in Vienna: An hour after sunset
"Do you have any idea where Brooklyn may have gone?" asked Goliath. He and his entire clan were in a penthouse suite on the top floor in a very fancy hotel overlooking the city.
"We aren't very sure I'm afraid," replied the little old lady who had pointed a shotgun at him several months ago. She had identified herself as Jezebel Tibbs, a friend and servant of the late Macbeth. "However, this morning I learned of a case of body snatching yesterday. No one saw the perpetrator enter or leave the hospital. I suspect Brooklyn was looking for a corpse so that he could enslave that daemon, he conjured up, so it would be less conspicuous than walking around with a floating nightmare."
"Actually," said Demona as she stepped forward, "It's for safety measures. You see it's much easier to control a bound daemon. Their powers are considerably weaker, but they can be controlled if the right runes are inscribed on the intended host."
"How come you know so much about this type of magic Demona?" asked Broadway, eyeing her suspiciously.
"The book Brooklyn is using.used to belong to me," replied Demona. Her head sunk in shame, "Two hundred years ago I found the book by accident while in Gibraltar. It offered me all I ever wanted. The power to destroy humanity and place my race as the masters of the world. Thankfully Macbeth found me and took the book and hid it so that I could never use it against humanity again." She looked solemn as she confessed this; Angela came and placed a hand on her shoulder supportively.
"That was a long time ago mother. You're different now. Humanity will accept us one day, you'll see."
Demona smiled at her daughter and hugged her. Fang and Malibu rolled their eyes at the same time and headed for the balcony as quickly as possible.
"So where do you think he is now Mal?" asked Fang as he closed the door behind them. Mal walked over to the rail and looked out at the vast city spread out before him.
"He could be anywhere," replied the clone, "Jezebel told me she checked with the bank and apparently Brook took almost half a million out. The bank hasn't a clue where it is now."
"He planned this," concluded Fang, joining his friend at the rail, "In case we didn't want to help him after he got the rod. "
"That's my guess." Mal turned towards the mutate, "You have associates around these parts don't you Fang? I mean, couldn't you use them to find him or something?"
"Tried that already kid," said Fang, shaking his head, "He isn't in Vienna any longer. In fact, he could be anywhere," he sighed. Despite their differences, he and Brooklyn had been friends now for weeks. They had a lot in common, they liked the same music and films and even the same damn books. He had tried his best along with Mal to help Brooklyn get through how awful he felt after his banishment. It had been working fine until Oberon had shown up and ruined everything. He looked out at the city, "I hope he's okay, wherever he is."
Graz
Brooklyn frowned as he glided over the small city, he turned his head to his travelling companion, "Where is it Sin?"
The demon host flew beside him, it's host body's dead eyes looked back into his hazel ones and sent a shiver down his spine.
~Near a secret entrance in a park several miles outside the city my Master,~ it replied.
Brooklyn faced away from the daemon. There was no command rune that could be used to force a daemon to tell the truth unfortunately. However, as Sin was his captive, he had made it very clear that to lie to him would result in a lengthy torture session.
After about half an hour of uncomfortable silence, Sin finally slowed to a hover and pointed to a hill with a children's play park resting on the flat top.
~There.~
Brooklyn made a dive for the park with his daemon host, close, behind him. After landing the pair approached the base of the hill.
"So.how am I supposed to gain access to the place where this weapon is?"
~It is not a weapon Master.~
Brooklyn raised an eye ridge, "What do you mean it's not a weapon?"
~In this hill lies what the humans rather dramatically call "The Lack of Conscience," it is an amulet which contains the jewel of the crown of Darkness in it.~
"Okay. And the reason I would want this jewel is because?"
~It is a key Master. Without this you cannot contest for the weapons.~
"Bugger. Okay then. So what do I do now then?"
"Drop your sword, your staff and any other weapons you may have and then put your hands up!"
Brooklyn and Sin spun around to see whom the new voice belonged to. Brooklyn's eyes bulged as he dropped his staff and sword and put his hands in the air while Sin growled menacingly.
Before them stood two men, one of them, in his early thirties and with a shaven head, was pointing a missile launcher at him from twenty meters away.
The other, a man in his mid-fifties, held a Katana sword in his hands with runes similar inscribed on the blade that were similar to the ones Brooklyn had on his own sword.
He could make out armoured body gloves underneath their long black leather coats.
"Nice coat," said the man with the missile launcher.
"Thanks," replied Brooklyn conversationally, "So.what can I do for you?"
"You can start by telling us where you are keeping the Malus Codicium," replied the older man.
"Why should I tell you where it is?"
"I am Inquisitor Emmanuel Hasphant," replied the older man.
"Inquisitor?"
"Yes," replied Hasphant, "I am a soldier of God's Most Holy Order. It is our duty to seek out those who would threaten God's Church."
"How am I threatening the Church?" replied Brooklyn, trying to decide if this man was a total head case or not.
"You carry a work of the Dark Prince with you!" screamed the other man, "You consort with daemons! You make pacts with them! You are the willing emissary of Lucifer himself! You are a heretic of the worse kind and must pay the price for your transgressions!"
Brooklyn looked at the man holding the missile launcher as if he had grown a second head before his attention back to Hasphant, "You actually trust this man with explosives?" "Heldane can be a little.eager at times," explained the Inquisitor, "But he is a good and most trustworthy man."
Brooklyn looked back at the man with the launcher curiously.
Heldane. He was sure he had heard that name before somewhere. The only thing that he couldn't remember was where?
It wasn't important right now. What was important right now was stalling these two zealots until he came up with a plan.
"So.um.why do you want the book anyways?"
"It is a tome of Satan," replied Hasphant, stepping forward, "It is evil incarnate and must be destroyed."
"And what exactly are you going to do to me?"
Hasphant gave him a compassionate look, "You are only a pawn in our war against the Darkness gargoyle. If you repent now we shall make your death as quick and painless as possible. If you refuse then we must drive the Devil's influence out of your heart with fire before we grant you death."
What scared Brooklyn wasn't the fact that this man had told them they were going to kill him either way, why would it? He was immortal. The thing that scared him was that this man maintained that compassionate look the whole way through his speech, and that he was smiling at the end of it.
"Well gargoyle, what do you say?"
Brooklyn stood motionless, trying to give these two fanatics the impression that he was considering their offer while in reality he trying to guess if the plan he suddenly thought up would work. It would be extremely dangerous and if he didn't get everything perfect he would probably be in a huge amount of pain.
Hasphant asked him again what his decision was. Brooklyn looked up at him and smiled.
"Blow me."
He started at a sprint for Sin, drawing the rod as he did so. He heard Hasphant mutter something about everyone always doing it the hard way as he threw himself to the ground as Heldane let loose with the launcher.
"Sin! Shield me!" screamed the gargoyle as he threw himself behind the daemon host. The missile was barely five meters away when Sin reacted. It flew right at the projectile, meeting it half way. The missile hit it right in the chest, detonating the host body as it did so. Brooklyn was sent flying through the air, crashing against the side of the hill and almost losing consciousness. The rod flew out of his hands and landed several meters away. There was enormous explosion of light as the host body was utterly destroyed and Sin was released.
~FREEDOM! ~ Screamed the daemon triumphantly as it rose from the flames of the explosion as if it were a phoenix. Hasphant and Heldane swore viscously. Sin swooped down towards Hasphant. The Inquisitor spoke a word of power and the blade of his sword became enveloped in green fire, he swung the blade at the non-corporeal daemon and it hissed at him in pain before backing off.
Brooklyn was impressed. Physical weapons were totally useless against a daemon without a host body, but Hasphant was using some sort of magical energy to sting it. He was so caught up in the duel between man and daemon that he didn't notice Heldane sprint past the combatants and come at him until it was too late.
Heldane drew a revolver and fired, hitting Brooklyn in his right shoulder. The gargoyle howled in agony as he groped for one of his Desert Eagle pistols to return fire. Before he was able to pull the pistol out of it's holster, Heldane was barely a meter away. Heldane fired three rounds into Brooklyn's chest. The gargoyle howled before he slumped back, dead.
Smiling triumphantly, Heldane ran over to where the rod lay and picked it up. He heard a scream and turned around to see Hasphant have his sword hand incinerated. The man staggered back, screaming prayers of banishment at the demon, which simply laughed off his efforts. Heldane raised his pistol shot his master between the eyes. The Inquisitor went rigid for a second before he collapsed to the ground.
"Daemon!" yelled Heldane. Sin turned to face the treacherous Inquisitor.
~That wasn't very sporting, was it?~
"That old man was a fool," replied Heldane, pointing the rod at his dead master, "He actually thought I sought to redeem my family's name when one was burned as a heretic." He smiled evilly, "But in reality I seek the power my ancestor once wielded," he held up the rod as if it were a trophy, "And now I have it and you to do my bidding!"
~Very nice, good for you. However you are overlooking one minor detail.~
Heldane raised an eyebrow suspiciously, "What are you babbling about daemon? I hold the rod that imprisoned you. Therefore I have the power."
~Not quite,~ replied Sin, as it built up power for an attack, ~you see Brooklyn was the one who released me. I would have killed him had he not spoken the proper command words that the Codicium passed on to him.~ It grinned, revealing many, many teeth. ~You don't happen to know them do you?~
Heldane opened his mouth to scream, but Sin beat him to it, firing an energy blast it had been building up. Heldane fell to his knees as demonic fire engulfed him. He screamed in utter agony as his clothes burned, his skin blistered and his eyes melted in their sockets. The rod and his pistol melted too, the scalding liquid iron and steel flowed over his ruined hands, adding to the torture. He almost looked like a man being burned at the stake.
Brooklyn's corpse, several meters away, suddenly shuddered before the gargoyle's eyes shot open and he sat up, taking huge gasps of air. He heard screaming and looked in the direction of Heldane. He turned his eyes away, horrified at the terrible way the man was dying. He pulled out one of his Desert Eagle pistols and looked back at Heldane.
The man was still screaming while Sin looked on, laughing maniacally. He pointed the gun at the treacherous Inquisitor.
"I'm sorry," he whispered as he pulled the trigger. The powerful handgun roared as the bullet flew from the barrel and hit Heldane in the temple. The man stopped screaming and fell forward on his face, dead.
Very slowly, Sin turned his attention to Brooklyn. ~Nice to see you're alive again Master,~ it said. ~That means I can kill you. Again and again and again.~
It fired an energy blast, but Brooklyn leapt aside and was thrown into the air by the explosion as the blast hit the ground. Brooklyn rolled with the fall and came up on his feet, wincing at the pain he felt in his chest. Although he was healing quickly thanks to his immortality, it still hurt like Hell to breathe. He started to feel groggy, but he shook it off. He'd rest after he imprisoned Sin again.
The daemon began to circle him as he desperately tried to control his breathing. He needed to focus if he was going to fight the daemon with magic.
He began muttering a spell under his breath as the daemon swooped in for an attack. Brooklyn screamed the last command word as he let loose with a ball of magical energy at the Hell spawn. Sin stopped in mid air and caught the blast between its hands. It laughed as the ball solidified while Brooklyn started backing off in terror.
Sin hurled the now solidified ball at its former master. The projectile crashed into Brooklyn's chest, breaking all of his ribs and crushing his lungs and heart. Its speed was so great that it lifted the gargoyle off of his feet and threw him a dozen meters away, landing near Hasphant's corpse.
Sin threw its head back and laughed sadistically.
~Did you actually think that you could claim the weapons of Lucifer you insignificant little worm?~ it laughed.
It hovered over Brooklyn's body and began to undo the buttons of his shirt as it waited for him to be brought back. The plastic buttons melting at its touch while the material the shirt was made of began to smoulder while Brooklyn's exposed chest and stomach began to blister at being so close to the daemon. After about half a minute of waiting Brooklyn shuddered violently, his blistered chest heaved as he began to breath again. His eyes slowly opened wearily before they focused in on what hovering just above him.
He tried to bring his hands up to cast a spell, but Sin caught his wrists in its own hands and laughed as Brooklyn threw his head back and screamed as the flesh around his wrists began burn severely. It forced his hands above his head and held both down in its left hand while it brought its right down on his stomach.
Brooklyn screamed even louder as Sin pumped more power into its right hand, laughing the whole time.
The scent of cooking flesh filled Brooklyn's nostrils. His flesh. He could actually hear the sound of the flesh around his stomach sizzle. He was sure he was going to throw up. In desperation he tried kicking the demon away, but his feet passed through the malevolent entity, receiving third degree burns for his trouble.
~Tell me Brooklyn,~ laughed Sin over Brooklyn's screaming. ~If I tear your heart out, will you grow another one? ~ It laughed, ~Or will the heart I ripped out sprout legs and run back into you chest? ~ It laughed again before lifting its flaming hand off Brooklyn's ruined stomach and released his wrists.
Brooklyn drifted in and out of conciseness as the daemon cackled above him.
~Lets find out, shall we?~ it said as it moved its hands towards Brooklyn's chest.
"Back off!" screamed a feminine voice.
Sin was hurled away from Brooklyn by a blast of white energy. It hissed in anger at the newcomer who had hurt it.
Brooklyn turned his head to his left, where he had heard the voice. He saw a woman with ash-blonde hair and a button nose holding his staff. She was wearing a tight fitting black leather body glove, complete with black boots and gloves; she also wore a black flak jacket over this.
~Riana,~ said Sin venomously, ~I haven't seen you in ages. How have you been my dear?~
"Oh I'm fine," replied the woman in a conversational tone. Brooklyn could see she had his sword on her belt, along with a pistol, some clips, knives, and what looked like a whip. She strode over to him, keeping his staff pointed at Sin in case it tried anything. When she stood beside him she prodded him gently with her foot. "Can you move?"
"I.I.think so," whispered Brooklyn weakly. It was becoming a considerable effort to talk.
Riana held the staff in her left hand while she bent over and gave Brooklyn support as he tried to stand, he groaned in pain as he put weight on the burned soles of his feet. Riana wrapped her arm around his waist, holding him up with a surprising amount of strength. Brooklyn had to rely completely on her support; he was in such a bad condition that he could barely stand.
"You do know how to bind him to a host don't you?" she asked Brooklyn.
"Y-yes," whispered the gargoyle.
Riana, holding Brooklyn, while keeping the staff trained on the freed daemon, stumbled awkwardly over to the late Hasphant's body. She gently laid him on his knees beside the corpse while Sin hissed dangerously at them.
~I'll make you suffer for this you little whore,- it threatened.
"Shut up!" she snapped back as Brooklyn took a knife from his belt and cut the front of the armoured body glove covering Hasphant's chest off.
Sin roared and flew at the pair, Riana drove him back with a blast using the staff. Sin came at them again and again, being forced back each time by blasts from Riana. Brooklyn meanwhile had slit his palm open with the knife and started drawing runes onto the dead man's chest, stomach and forehead with his own blood.
Sin changed tactics suddenly and began showering the pair with destructive energy bolts, forcing Riana onto the defensive. She slammed one end of the staff into the ground.
"Shield!" she yelled. A white umbrella of magical energy surrounded her and Brooklyn, deflecting the blasts off them and sending them hurtling off in random directions.
"Finished," said Brooklyn. He barely had the strength to stay upright any longer.
"Good work!" yelled Riana over the din of the nearby explosions, "Now say the incantation of binding so we can end this!"
"I.I need the staff."
Riana tossed it to the half dead gargoyle and drew Brooklyn's sword. The blade erupted in white flames as Riana channelled her power through it. Yelling a battle cry, she leapt at Sin and made a series of slashes and thrusts at the demon with the demonically enhanced blade, occasionally stinging it, forcing it back as Brooklyn began to chant the words of power as quickly he could.
Sin howled as the blade hurt it again and replied with a blast of energy that Riana dodged with cat like grace. They circled each other warily.
~Interfering bitch!~
"Backstabbing bastard!"
Sin lunged at her, but howled in pain as Riana simply thrust the sword out before her, allowing the daemon's own momentum to cause it injury. She laughed, sadistically, at its pain.
"What's the matter Iieo?" she laughed cruelly, "Have you gotten that weak since the last time we met?"
~You no good BITCH! ~ Roared the daemon, as it raised a hand to send a bolt of energy at her.
"In servitutem ab-abduco, I bind thee fast and forever into this host!" yelled a hoarse voice.
Sin bayed loudly in rage and defeat as his in-corporeal form was dragged into Hasphant's corpse. Riana looked over in Brooklyn's direction. The red gargoyle's clothes were torn and burnt in many places; she could see the terrible burns on his legs, his belly, and around his wrists. His chest was almost black with bruises from the awful damage he had sustained while his breathing was shallow and laboured. He was still on his knees, one hand pressed against the chest of Sin's new host, the other held his staff loosely in the air, the raven end pointed in her direction.
"Can.I.die.now?" he asked in-between breaths.
"Sure."
Brooklyn nodded his thanks and slumped forward on top of his prone daemon host.
Riana looked around at the carnage that surrounded her, there were craters everywhere from when she had deflected Sin's attacks, not to mention a body burned so badly it would be a challenge to even guess if it was human or not, as well as bits and pieces of Sin's former host.
She smiled.
"This is going to be more fun than I thought!"
Feldbach, Austria: Six days later
Brooklyn stirred slightly before his eyes slowly opened. He was lying in a bed with the covers pulled up to his shoulders. His chest still hurt when he breathed, but not nearly as bad as before. He pulled the covers down, noticing his wrists and palm were bandaged, and began to check the progress of his healing.
His chest, right shoulder and belly were bandaged, someone had removed his chinos to get at his burned legs and feet and wrapped them up from the knee down in even more bandages, thankfully no one had removed the black boxers he had been wearing in human form before he had changed back into a gargoyle. He sat up on the bed and began to check the bandages over his wrists, he felt a little light headed and tired, but he tried to ignore the feeling and remove the wrist bandages when a door across from the bed opened and a woman in black walked in. The same woman who had helped him bind Sin.
"Ah your awake," she said pleasantly as she sat down on the bed beside him. Her voice held no trace of any accent to give Brooklyn a clue from where she was from.
"Thanks for helping me," said Brooklyn as he looked her over, "Who are you anyway?"
"Riana Mirelip," replied the woman as she took Brooklyn's right hand and began to unravel the bandages, when she was done, she checked it. His wrist was fully healed. She repeated the process with Brooklyn's left hand and wrist and smiled when there was no sign of the burns or the cut on his palm. "I am the guardian of Lucifer's gem."
"Lucifer's what?"
"The amulet that you and Iieo were looking for."
Brooklyn's eyes widened at the mention of the daemon's true name, "We did bind him didn't we? I mean he didn't escape or anything?"
"I have him downstairs," replied Riana, "He is quite well restrained. He isn't going anywhere."
Brooklyn relaxed and let out a sigh of relief, looking at his surroundings, "Where are we?"
"Your in my home. We are in a town called Feldbach. We're an hour's drive from Graz," replied Riana, "Are you hungry?"
Brooklyn's stomach growled loudly in response, the gargoyle smiled sheepishly at her, "A little."
"I'll get you something to eat then," said Riana, standing up, "By the way. How long will it take you to heal if you go into stone sleep?"
Brooklyn thought for a moment, "How long have I been unconscious?"
"Six days."
"About a week then."
"Very well," replied Riana, heading to the door. "In one week's time we shall go back to Graz so you can contest for the gem."
"Why are you helping me?"
Riana turned and smiled as she opened the door, "Get some rest. If you're a good boy and eat all your stew I might tell you." With that she closed the door, leaving Brooklyn alone with his thoughts.
Vatican City: One day later
"It has been confirmed your eminence. The burnt body was indeed Inquisitor Eric Heldane. We have no idea where Inquisitor Hasphant could be at the moment, although his rune sword and his severed right hand, also badly burned, were found at the scene by the local police," reported the aide.
"Damnation!" yelled his superior, slamming his fist violently on the ancient mahogany desk. The aide visibly flinched. It was very unwise to hang around his master when he was upset.
"Your recommendations your eminence?"
His master frowned for a moment before replying, "Alert Inquisitors Thompson, Liang, Rossi and Burke to the threat. Tell them to get to Graz as quickly as possible to conduct their own investigation and make a report."
"Yes your eminence," said the aide, heading to the door.
"One more thing." The aide turned.
"Yes your eminence?"
"This so called "Anointed One," said his master, "He's a gargoyle isn't he?"
"Hasphant was very adamant about that fact your eminence," replied the aide.
"In that case," said the master, "Tell them to take Kill Team Alpha along with them."
The aide raised an eyebrow in astonishment, "The entire team your eminence?"
"The entire team."
The aide bowed respectfully and made his way to the door as quickly as possible. His master watched him go.
"Spineless little worm," he muttered as he lit up a cigar.
Vienna: After sunset
Demona was definitely not in a good mood. She had spent the last six days trying in vain to find any reference to the weapons of Lucifer in her collection of tomes. Even with that annoying Tibbs woman helping her, they were still oblivious to the location or even the names of any.
Fang and Malibu had left several days ago to check up on some of Fang's most reliable sources in person to see if they were hiding anything from him. They hadn't heard from them since.
Her skills at magic had also failed her miserably. Both she and Jezebel had tried to caste a spell of observation to try and find Brooklyn but the mirror they used for the ceremony shattered the instant the last word of the spell was uttered.
Someone, or something, was keeping him very well hidden.
In desperation she had turned to Lexington to try and find anything on them on the Internet. So far his search was fruitless as well.
Goliath and the rest of the clan had grown restless and began patrolling the city while they waited for Demona or one of the others to find anything that could be of some help.
She slammed another book shut and swore to herself, "This is ridiculous! How can we ever hope to find him?"
"By looking," said an icy voice from across the table.
Demona looked up into Jezebel's impassive eyes. She really hated Macbeth's witch, and she was sure the feeling was mutual.
"Would you two please try and get along?" said Lexington as he scrolled through another site on the Internet on his laptop, "Some of us are trying to find something that might help save the world here."
"What are you looking at now?" asked Jezebel.
"I hacked into police files for this country. I'm trying to see if any weird reports were filed recently."
"Good idea."
"Thank you."
The minutes of silence that came after each went back to their search dragged into hours. Demona and Jezebel focusing on tome after tome while Lex continued to read more police reports. It was almost three in the morning when Lexington finally found something.
"Hello. That's strange."
Demona and Jezebel's heads shot up from their research.
"What is?" they said almost in unison. Lex gestured for them to come over. They complied and read a report on the screen that Lexington pointed out to them.
It was a very odd report concerning the burned remains of what had only recently been identified as a human male in a playground several miles outside the city of Graz, south of Vienna. What was even odder was the report that this was not the only human remains found in the area. Small pieces of a different human body were found scattered over a rather large radius. Its D.N.A matched a body that was supposedly snatched from Vienna almost a week ago. The report from forensics had suggested someone might have actually used a rocket or grenade on the body for some unknown reason.
"This is excellent work Lexington," said Demona, patting the smaller gargoyle on the shoulder.
"Thanks," said Lex smugly, "It was really difficult to get too. Someone, one of the police's higher-ups probably, really didn't want anyone to know about this. It was in a specially protected part of the police files. It had its own password and everything."
"Definitely the best lead we have got so far," said Jezebel.
Lex looked up at her, "It's the only lead we've got."
"Which is why we are following this one up immediately," said Demona, walking over to the phone and dialling Angela's mobile number, "I'll call the clan back from their patrols immediately. I'll tell my offices here to get one of my company's new armoured vans ready. We should all be in Graz before the sun rises."
Graz: Same day, Midnight
"I thought we were going to wait a week until I was fully healed," complained Brooklyn as he got out of Riana's metallic black Mercedes-Benz.
"We can't," replied the woman hurriedly, slamming the door and locking it, "Remember those two religious nuts that tried to kill you?"
"Yes?"
"Well an awful lot more are on their way," said Riana.
"How could you possibly know this?"
"I dreamed it."
Brooklyn just shrugged his shoulders. He'd heard things a lot stranger than that.
Riana had parked as near to the hill as possible to make it easier for Brooklyn to get there. His feet had still not healed completely and so it hurt putting weight on them. His belly and chest had not healed as quickly due to the extent of the damage done to them, he had been forced to take several painkillers just so he could move and breathe properly. There were police cordons around the hill because of the terribly burnt body found there along with bits and pieces of another. There were two police guarding the crime scene, but Riana made short work of them, knocking them out at Brooklyn's insistence instead of slitting their throats as Riana had suggested.
The pair moved to the base of the hill, stepping over the police tape. Brooklyn checked his weapons for the fifth time since he and Riana had set off to get the so called "Lack of Conscience." He had brought his sword and staff, as well as his Desert Eagles, extra clips, some knives and three low- yield grenades from his cache of them. He was wearing a replacement pair of black chinos and a dark green shirt that Riana had bought him while he was unconscious. She got the size for the chinos right, but the shirt was three sizes too big, it was hanging off him very loosely. He was still wearing his long leather coat, despite all the slashes and burn marks across it. The Malus Codicium lay in his inside pocket.
Riana was wearing the black leather body glove, her black gloves and boots, and her flak jacket and was equipped with the same arsenal as before.
"So," said Brooklyn as the stood at the base of the small hill, "How do we get in?"
Riana handed him a small piece of paper with two words written on it, "Cut the palm of your sword hand, place it against the base of the hill and say those words," she explained.
Brooklyn looked at the two words on the paper and then looked back at Riana, "You're kidding right?"
"Nope," said Riana, shaking her head, "Those are the command words."
Brooklyn shook his head as he knelt down at the base of the small hill, pulled out a knife, cut his right palm, rubbed it against the ground and muttered the command words.
"Open Sesame!"
For a moment nothing happened, Brooklyn looked around at Riana and gave her a dirty look, "Are you totally sure those are the command words?"
As if to answer him, the ground suddenly began to shake. The part of the hill in front of Brooklyn exploded outwards, covering the startled gargoyle in dirt and clumps of grass before he could even yelp in surprise, revealing a set of blood red double doors.
Coughing, swearing a blue streak and eyes blazing, Brooklyn pulled himself out of the huge mound of dirt that had buried him. He heard laughter behind him and turned his head to Riana, who was clutching her sides and laughing uncontrollably. If looks could kill, the one Brooklyn gave her could have started a holocaust.
-I'll get her for that,- he promised himself as he got up.
"You know you could have warned me," he said bitterly.
Riana regained a margin of her self-control and smiled at him. "Where would the fun in that be?"
Brooklyn muttered more curses under his breath as he tried to get all the dirt out of his hair. After it became obvious that he wouldn't without the assistance of a hot shower, he yelled several very dirty words at the world in general and picked up his staff from where he had dropped it when the side of the hill fell on him.
"Are you coming?" he asked Riana as he headed to the doors.
"Afraid not," replied Riana, folding her arms, "This is something you have to do alone."
"I have to pick up a gem all by myself?" replied the gargoyle sarcastically. He was fast losing patience with this woman. She hadn't told him a damn thing about her other than she was the protector of this place, the so-called "Keeper of the Conscience." She was really getting on his nerves.
He marched angrily to the double doors; ignoring the pain his feet kept giving him.
"Brooklyn!" yelled Riana.
The gargoyle turned to face her, "What?"
"Remember one thing while you're in there."
"And what would that be?"
Riana smiled darkly, "Chivalry and honour are dead."
Brooklyn gave her a confused look, "What the Hell is that supposed to mean?"
Riana smiled knowingly at him and refused to say anything more. Brooklyn got the hint and didn't persist, preferring to turn his eyes sky ward for a moment before heading towards the doors. The blood red doors swung open silently as he approached them. He could see a stairway on the other side going downward in a spiral. Bracing himself for anything, he stepped through the doors, which closed behind him without a sound, blocking any light and leaving him in complete darkness.
"Crap."
One by one, torches hanging along the walls burst into flames, illuminating the way down. Ignoring the sudden urge to run like Hell, Brooklyn drew his sword in his right hand while keeping a firm grip on his staff in his left and began to walk down the stairs.
After what seemed like ages but was probably only a few minutes, Brooklyn reached the bottom of the stairs and found himself in an ancient corridor. It was illuminated the same way that the stairs were and only went several meters, ending at a large, plain mahogany door. Sheathing his sword, Brooklyn carefully advanced towards the door, occasionally looking behind him to check no one was going to spring out of a secret passage and jump him. When he reached the door, he looked it over. There was no handle. He gave it an experimental push with his free hand. The door gave way a little. Bracing himself for whatever lay on the other side, Brooklyn gave the door a hard kick. The ancient door flew open as Brooklyn rushed into the room, staff at the ready and sword drawn.
He found himself standing in a huge circular room roughly twenty meters in diameter. The walls were made of white marble while the floor was tiled with black. No torches hung along the walls; there was nothing in the room that looked as if it could provide illumination yet somehow Brooklyn could see the interior perfectly. The walls were totally bare of any form of decoration, on the opposite side of the room from where he had entered, was a mirror. It was imbedded into the wall, beginning at the floor and ending at the ceiling five meters upwards, it was five meters across, making a perfect square. There was no frame, only the reflective glass.
Felling drawn towards the mirror, Brooklyn cautiously walked towards it. When he was two meters from it, the reflective surface suddenly shimmered like liquid, as Brooklyn watched wide-eyed, the reflection in the mirror began to change.
On the other side of the mirror stood a red, beaked gargoyle with horns and white hair. He wore a black body glove tailored perfectly to his thin, muscular form, his chest, shoulders, shins and fore arms were armoured. He held a double-edged long sword in his right hand. The reflection smiled at him. Brooklyn gasped and took several steps back.
"Okay. What the Hell is going on! Who the Hell are you?" he felt a little stupid asking the last part, but he couldn't help himself.
"I'm you dumb ass," replied the reflection, "Or at least. What you could have been if you had just lightened up a little and been more forgiving."
"Hey fuck you!" yelled Brooklyn, his eyes flaring, "Demona deserved everything that was coming to her!"
"Says you."
"Yes! Says me!"
The reflection shook his head sadly, "Look at yourself. Look what you've become. You're a monster Brooklyn. A seething ball of hate with wings."
"Don't you dare!" screamed Brooklyn, "Don't you dare presume you can stand there and judge me! Someone had to punish her for all the pain she's caused over the years!"
"You shouldn't be so hasty in your judgement either," snapped the reflection, "She has been through Hell for the last thousand years Brooklyn."
"Yeah, your right. And whose fault was it? Huh?" raged Brooklyn, "It was no one's fault, but her own! Because of her my clan has been slaughtered! She's killed and maimed who knows how many over the years! She created the fucking Hunter! She's one of the reasons we are on the verge of extinction!"
"That's all in the past Brooklyn. Why can't you accept that she's changed? Why can't you find it in your heart to forgive her?"
"SHE'S EVIL!" howled Brooklyn desperately, tears of rage were forming in his eyes, and his entire body was shaking violently.
"Bullshit," said the reflection calmly, "I can see in your eyes that you know it's bullshit too. This isn't about what she did hundreds of years ago. It's about what she did to you, to us."
"Shut up."
"You aren't a fool Brooklyn. You had some idea what she was going to do with the Grimorium."
"Shut up."
"That was just as much your fault as it was Demona's."
"SHUT UP!" screamed Brooklyn at the very top of his voice, his scream echoing off the walls and ceiling.
His entire body was quivering with barely restrained rage, he held his sword and staff so tightly that his hands began to pale from a lack of blood travelling to them. Tears were rolling down his cheeks.
"Give me the gem you bastard," he whispered dangerously, his eyes beginning to flare. His reflection's gaze hardened. It stepped forward through the mirror, entering reality. Brooklyn took several steps back, his staff and sword ready for the fight to come. His alter ego looked him over as he walked to Brooklyn's left.
"Your injured," it said flatly.
"Why should that matter?"
"There is no honour in fighting someone who is injured and can't defend themselves properly."
"I can kick your ass any day of the week," replied Brooklyn. His reflection turned reality chuckled before his face-hardened.
"You're out of control Brooklyn. Turn around, walk out the door and give yourself up to Mal and the others before it's too late."
"No. I will have my revenge first," replied Brooklyn, his eyes flaring like twin suns.
"Do you know who I really am Brooklyn?"
"No."
"I'm the personification of your fucking conscience," said the alter ego angrily, "You know, that little voice inside of your head that you ignored ever since you started reading that damn book. It's manipulating you, it's manipulating your hate to fulfil its mission."
"Your talking through your tail my friend," replied Brooklyn, "Nothing controls me."
"If you won't listen to reason," said Brooklyn's conscience, his own eyes flaring, "Then I have no choice, but to take over."
He raised his sword in a knight's salute before he lunged, swinging his sword in a furious arc. Brooklyn parried the attack with his shorter Katana before spinning on the balls of his feet, swinging his staff to try and connect with his opponent's skull.
Brooklyn roared in fury as his alter ego parried the attack easily and jumped back several feet from him. Both circled each other, searching for an opening.
"You can't win," taunted the conscience, "The painkillers are gonna wear out soon. I can wait until then."
"You'll be dead before I even start breathing funny again."
"We'll see."
Brooklyn suddenly launched himself at his conscience, surprising it. He forced it back as he executed alternating attacks with his sword and staff, swinging, thrusting and parrying any desperate counters his conscience tried to make.
His conscience swore and dived below a downward slash from Brooklyn's Katana. The sword cut into the marble, cracking it. Brooklyn swore then and pulled the deadly blade out and turned to face his so-called better self. They stared at each other for a moment before continuing.
Their weapons locked as both made mad slashes at each other with their swords, they broke and continued their fight along the black marble floor.
After several minutes Brooklyn's alter ego began to gain the advantage as the pain in Brooklyn's chest began to increase, making it harder for him to breathe. He began to slow down while his conscience showed no sign of tiring. It made a faint thrust, but spun on the balls of his feet, making a lethal slash to Brooklyn's left. The gargoyle tried to block the attack with his staff, but the weapon was knocked out of his hand from the force of the blow, landing and rolling across the floor, stopping several meters away from the combatants.
Brooklyn stumbled back, swearing and making desperate blocks and parries as his conscience took its turn to drive him back.
"You can't win Brooklyn, give up!"
"Never!"
"You stubborn fool!" roared the conscience, "I'm not the bad guy here. You are! Give up! I can fix this mess you call a life. I might even be able to get Goliath to forgive us and let us back in the clan."
"I won't beg forgiveness from that bastard!" yelled Brooklyn, "It's him who's in the wrong God dammit!" He roared and launched another attack at his conscience, letting his hate for what Goliath and his banishment had done to him fuel his aching muscles. His conscience smiled as it blocked all of Brooklyn's desperate attacks.
Suddenly, it launched one of its own, knocking Brooklyn's Katana out of his hand before running him through, sliding the sword into Brooklyn's already bandaged belly until the razor sharp blade came out of his back and the hilt was all that hadn't gone through.
Brooklyn screamed in agony, his insides felt as if they were on fire, blood was coming up his throat, flowing into his mouth and through his clenched teeth, it was incredibly difficult to breath. His legs couldn't support his weight anymore, but his opponent held him up. Brooklyn looked into his eyes, hazel, and full of pity. It pulled the sword out of his stomach and let him go at the same time. Brooklyn tried to scream, but only managed a moan in pain as his legs gave out and collapsed to his knees, his hands pressed against his stomach to try and slow the river of blood gushing out. His conscience turned and walked several feet from him before turning around again to face its defeated foe.
"There is no disgrace in losing to me Brooklyn. You fought with tremendous courage and honour," it said calmly.
It continued to say something else, but Brooklyn wasn't listening anymore. Something had clicked in the back of his head, what Riana had told him before he went down the stairs to claim the gem.
-Chivalry and honour are dead.-
Brooklyn looked up at his conscience. It was still yammering away about how this was for the best and stuff like that.
-If I really am the bad guy here. Then I think I better get into character before he bores me to death.-
Smiling evilly, Brooklyn whipped out his Desert Eagle pistols from his shoulder holsters and shot his conscience in its left thigh. It screamed in pain and fell to his knees and then doubled over after another round entered its gut. It looked up at Brooklyn in total disbelief.
"I.I.thought you had retained at least some honour?"
Brooklyn aimed for in between its eyes, "I'm sorry," he said sincerely.
"I could have made things better for you. For us."
Brooklyn shook his head slowly, "Not while Oberon still lives."
"I.pity you."
"Keep your pity for yourself."
"This isn't over you cheating bastard," it snarled.
"I know," replied Brooklyn before he pulled the trigger.
The gun's roar echoed across the room as the bullet crashed through his conscience's skull and exploded out the other side of its head in a flurry of blood, skull fragments, and gore, burying itself into the marble wall. His conscience crumpled to the floor, a pool of blood forming around its head.
Brooklyn dropped his pistols, he was panting like a dog even though his lungs felt like they would explode at any minute. His entire body ached; he could feel his strength being drained as more blood poured from his wound. He was so tired he was sure he'd black out any second. He started feeling dizzy and light headed while his vision became blurred. He fell over on to his side and then rolled on to his back as he felt his body begin to heal itself, the blood flowing out of his stomach and back stopping and slowly knitting back together.
He lay there for roughly ten minutes while the hole in his belly closed up, in the meantime the painkillers wore off. He swore as the awful pain in his chest, stomach and legs flared up again.
Just then he heard something. It sounded almost like flowing water.
He turned his head in the direction of the sound and found that it was the mirror. It was rippling as something came into focus inside it.
It was a large amber coloured gemstone connected to a silver chain. It appeared to be floating in mid air on the other side of the mirror's liquid surface.
Brooklyn forced himself on to his feet, ignoring the agonising protest his body made. He knew this was his one chance and he'd be damned if he missed it. He staggered towards the mirror until he was a few inches from the surface.
Without even thinking he plunged his hand in and grabbed for it, his talon ended fingers wrapping around the enormous stone. It felt reassuringly warm to his touch. He felt like his hand was under water. He wrenched his arm back, tearing the stone from its hiding place and looked at it.
-It must be at least a hundred carats,- he thought, using his extremely limited knowledge of jewellery to gauge the gem's worth.
He could feel its power emanating as it lay idly in his hand. It was oval shaped and appeared to glow when it came into contact with his skin. He got a shiver down his spine when looked into it. He was awestruck by it. The very thought that God's most prized angel had worn this, and that it was his now and forever made his heart soar.
He felt overwhelmed by a desire to put the chain around his neck. To show the world that he was the Anointed, the Chosen, Vengance incarnate.
He couldn't resist its pull any longer. It was his now. His precious, precious gem. He placed it around his neck, letting the amber rest against his chest.
Suddenly he felt much better, he couldn't feel pain any longer, and he could feel his body repairing itself at incredible speed. In under a minute he was completely healed, only a few scars remained of the grievous injuries he had sustained over the past week.
The change he felt wasn't just physical. He couldn't hear that annoying voice in the back of his head any longer, the one that claimed to be his conscience. He could feel the gem opening his mind, sweeping away the cobwebs and the dust. He was thinking clearly for the first time in his life. In one instant, the gem showed him many things, the present, the past, and a myriad of potential futures.
Lastly, his eyes widened in astonishment, as it showed him something he would never had believed unless he had seen it with his own eyes.
A few minutes later
Riana paced up and down in front of the entrance of the stairs.
Brooklyn had been down there for almost an hour. What was taking him so long?
She stopped in her tracks as she wondered if he had been defeated. She had pushed him into this when he was still injured.
-I sure hope he followed my advice.-
"I did."
Riana spun around and saw Brooklyn at the entrance, the doors closed behind him.
"Sorry I took so long," he apologised, "I met with very stubborn resistance."
"You have the gem?"
Brooklyn pointed to the oversized Amber coloured jewel on a silver chain around his neck. "I have the lack of conscience that is necessary for the completion of my task."
"I knew you were the real thing," said Riana, "I could feel it in my blood."
"Your blood is very intelligent. Now we must collect Sin and be on our way. We have much work to do."
"Really what kind of work?"
"I've gotta collect the weapons if I'm going to kick some ass right?"
They headed back to the car and drove from the crime scene as quickly as possible while the hill closed up the gap revealing the doors again. In less than ten minutes the hill looked totally undisturbed.
"So," said Riana, "Did it show anything?"
Brooklyn continued to look out of the window as the Mercedes sped down the highway on the way to Feldbach.
"Everything," he answered eventually.
"Anything interesting?"
Brooklyn turned his head slowly and looked her in the eyes.
"Yes. It did. It showed me something utterly incredible."
"And what's that?"
Brooklyn smiled darkly as his eyes glowed a disturbingly pale blue, "It showed me the truth."
To be continued.
Well? Like it? Hate it? Please tell me! Huge thanks to Storyseeker for beta reading and giving me advice on this episode, you rock! Extra big thanks to anyone out there who likes the series so far, you guys rock too! Sadly it may be a while before the next part is out. *sighs* I hate school. Remember, ideas, advice, comments etc. welcome! Hell I'll even accept flames if they are reasonable and contain no less than 10 swear words.
Darkness
Author: Darkness. Address: darknessdescending2000@yahoo.co.uk
Author's Note: Once again, I don't own the Malus Codicium, it was created by sci-fi author Dan Abnett (who rocks!), now that that's cleared up, don't sue me!
An apartment block in Graz, Austria: Two days ago
Picture the inside of an elevator, nothing overtly fancy or anything, just four metal walls, a floor and grilled ceiling. There is some very poor excuse for elevator music playing. Inside the elevator is a young woman who looks like she is in her late teens or very early twenties. She has a shy face with a button nose, light green eyes that hide behind a pair of black rimmed glasses, she has short ash-blonde hair tied back in a ponytail and was wearing the sort of outfit people automatically assume is the type worn by a prostitute. Black hooker boots and a skimpy red silk skirt with black trimming that left little to the imagination, covering this was a light- brown trench coat that hung open loosely. On either side of her lay a black suitcase, as well as a plastic bag from a local supermarket.
When the elevator stopped and the doors slide open, the girl picked the suitcases and supermarket bag up and walked quickly out into the apartment corridor. There were doors at regular intervals along the opposite side of where the door to the elevator lay. She took a right and walked down the corridor cautiously, looking behind her every few steps as if she feared she was being followed. She checked each door number with a quick glance until she came to the one she was looking for.
She placed the suitcases a little down the corridor a bit before stepping back to the door. She knocked nervously on it while looking down both ways down the corridor. When she heard someone on the other side of the door mumble something and start fiddling with the locks, she placed both her hands, still holding the plastic bag, behind her back. The door swung open to reveal a middle-aged man with unruly black hair and an ugly, unshaven face, there was a stench of scotch from his breath.
"Hey there sexy," he slurred, "So, you decided to accept my offer after all? Eh?"
"I...I need the money," said the young girl sadly.
"I thought so," replied the hoar taker. He had driven around the streets earlier and had seen her there. He could tell that she had never done anything like this before from the nervous way she stood and kept looking left and right every few seconds as if she thought something might jump her if she wasn't careful and vigilant. He had driven right up to her in his fabulous rented "Mercedes-Benz CLK55" with its Obsidian Black Metallic paint job and given her (in his not so humble opinion) an offer she couldn't refuse. While she thought about it he had given her the address of the apartment he was staying in for the week and had driven off rather speedily to get everything prepared.
He had picked her because she was young, fearful, vulnerable, and desperate for money. If she pleased him tonight then he might consider hiring her services again before he returned from his "business trip" at the end of the week to his forty-two year old wife in Holland.
He beckoned her in with one finger and turned his back to go to the kitchen and pour her some of the scotch he himself had been drinking as he had awaited her arrival.
The girl quickly pulled a Glock semi-automatic, complete with silencer from her plastic bag with her right hand while quickly covering the man's head with the open bag with her left. Before he could react to the sudden attack, she pressed the nozzle against the back of his head, where the spine and skull were connected, and fired one shot.
Her victim crumpled to the floor without a sound.
Smiling happily, she picked the man's corpse up with worrying ease, found the bathroom and unceremoniously dumped his body in the tub. She then put the plug in and began running the cold water so as to slow his decomposition. She walked over to where she had shot him and examined the floor, smiling. The bag had done its job perfectly; the mess one would expect was reduced to a minimum. Easily solved with a little cleaning.
"Excellent."
She walked outside and picked up the two suitcases and brought them before locking the door behind her. She saw the open door leading to the bedroom and walked inside. She examined the wide variety of sex toys spread out on the sheets and shook her head disapprovingly.
"A man who still needs toys at his age wouldn't have been any fun at all," she said to herself, picking up a black leather whip and examining it. "Very poor quality too," she mumbled.
She went to the bathroom to check how full the tub was and turned the tap off after she was sure enough was in. All she had to do was get her hands on some ice she could slow his decomposition for up to a week.
According to Furcifer, she only needed to wait a few days at most for the Anointed to arrive by bus.
She walked over to her suitcases and began to remove her disguise as quickly as possible.
-If I don't get some damn leather rubbing against my skin in the next few minutes I'll fucking scream!-
A café opposite the Graz bus station: back to present
This café was similar to the ones you tend to find everywhere on the continent, about two dozen wooden tables littered the area outside of it where many patrons had chosen to refresh themselves due to the fine weather.
At one of these tables sat two gentlemen. They didn't stand out in anyway. One in his mid-fifties with a Mediterranean tan, neat black hair going grey, dark green eyes, and a strong chin and was well shaven. He wore a dark green tank top, black jeans, boots, and a black leather coat that fell to his ankles.
His associate was in his early thirties with a lighter tan on his skin, his head was completely shaven, no hair, moustache or anything. He had penetrating chestnut coloured eyes, a hawk like nose and a scar running across his right cheek. He wore a black leather coat similar to his older associate, as well as black chinos, shoes, and a dark grey shirt.
Both were sipping café lattes.
Across the street they could see buses arriving at the station and depositing their passengers. After several minutes a bus from Vienna arrived and a handful of passengers disembarked. Among them was a young man clad completely in black, with a leather coat similar to theirs and with long white hair tied back in a ponytail. He was holding several brand new travelling bags, one, quite thin and about sword length, was hanging over his shoulder, another was so long it appeared to be holding a very long fishing rod. He was glancing around suspiciously at his companion. A black man in his mid-forties in blue jeans, hiking boots, a red T-shirt and a grey raincoat with his hood pulled up. He was saying something to him that his two watchers couldn't hear.
The black man in the hood scanned the crowd around them, his eyes resting on the two men watching them at the café, for a brief second, he smiled at them before continuing to look around at all the people in the street. He turned to his young companion and shook his head.
The young man seemed satisfied, handed some of his bags to him, and gestured for him to follow.
"That is indeed interesting. Wouldn't you agree Eric?" asked the older man as he watched the pair head off.
"It is Inquisit-" his companion stopped at the look the older man was giving, "I mean, Emmanuel. Very interesting. The daemon didn't tell him that he was being watched."
Emmanuel nodded, still watching the two men heading into a nearby hotel. "Don't address me by my title Eric. We don't know if there are already any cultists or anything watching for us," he whispered.
"Of course sir, forgive me."
"No harm done. Just be careful in the future."
"I will sir, but are you sure it's that's the kid we're looking for?"
"Undoubtedly. I can feel the Dark Powers converging around him even this far away from us."
"What shall we do with them?"
"When he goes to look for the first piece of Lucifer's equipment. We shall intercept and kill him."
"And the daemon host?"
Emmanuel frowned, "We shall prevail Eric. As we must. We are soldiers of God, we cannot afford to fail in our holy mission."
Several tables away, a very young woman sat sipping a cappuccino and listening to every word the two men said. She looked over to the hotel where the hot young guy with white hair and the black threads and his assistant had entered.
-So- she thought calmly as she sipped her coffee, -He's the one I have been waiting for. Nice ass. I will have to get a piece of that.-
She looked over at the two men who appeared to be totally oblivious to her presence and smiled darkly.
-They are certainly going to make this much more interesting.-
With that in mind, she finished her coffee and strolled over to her brand new Mercedes-Benz CLK55, got in, and drove off.
A hotel in Vienna: An hour after sunset
"Do you have any idea where Brooklyn may have gone?" asked Goliath. He and his entire clan were in a penthouse suite on the top floor in a very fancy hotel overlooking the city.
"We aren't very sure I'm afraid," replied the little old lady who had pointed a shotgun at him several months ago. She had identified herself as Jezebel Tibbs, a friend and servant of the late Macbeth. "However, this morning I learned of a case of body snatching yesterday. No one saw the perpetrator enter or leave the hospital. I suspect Brooklyn was looking for a corpse so that he could enslave that daemon, he conjured up, so it would be less conspicuous than walking around with a floating nightmare."
"Actually," said Demona as she stepped forward, "It's for safety measures. You see it's much easier to control a bound daemon. Their powers are considerably weaker, but they can be controlled if the right runes are inscribed on the intended host."
"How come you know so much about this type of magic Demona?" asked Broadway, eyeing her suspiciously.
"The book Brooklyn is using.used to belong to me," replied Demona. Her head sunk in shame, "Two hundred years ago I found the book by accident while in Gibraltar. It offered me all I ever wanted. The power to destroy humanity and place my race as the masters of the world. Thankfully Macbeth found me and took the book and hid it so that I could never use it against humanity again." She looked solemn as she confessed this; Angela came and placed a hand on her shoulder supportively.
"That was a long time ago mother. You're different now. Humanity will accept us one day, you'll see."
Demona smiled at her daughter and hugged her. Fang and Malibu rolled their eyes at the same time and headed for the balcony as quickly as possible.
"So where do you think he is now Mal?" asked Fang as he closed the door behind them. Mal walked over to the rail and looked out at the vast city spread out before him.
"He could be anywhere," replied the clone, "Jezebel told me she checked with the bank and apparently Brook took almost half a million out. The bank hasn't a clue where it is now."
"He planned this," concluded Fang, joining his friend at the rail, "In case we didn't want to help him after he got the rod. "
"That's my guess." Mal turned towards the mutate, "You have associates around these parts don't you Fang? I mean, couldn't you use them to find him or something?"
"Tried that already kid," said Fang, shaking his head, "He isn't in Vienna any longer. In fact, he could be anywhere," he sighed. Despite their differences, he and Brooklyn had been friends now for weeks. They had a lot in common, they liked the same music and films and even the same damn books. He had tried his best along with Mal to help Brooklyn get through how awful he felt after his banishment. It had been working fine until Oberon had shown up and ruined everything. He looked out at the city, "I hope he's okay, wherever he is."
Graz
Brooklyn frowned as he glided over the small city, he turned his head to his travelling companion, "Where is it Sin?"
The demon host flew beside him, it's host body's dead eyes looked back into his hazel ones and sent a shiver down his spine.
~Near a secret entrance in a park several miles outside the city my Master,~ it replied.
Brooklyn faced away from the daemon. There was no command rune that could be used to force a daemon to tell the truth unfortunately. However, as Sin was his captive, he had made it very clear that to lie to him would result in a lengthy torture session.
After about half an hour of uncomfortable silence, Sin finally slowed to a hover and pointed to a hill with a children's play park resting on the flat top.
~There.~
Brooklyn made a dive for the park with his daemon host, close, behind him. After landing the pair approached the base of the hill.
"So.how am I supposed to gain access to the place where this weapon is?"
~It is not a weapon Master.~
Brooklyn raised an eye ridge, "What do you mean it's not a weapon?"
~In this hill lies what the humans rather dramatically call "The Lack of Conscience," it is an amulet which contains the jewel of the crown of Darkness in it.~
"Okay. And the reason I would want this jewel is because?"
~It is a key Master. Without this you cannot contest for the weapons.~
"Bugger. Okay then. So what do I do now then?"
"Drop your sword, your staff and any other weapons you may have and then put your hands up!"
Brooklyn and Sin spun around to see whom the new voice belonged to. Brooklyn's eyes bulged as he dropped his staff and sword and put his hands in the air while Sin growled menacingly.
Before them stood two men, one of them, in his early thirties and with a shaven head, was pointing a missile launcher at him from twenty meters away.
The other, a man in his mid-fifties, held a Katana sword in his hands with runes similar inscribed on the blade that were similar to the ones Brooklyn had on his own sword.
He could make out armoured body gloves underneath their long black leather coats.
"Nice coat," said the man with the missile launcher.
"Thanks," replied Brooklyn conversationally, "So.what can I do for you?"
"You can start by telling us where you are keeping the Malus Codicium," replied the older man.
"Why should I tell you where it is?"
"I am Inquisitor Emmanuel Hasphant," replied the older man.
"Inquisitor?"
"Yes," replied Hasphant, "I am a soldier of God's Most Holy Order. It is our duty to seek out those who would threaten God's Church."
"How am I threatening the Church?" replied Brooklyn, trying to decide if this man was a total head case or not.
"You carry a work of the Dark Prince with you!" screamed the other man, "You consort with daemons! You make pacts with them! You are the willing emissary of Lucifer himself! You are a heretic of the worse kind and must pay the price for your transgressions!"
Brooklyn looked at the man holding the missile launcher as if he had grown a second head before his attention back to Hasphant, "You actually trust this man with explosives?" "Heldane can be a little.eager at times," explained the Inquisitor, "But he is a good and most trustworthy man."
Brooklyn looked back at the man with the launcher curiously.
Heldane. He was sure he had heard that name before somewhere. The only thing that he couldn't remember was where?
It wasn't important right now. What was important right now was stalling these two zealots until he came up with a plan.
"So.um.why do you want the book anyways?"
"It is a tome of Satan," replied Hasphant, stepping forward, "It is evil incarnate and must be destroyed."
"And what exactly are you going to do to me?"
Hasphant gave him a compassionate look, "You are only a pawn in our war against the Darkness gargoyle. If you repent now we shall make your death as quick and painless as possible. If you refuse then we must drive the Devil's influence out of your heart with fire before we grant you death."
What scared Brooklyn wasn't the fact that this man had told them they were going to kill him either way, why would it? He was immortal. The thing that scared him was that this man maintained that compassionate look the whole way through his speech, and that he was smiling at the end of it.
"Well gargoyle, what do you say?"
Brooklyn stood motionless, trying to give these two fanatics the impression that he was considering their offer while in reality he trying to guess if the plan he suddenly thought up would work. It would be extremely dangerous and if he didn't get everything perfect he would probably be in a huge amount of pain.
Hasphant asked him again what his decision was. Brooklyn looked up at him and smiled.
"Blow me."
He started at a sprint for Sin, drawing the rod as he did so. He heard Hasphant mutter something about everyone always doing it the hard way as he threw himself to the ground as Heldane let loose with the launcher.
"Sin! Shield me!" screamed the gargoyle as he threw himself behind the daemon host. The missile was barely five meters away when Sin reacted. It flew right at the projectile, meeting it half way. The missile hit it right in the chest, detonating the host body as it did so. Brooklyn was sent flying through the air, crashing against the side of the hill and almost losing consciousness. The rod flew out of his hands and landed several meters away. There was enormous explosion of light as the host body was utterly destroyed and Sin was released.
~FREEDOM! ~ Screamed the daemon triumphantly as it rose from the flames of the explosion as if it were a phoenix. Hasphant and Heldane swore viscously. Sin swooped down towards Hasphant. The Inquisitor spoke a word of power and the blade of his sword became enveloped in green fire, he swung the blade at the non-corporeal daemon and it hissed at him in pain before backing off.
Brooklyn was impressed. Physical weapons were totally useless against a daemon without a host body, but Hasphant was using some sort of magical energy to sting it. He was so caught up in the duel between man and daemon that he didn't notice Heldane sprint past the combatants and come at him until it was too late.
Heldane drew a revolver and fired, hitting Brooklyn in his right shoulder. The gargoyle howled in agony as he groped for one of his Desert Eagle pistols to return fire. Before he was able to pull the pistol out of it's holster, Heldane was barely a meter away. Heldane fired three rounds into Brooklyn's chest. The gargoyle howled before he slumped back, dead.
Smiling triumphantly, Heldane ran over to where the rod lay and picked it up. He heard a scream and turned around to see Hasphant have his sword hand incinerated. The man staggered back, screaming prayers of banishment at the demon, which simply laughed off his efforts. Heldane raised his pistol shot his master between the eyes. The Inquisitor went rigid for a second before he collapsed to the ground.
"Daemon!" yelled Heldane. Sin turned to face the treacherous Inquisitor.
~That wasn't very sporting, was it?~
"That old man was a fool," replied Heldane, pointing the rod at his dead master, "He actually thought I sought to redeem my family's name when one was burned as a heretic." He smiled evilly, "But in reality I seek the power my ancestor once wielded," he held up the rod as if it were a trophy, "And now I have it and you to do my bidding!"
~Very nice, good for you. However you are overlooking one minor detail.~
Heldane raised an eyebrow suspiciously, "What are you babbling about daemon? I hold the rod that imprisoned you. Therefore I have the power."
~Not quite,~ replied Sin, as it built up power for an attack, ~you see Brooklyn was the one who released me. I would have killed him had he not spoken the proper command words that the Codicium passed on to him.~ It grinned, revealing many, many teeth. ~You don't happen to know them do you?~
Heldane opened his mouth to scream, but Sin beat him to it, firing an energy blast it had been building up. Heldane fell to his knees as demonic fire engulfed him. He screamed in utter agony as his clothes burned, his skin blistered and his eyes melted in their sockets. The rod and his pistol melted too, the scalding liquid iron and steel flowed over his ruined hands, adding to the torture. He almost looked like a man being burned at the stake.
Brooklyn's corpse, several meters away, suddenly shuddered before the gargoyle's eyes shot open and he sat up, taking huge gasps of air. He heard screaming and looked in the direction of Heldane. He turned his eyes away, horrified at the terrible way the man was dying. He pulled out one of his Desert Eagle pistols and looked back at Heldane.
The man was still screaming while Sin looked on, laughing maniacally. He pointed the gun at the treacherous Inquisitor.
"I'm sorry," he whispered as he pulled the trigger. The powerful handgun roared as the bullet flew from the barrel and hit Heldane in the temple. The man stopped screaming and fell forward on his face, dead.
Very slowly, Sin turned his attention to Brooklyn. ~Nice to see you're alive again Master,~ it said. ~That means I can kill you. Again and again and again.~
It fired an energy blast, but Brooklyn leapt aside and was thrown into the air by the explosion as the blast hit the ground. Brooklyn rolled with the fall and came up on his feet, wincing at the pain he felt in his chest. Although he was healing quickly thanks to his immortality, it still hurt like Hell to breathe. He started to feel groggy, but he shook it off. He'd rest after he imprisoned Sin again.
The daemon began to circle him as he desperately tried to control his breathing. He needed to focus if he was going to fight the daemon with magic.
He began muttering a spell under his breath as the daemon swooped in for an attack. Brooklyn screamed the last command word as he let loose with a ball of magical energy at the Hell spawn. Sin stopped in mid air and caught the blast between its hands. It laughed as the ball solidified while Brooklyn started backing off in terror.
Sin hurled the now solidified ball at its former master. The projectile crashed into Brooklyn's chest, breaking all of his ribs and crushing his lungs and heart. Its speed was so great that it lifted the gargoyle off of his feet and threw him a dozen meters away, landing near Hasphant's corpse.
Sin threw its head back and laughed sadistically.
~Did you actually think that you could claim the weapons of Lucifer you insignificant little worm?~ it laughed.
It hovered over Brooklyn's body and began to undo the buttons of his shirt as it waited for him to be brought back. The plastic buttons melting at its touch while the material the shirt was made of began to smoulder while Brooklyn's exposed chest and stomach began to blister at being so close to the daemon. After about half a minute of waiting Brooklyn shuddered violently, his blistered chest heaved as he began to breath again. His eyes slowly opened wearily before they focused in on what hovering just above him.
He tried to bring his hands up to cast a spell, but Sin caught his wrists in its own hands and laughed as Brooklyn threw his head back and screamed as the flesh around his wrists began burn severely. It forced his hands above his head and held both down in its left hand while it brought its right down on his stomach.
Brooklyn screamed even louder as Sin pumped more power into its right hand, laughing the whole time.
The scent of cooking flesh filled Brooklyn's nostrils. His flesh. He could actually hear the sound of the flesh around his stomach sizzle. He was sure he was going to throw up. In desperation he tried kicking the demon away, but his feet passed through the malevolent entity, receiving third degree burns for his trouble.
~Tell me Brooklyn,~ laughed Sin over Brooklyn's screaming. ~If I tear your heart out, will you grow another one? ~ It laughed, ~Or will the heart I ripped out sprout legs and run back into you chest? ~ It laughed again before lifting its flaming hand off Brooklyn's ruined stomach and released his wrists.
Brooklyn drifted in and out of conciseness as the daemon cackled above him.
~Lets find out, shall we?~ it said as it moved its hands towards Brooklyn's chest.
"Back off!" screamed a feminine voice.
Sin was hurled away from Brooklyn by a blast of white energy. It hissed in anger at the newcomer who had hurt it.
Brooklyn turned his head to his left, where he had heard the voice. He saw a woman with ash-blonde hair and a button nose holding his staff. She was wearing a tight fitting black leather body glove, complete with black boots and gloves; she also wore a black flak jacket over this.
~Riana,~ said Sin venomously, ~I haven't seen you in ages. How have you been my dear?~
"Oh I'm fine," replied the woman in a conversational tone. Brooklyn could see she had his sword on her belt, along with a pistol, some clips, knives, and what looked like a whip. She strode over to him, keeping his staff pointed at Sin in case it tried anything. When she stood beside him she prodded him gently with her foot. "Can you move?"
"I.I.think so," whispered Brooklyn weakly. It was becoming a considerable effort to talk.
Riana held the staff in her left hand while she bent over and gave Brooklyn support as he tried to stand, he groaned in pain as he put weight on the burned soles of his feet. Riana wrapped her arm around his waist, holding him up with a surprising amount of strength. Brooklyn had to rely completely on her support; he was in such a bad condition that he could barely stand.
"You do know how to bind him to a host don't you?" she asked Brooklyn.
"Y-yes," whispered the gargoyle.
Riana, holding Brooklyn, while keeping the staff trained on the freed daemon, stumbled awkwardly over to the late Hasphant's body. She gently laid him on his knees beside the corpse while Sin hissed dangerously at them.
~I'll make you suffer for this you little whore,- it threatened.
"Shut up!" she snapped back as Brooklyn took a knife from his belt and cut the front of the armoured body glove covering Hasphant's chest off.
Sin roared and flew at the pair, Riana drove him back with a blast using the staff. Sin came at them again and again, being forced back each time by blasts from Riana. Brooklyn meanwhile had slit his palm open with the knife and started drawing runes onto the dead man's chest, stomach and forehead with his own blood.
Sin changed tactics suddenly and began showering the pair with destructive energy bolts, forcing Riana onto the defensive. She slammed one end of the staff into the ground.
"Shield!" she yelled. A white umbrella of magical energy surrounded her and Brooklyn, deflecting the blasts off them and sending them hurtling off in random directions.
"Finished," said Brooklyn. He barely had the strength to stay upright any longer.
"Good work!" yelled Riana over the din of the nearby explosions, "Now say the incantation of binding so we can end this!"
"I.I need the staff."
Riana tossed it to the half dead gargoyle and drew Brooklyn's sword. The blade erupted in white flames as Riana channelled her power through it. Yelling a battle cry, she leapt at Sin and made a series of slashes and thrusts at the demon with the demonically enhanced blade, occasionally stinging it, forcing it back as Brooklyn began to chant the words of power as quickly he could.
Sin howled as the blade hurt it again and replied with a blast of energy that Riana dodged with cat like grace. They circled each other warily.
~Interfering bitch!~
"Backstabbing bastard!"
Sin lunged at her, but howled in pain as Riana simply thrust the sword out before her, allowing the daemon's own momentum to cause it injury. She laughed, sadistically, at its pain.
"What's the matter Iieo?" she laughed cruelly, "Have you gotten that weak since the last time we met?"
~You no good BITCH! ~ Roared the daemon, as it raised a hand to send a bolt of energy at her.
"In servitutem ab-abduco, I bind thee fast and forever into this host!" yelled a hoarse voice.
Sin bayed loudly in rage and defeat as his in-corporeal form was dragged into Hasphant's corpse. Riana looked over in Brooklyn's direction. The red gargoyle's clothes were torn and burnt in many places; she could see the terrible burns on his legs, his belly, and around his wrists. His chest was almost black with bruises from the awful damage he had sustained while his breathing was shallow and laboured. He was still on his knees, one hand pressed against the chest of Sin's new host, the other held his staff loosely in the air, the raven end pointed in her direction.
"Can.I.die.now?" he asked in-between breaths.
"Sure."
Brooklyn nodded his thanks and slumped forward on top of his prone daemon host.
Riana looked around at the carnage that surrounded her, there were craters everywhere from when she had deflected Sin's attacks, not to mention a body burned so badly it would be a challenge to even guess if it was human or not, as well as bits and pieces of Sin's former host.
She smiled.
"This is going to be more fun than I thought!"
Feldbach, Austria: Six days later
Brooklyn stirred slightly before his eyes slowly opened. He was lying in a bed with the covers pulled up to his shoulders. His chest still hurt when he breathed, but not nearly as bad as before. He pulled the covers down, noticing his wrists and palm were bandaged, and began to check the progress of his healing.
His chest, right shoulder and belly were bandaged, someone had removed his chinos to get at his burned legs and feet and wrapped them up from the knee down in even more bandages, thankfully no one had removed the black boxers he had been wearing in human form before he had changed back into a gargoyle. He sat up on the bed and began to check the bandages over his wrists, he felt a little light headed and tired, but he tried to ignore the feeling and remove the wrist bandages when a door across from the bed opened and a woman in black walked in. The same woman who had helped him bind Sin.
"Ah your awake," she said pleasantly as she sat down on the bed beside him. Her voice held no trace of any accent to give Brooklyn a clue from where she was from.
"Thanks for helping me," said Brooklyn as he looked her over, "Who are you anyway?"
"Riana Mirelip," replied the woman as she took Brooklyn's right hand and began to unravel the bandages, when she was done, she checked it. His wrist was fully healed. She repeated the process with Brooklyn's left hand and wrist and smiled when there was no sign of the burns or the cut on his palm. "I am the guardian of Lucifer's gem."
"Lucifer's what?"
"The amulet that you and Iieo were looking for."
Brooklyn's eyes widened at the mention of the daemon's true name, "We did bind him didn't we? I mean he didn't escape or anything?"
"I have him downstairs," replied Riana, "He is quite well restrained. He isn't going anywhere."
Brooklyn relaxed and let out a sigh of relief, looking at his surroundings, "Where are we?"
"Your in my home. We are in a town called Feldbach. We're an hour's drive from Graz," replied Riana, "Are you hungry?"
Brooklyn's stomach growled loudly in response, the gargoyle smiled sheepishly at her, "A little."
"I'll get you something to eat then," said Riana, standing up, "By the way. How long will it take you to heal if you go into stone sleep?"
Brooklyn thought for a moment, "How long have I been unconscious?"
"Six days."
"About a week then."
"Very well," replied Riana, heading to the door. "In one week's time we shall go back to Graz so you can contest for the gem."
"Why are you helping me?"
Riana turned and smiled as she opened the door, "Get some rest. If you're a good boy and eat all your stew I might tell you." With that she closed the door, leaving Brooklyn alone with his thoughts.
Vatican City: One day later
"It has been confirmed your eminence. The burnt body was indeed Inquisitor Eric Heldane. We have no idea where Inquisitor Hasphant could be at the moment, although his rune sword and his severed right hand, also badly burned, were found at the scene by the local police," reported the aide.
"Damnation!" yelled his superior, slamming his fist violently on the ancient mahogany desk. The aide visibly flinched. It was very unwise to hang around his master when he was upset.
"Your recommendations your eminence?"
His master frowned for a moment before replying, "Alert Inquisitors Thompson, Liang, Rossi and Burke to the threat. Tell them to get to Graz as quickly as possible to conduct their own investigation and make a report."
"Yes your eminence," said the aide, heading to the door.
"One more thing." The aide turned.
"Yes your eminence?"
"This so called "Anointed One," said his master, "He's a gargoyle isn't he?"
"Hasphant was very adamant about that fact your eminence," replied the aide.
"In that case," said the master, "Tell them to take Kill Team Alpha along with them."
The aide raised an eyebrow in astonishment, "The entire team your eminence?"
"The entire team."
The aide bowed respectfully and made his way to the door as quickly as possible. His master watched him go.
"Spineless little worm," he muttered as he lit up a cigar.
Vienna: After sunset
Demona was definitely not in a good mood. She had spent the last six days trying in vain to find any reference to the weapons of Lucifer in her collection of tomes. Even with that annoying Tibbs woman helping her, they were still oblivious to the location or even the names of any.
Fang and Malibu had left several days ago to check up on some of Fang's most reliable sources in person to see if they were hiding anything from him. They hadn't heard from them since.
Her skills at magic had also failed her miserably. Both she and Jezebel had tried to caste a spell of observation to try and find Brooklyn but the mirror they used for the ceremony shattered the instant the last word of the spell was uttered.
Someone, or something, was keeping him very well hidden.
In desperation she had turned to Lexington to try and find anything on them on the Internet. So far his search was fruitless as well.
Goliath and the rest of the clan had grown restless and began patrolling the city while they waited for Demona or one of the others to find anything that could be of some help.
She slammed another book shut and swore to herself, "This is ridiculous! How can we ever hope to find him?"
"By looking," said an icy voice from across the table.
Demona looked up into Jezebel's impassive eyes. She really hated Macbeth's witch, and she was sure the feeling was mutual.
"Would you two please try and get along?" said Lexington as he scrolled through another site on the Internet on his laptop, "Some of us are trying to find something that might help save the world here."
"What are you looking at now?" asked Jezebel.
"I hacked into police files for this country. I'm trying to see if any weird reports were filed recently."
"Good idea."
"Thank you."
The minutes of silence that came after each went back to their search dragged into hours. Demona and Jezebel focusing on tome after tome while Lex continued to read more police reports. It was almost three in the morning when Lexington finally found something.
"Hello. That's strange."
Demona and Jezebel's heads shot up from their research.
"What is?" they said almost in unison. Lex gestured for them to come over. They complied and read a report on the screen that Lexington pointed out to them.
It was a very odd report concerning the burned remains of what had only recently been identified as a human male in a playground several miles outside the city of Graz, south of Vienna. What was even odder was the report that this was not the only human remains found in the area. Small pieces of a different human body were found scattered over a rather large radius. Its D.N.A matched a body that was supposedly snatched from Vienna almost a week ago. The report from forensics had suggested someone might have actually used a rocket or grenade on the body for some unknown reason.
"This is excellent work Lexington," said Demona, patting the smaller gargoyle on the shoulder.
"Thanks," said Lex smugly, "It was really difficult to get too. Someone, one of the police's higher-ups probably, really didn't want anyone to know about this. It was in a specially protected part of the police files. It had its own password and everything."
"Definitely the best lead we have got so far," said Jezebel.
Lex looked up at her, "It's the only lead we've got."
"Which is why we are following this one up immediately," said Demona, walking over to the phone and dialling Angela's mobile number, "I'll call the clan back from their patrols immediately. I'll tell my offices here to get one of my company's new armoured vans ready. We should all be in Graz before the sun rises."
Graz: Same day, Midnight
"I thought we were going to wait a week until I was fully healed," complained Brooklyn as he got out of Riana's metallic black Mercedes-Benz.
"We can't," replied the woman hurriedly, slamming the door and locking it, "Remember those two religious nuts that tried to kill you?"
"Yes?"
"Well an awful lot more are on their way," said Riana.
"How could you possibly know this?"
"I dreamed it."
Brooklyn just shrugged his shoulders. He'd heard things a lot stranger than that.
Riana had parked as near to the hill as possible to make it easier for Brooklyn to get there. His feet had still not healed completely and so it hurt putting weight on them. His belly and chest had not healed as quickly due to the extent of the damage done to them, he had been forced to take several painkillers just so he could move and breathe properly. There were police cordons around the hill because of the terribly burnt body found there along with bits and pieces of another. There were two police guarding the crime scene, but Riana made short work of them, knocking them out at Brooklyn's insistence instead of slitting their throats as Riana had suggested.
The pair moved to the base of the hill, stepping over the police tape. Brooklyn checked his weapons for the fifth time since he and Riana had set off to get the so called "Lack of Conscience." He had brought his sword and staff, as well as his Desert Eagles, extra clips, some knives and three low- yield grenades from his cache of them. He was wearing a replacement pair of black chinos and a dark green shirt that Riana had bought him while he was unconscious. She got the size for the chinos right, but the shirt was three sizes too big, it was hanging off him very loosely. He was still wearing his long leather coat, despite all the slashes and burn marks across it. The Malus Codicium lay in his inside pocket.
Riana was wearing the black leather body glove, her black gloves and boots, and her flak jacket and was equipped with the same arsenal as before.
"So," said Brooklyn as the stood at the base of the small hill, "How do we get in?"
Riana handed him a small piece of paper with two words written on it, "Cut the palm of your sword hand, place it against the base of the hill and say those words," she explained.
Brooklyn looked at the two words on the paper and then looked back at Riana, "You're kidding right?"
"Nope," said Riana, shaking her head, "Those are the command words."
Brooklyn shook his head as he knelt down at the base of the small hill, pulled out a knife, cut his right palm, rubbed it against the ground and muttered the command words.
"Open Sesame!"
For a moment nothing happened, Brooklyn looked around at Riana and gave her a dirty look, "Are you totally sure those are the command words?"
As if to answer him, the ground suddenly began to shake. The part of the hill in front of Brooklyn exploded outwards, covering the startled gargoyle in dirt and clumps of grass before he could even yelp in surprise, revealing a set of blood red double doors.
Coughing, swearing a blue streak and eyes blazing, Brooklyn pulled himself out of the huge mound of dirt that had buried him. He heard laughter behind him and turned his head to Riana, who was clutching her sides and laughing uncontrollably. If looks could kill, the one Brooklyn gave her could have started a holocaust.
-I'll get her for that,- he promised himself as he got up.
"You know you could have warned me," he said bitterly.
Riana regained a margin of her self-control and smiled at him. "Where would the fun in that be?"
Brooklyn muttered more curses under his breath as he tried to get all the dirt out of his hair. After it became obvious that he wouldn't without the assistance of a hot shower, he yelled several very dirty words at the world in general and picked up his staff from where he had dropped it when the side of the hill fell on him.
"Are you coming?" he asked Riana as he headed to the doors.
"Afraid not," replied Riana, folding her arms, "This is something you have to do alone."
"I have to pick up a gem all by myself?" replied the gargoyle sarcastically. He was fast losing patience with this woman. She hadn't told him a damn thing about her other than she was the protector of this place, the so-called "Keeper of the Conscience." She was really getting on his nerves.
He marched angrily to the double doors; ignoring the pain his feet kept giving him.
"Brooklyn!" yelled Riana.
The gargoyle turned to face her, "What?"
"Remember one thing while you're in there."
"And what would that be?"
Riana smiled darkly, "Chivalry and honour are dead."
Brooklyn gave her a confused look, "What the Hell is that supposed to mean?"
Riana smiled knowingly at him and refused to say anything more. Brooklyn got the hint and didn't persist, preferring to turn his eyes sky ward for a moment before heading towards the doors. The blood red doors swung open silently as he approached them. He could see a stairway on the other side going downward in a spiral. Bracing himself for anything, he stepped through the doors, which closed behind him without a sound, blocking any light and leaving him in complete darkness.
"Crap."
One by one, torches hanging along the walls burst into flames, illuminating the way down. Ignoring the sudden urge to run like Hell, Brooklyn drew his sword in his right hand while keeping a firm grip on his staff in his left and began to walk down the stairs.
After what seemed like ages but was probably only a few minutes, Brooklyn reached the bottom of the stairs and found himself in an ancient corridor. It was illuminated the same way that the stairs were and only went several meters, ending at a large, plain mahogany door. Sheathing his sword, Brooklyn carefully advanced towards the door, occasionally looking behind him to check no one was going to spring out of a secret passage and jump him. When he reached the door, he looked it over. There was no handle. He gave it an experimental push with his free hand. The door gave way a little. Bracing himself for whatever lay on the other side, Brooklyn gave the door a hard kick. The ancient door flew open as Brooklyn rushed into the room, staff at the ready and sword drawn.
He found himself standing in a huge circular room roughly twenty meters in diameter. The walls were made of white marble while the floor was tiled with black. No torches hung along the walls; there was nothing in the room that looked as if it could provide illumination yet somehow Brooklyn could see the interior perfectly. The walls were totally bare of any form of decoration, on the opposite side of the room from where he had entered, was a mirror. It was imbedded into the wall, beginning at the floor and ending at the ceiling five meters upwards, it was five meters across, making a perfect square. There was no frame, only the reflective glass.
Felling drawn towards the mirror, Brooklyn cautiously walked towards it. When he was two meters from it, the reflective surface suddenly shimmered like liquid, as Brooklyn watched wide-eyed, the reflection in the mirror began to change.
On the other side of the mirror stood a red, beaked gargoyle with horns and white hair. He wore a black body glove tailored perfectly to his thin, muscular form, his chest, shoulders, shins and fore arms were armoured. He held a double-edged long sword in his right hand. The reflection smiled at him. Brooklyn gasped and took several steps back.
"Okay. What the Hell is going on! Who the Hell are you?" he felt a little stupid asking the last part, but he couldn't help himself.
"I'm you dumb ass," replied the reflection, "Or at least. What you could have been if you had just lightened up a little and been more forgiving."
"Hey fuck you!" yelled Brooklyn, his eyes flaring, "Demona deserved everything that was coming to her!"
"Says you."
"Yes! Says me!"
The reflection shook his head sadly, "Look at yourself. Look what you've become. You're a monster Brooklyn. A seething ball of hate with wings."
"Don't you dare!" screamed Brooklyn, "Don't you dare presume you can stand there and judge me! Someone had to punish her for all the pain she's caused over the years!"
"You shouldn't be so hasty in your judgement either," snapped the reflection, "She has been through Hell for the last thousand years Brooklyn."
"Yeah, your right. And whose fault was it? Huh?" raged Brooklyn, "It was no one's fault, but her own! Because of her my clan has been slaughtered! She's killed and maimed who knows how many over the years! She created the fucking Hunter! She's one of the reasons we are on the verge of extinction!"
"That's all in the past Brooklyn. Why can't you accept that she's changed? Why can't you find it in your heart to forgive her?"
"SHE'S EVIL!" howled Brooklyn desperately, tears of rage were forming in his eyes, and his entire body was shaking violently.
"Bullshit," said the reflection calmly, "I can see in your eyes that you know it's bullshit too. This isn't about what she did hundreds of years ago. It's about what she did to you, to us."
"Shut up."
"You aren't a fool Brooklyn. You had some idea what she was going to do with the Grimorium."
"Shut up."
"That was just as much your fault as it was Demona's."
"SHUT UP!" screamed Brooklyn at the very top of his voice, his scream echoing off the walls and ceiling.
His entire body was quivering with barely restrained rage, he held his sword and staff so tightly that his hands began to pale from a lack of blood travelling to them. Tears were rolling down his cheeks.
"Give me the gem you bastard," he whispered dangerously, his eyes beginning to flare. His reflection's gaze hardened. It stepped forward through the mirror, entering reality. Brooklyn took several steps back, his staff and sword ready for the fight to come. His alter ego looked him over as he walked to Brooklyn's left.
"Your injured," it said flatly.
"Why should that matter?"
"There is no honour in fighting someone who is injured and can't defend themselves properly."
"I can kick your ass any day of the week," replied Brooklyn. His reflection turned reality chuckled before his face-hardened.
"You're out of control Brooklyn. Turn around, walk out the door and give yourself up to Mal and the others before it's too late."
"No. I will have my revenge first," replied Brooklyn, his eyes flaring like twin suns.
"Do you know who I really am Brooklyn?"
"No."
"I'm the personification of your fucking conscience," said the alter ego angrily, "You know, that little voice inside of your head that you ignored ever since you started reading that damn book. It's manipulating you, it's manipulating your hate to fulfil its mission."
"Your talking through your tail my friend," replied Brooklyn, "Nothing controls me."
"If you won't listen to reason," said Brooklyn's conscience, his own eyes flaring, "Then I have no choice, but to take over."
He raised his sword in a knight's salute before he lunged, swinging his sword in a furious arc. Brooklyn parried the attack with his shorter Katana before spinning on the balls of his feet, swinging his staff to try and connect with his opponent's skull.
Brooklyn roared in fury as his alter ego parried the attack easily and jumped back several feet from him. Both circled each other, searching for an opening.
"You can't win," taunted the conscience, "The painkillers are gonna wear out soon. I can wait until then."
"You'll be dead before I even start breathing funny again."
"We'll see."
Brooklyn suddenly launched himself at his conscience, surprising it. He forced it back as he executed alternating attacks with his sword and staff, swinging, thrusting and parrying any desperate counters his conscience tried to make.
His conscience swore and dived below a downward slash from Brooklyn's Katana. The sword cut into the marble, cracking it. Brooklyn swore then and pulled the deadly blade out and turned to face his so-called better self. They stared at each other for a moment before continuing.
Their weapons locked as both made mad slashes at each other with their swords, they broke and continued their fight along the black marble floor.
After several minutes Brooklyn's alter ego began to gain the advantage as the pain in Brooklyn's chest began to increase, making it harder for him to breathe. He began to slow down while his conscience showed no sign of tiring. It made a faint thrust, but spun on the balls of his feet, making a lethal slash to Brooklyn's left. The gargoyle tried to block the attack with his staff, but the weapon was knocked out of his hand from the force of the blow, landing and rolling across the floor, stopping several meters away from the combatants.
Brooklyn stumbled back, swearing and making desperate blocks and parries as his conscience took its turn to drive him back.
"You can't win Brooklyn, give up!"
"Never!"
"You stubborn fool!" roared the conscience, "I'm not the bad guy here. You are! Give up! I can fix this mess you call a life. I might even be able to get Goliath to forgive us and let us back in the clan."
"I won't beg forgiveness from that bastard!" yelled Brooklyn, "It's him who's in the wrong God dammit!" He roared and launched another attack at his conscience, letting his hate for what Goliath and his banishment had done to him fuel his aching muscles. His conscience smiled as it blocked all of Brooklyn's desperate attacks.
Suddenly, it launched one of its own, knocking Brooklyn's Katana out of his hand before running him through, sliding the sword into Brooklyn's already bandaged belly until the razor sharp blade came out of his back and the hilt was all that hadn't gone through.
Brooklyn screamed in agony, his insides felt as if they were on fire, blood was coming up his throat, flowing into his mouth and through his clenched teeth, it was incredibly difficult to breath. His legs couldn't support his weight anymore, but his opponent held him up. Brooklyn looked into his eyes, hazel, and full of pity. It pulled the sword out of his stomach and let him go at the same time. Brooklyn tried to scream, but only managed a moan in pain as his legs gave out and collapsed to his knees, his hands pressed against his stomach to try and slow the river of blood gushing out. His conscience turned and walked several feet from him before turning around again to face its defeated foe.
"There is no disgrace in losing to me Brooklyn. You fought with tremendous courage and honour," it said calmly.
It continued to say something else, but Brooklyn wasn't listening anymore. Something had clicked in the back of his head, what Riana had told him before he went down the stairs to claim the gem.
-Chivalry and honour are dead.-
Brooklyn looked up at his conscience. It was still yammering away about how this was for the best and stuff like that.
-If I really am the bad guy here. Then I think I better get into character before he bores me to death.-
Smiling evilly, Brooklyn whipped out his Desert Eagle pistols from his shoulder holsters and shot his conscience in its left thigh. It screamed in pain and fell to his knees and then doubled over after another round entered its gut. It looked up at Brooklyn in total disbelief.
"I.I.thought you had retained at least some honour?"
Brooklyn aimed for in between its eyes, "I'm sorry," he said sincerely.
"I could have made things better for you. For us."
Brooklyn shook his head slowly, "Not while Oberon still lives."
"I.pity you."
"Keep your pity for yourself."
"This isn't over you cheating bastard," it snarled.
"I know," replied Brooklyn before he pulled the trigger.
The gun's roar echoed across the room as the bullet crashed through his conscience's skull and exploded out the other side of its head in a flurry of blood, skull fragments, and gore, burying itself into the marble wall. His conscience crumpled to the floor, a pool of blood forming around its head.
Brooklyn dropped his pistols, he was panting like a dog even though his lungs felt like they would explode at any minute. His entire body ached; he could feel his strength being drained as more blood poured from his wound. He was so tired he was sure he'd black out any second. He started feeling dizzy and light headed while his vision became blurred. He fell over on to his side and then rolled on to his back as he felt his body begin to heal itself, the blood flowing out of his stomach and back stopping and slowly knitting back together.
He lay there for roughly ten minutes while the hole in his belly closed up, in the meantime the painkillers wore off. He swore as the awful pain in his chest, stomach and legs flared up again.
Just then he heard something. It sounded almost like flowing water.
He turned his head in the direction of the sound and found that it was the mirror. It was rippling as something came into focus inside it.
It was a large amber coloured gemstone connected to a silver chain. It appeared to be floating in mid air on the other side of the mirror's liquid surface.
Brooklyn forced himself on to his feet, ignoring the agonising protest his body made. He knew this was his one chance and he'd be damned if he missed it. He staggered towards the mirror until he was a few inches from the surface.
Without even thinking he plunged his hand in and grabbed for it, his talon ended fingers wrapping around the enormous stone. It felt reassuringly warm to his touch. He felt like his hand was under water. He wrenched his arm back, tearing the stone from its hiding place and looked at it.
-It must be at least a hundred carats,- he thought, using his extremely limited knowledge of jewellery to gauge the gem's worth.
He could feel its power emanating as it lay idly in his hand. It was oval shaped and appeared to glow when it came into contact with his skin. He got a shiver down his spine when looked into it. He was awestruck by it. The very thought that God's most prized angel had worn this, and that it was his now and forever made his heart soar.
He felt overwhelmed by a desire to put the chain around his neck. To show the world that he was the Anointed, the Chosen, Vengance incarnate.
He couldn't resist its pull any longer. It was his now. His precious, precious gem. He placed it around his neck, letting the amber rest against his chest.
Suddenly he felt much better, he couldn't feel pain any longer, and he could feel his body repairing itself at incredible speed. In under a minute he was completely healed, only a few scars remained of the grievous injuries he had sustained over the past week.
The change he felt wasn't just physical. He couldn't hear that annoying voice in the back of his head any longer, the one that claimed to be his conscience. He could feel the gem opening his mind, sweeping away the cobwebs and the dust. He was thinking clearly for the first time in his life. In one instant, the gem showed him many things, the present, the past, and a myriad of potential futures.
Lastly, his eyes widened in astonishment, as it showed him something he would never had believed unless he had seen it with his own eyes.
A few minutes later
Riana paced up and down in front of the entrance of the stairs.
Brooklyn had been down there for almost an hour. What was taking him so long?
She stopped in her tracks as she wondered if he had been defeated. She had pushed him into this when he was still injured.
-I sure hope he followed my advice.-
"I did."
Riana spun around and saw Brooklyn at the entrance, the doors closed behind him.
"Sorry I took so long," he apologised, "I met with very stubborn resistance."
"You have the gem?"
Brooklyn pointed to the oversized Amber coloured jewel on a silver chain around his neck. "I have the lack of conscience that is necessary for the completion of my task."
"I knew you were the real thing," said Riana, "I could feel it in my blood."
"Your blood is very intelligent. Now we must collect Sin and be on our way. We have much work to do."
"Really what kind of work?"
"I've gotta collect the weapons if I'm going to kick some ass right?"
They headed back to the car and drove from the crime scene as quickly as possible while the hill closed up the gap revealing the doors again. In less than ten minutes the hill looked totally undisturbed.
"So," said Riana, "Did it show anything?"
Brooklyn continued to look out of the window as the Mercedes sped down the highway on the way to Feldbach.
"Everything," he answered eventually.
"Anything interesting?"
Brooklyn turned his head slowly and looked her in the eyes.
"Yes. It did. It showed me something utterly incredible."
"And what's that?"
Brooklyn smiled darkly as his eyes glowed a disturbingly pale blue, "It showed me the truth."
To be continued.
Well? Like it? Hate it? Please tell me! Huge thanks to Storyseeker for beta reading and giving me advice on this episode, you rock! Extra big thanks to anyone out there who likes the series so far, you guys rock too! Sadly it may be a while before the next part is out. *sighs* I hate school. Remember, ideas, advice, comments etc. welcome! Hell I'll even accept flames if they are reasonable and contain no less than 10 swear words.
Darkness