Chapter 3
Betelgeuse left as quickly as he could, waiting till he managed to get out into the hallway before he snapped his fingers again.
He found himself instantly back in room his hands in his hair as he paced back and forth furiously. "What the fuck have you gotten yourself into babes." He whispered and could feel that stupid bond of theirs. It was there like a god damn puppet string, but still not strong enough to pull him where he needed to be.
"What am I missing." He growled out frustrated and slammed his hand down on the wooden desk, his fingers digging into the wood as he closed his eyes trying to force himself down the bond line to find Lydia.
It was a black line, coated in silver.
He wanted to reach out and touch it but he knew instinctively not to. He just had to follow it. He looked up to see where it was leading and couldn't see through the inky darkness.
It was a darkness that had a feeling of foreboding that radiated from it. Something he'd never felt before.
He studied it for a few moments and realized that someone was manipulating it… dulling it. The silver was the true color trying to shine through the black as it tried to smother it.
It was in that instance that Betelgeuse knew that he didn't have a lot of time. He was afraid of what would happen if the entire bond went black.
Opening his eyes slowly as he pulled out of his mind, he looked around his room and focused on what he needed to do.
He needed to find Lydia, get her away from whatever the hell was keeping her.
But first, he needed someone in their corner that would help. Someone that wouldn't have any issues going against the Arches. He had a horrible feeling that this was all their doing… and he knew that when he found out what they had planned for his Lyds… it wasn't going to end well for anyone involved. So for now, he was going to have to get help and for that he was going to need something of value, favors weren't cheap for the when it came to getting help from the Guides, fickle that they were.
He walked toward the corner of his small room and kicked open a trunk. Three weapons laid there that he had liberated one way or another over the last six hundred years. He thought about the two Guides he was about to barter with and picked up the hammer. He could feel the power in the enchantment in it and smiled slowly. "Oh yeah, that'll do it."
He drew in a breath and disappeared.
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Lydia jerked awake, a scream on the tip of her tongue as she fought to shake away the nightmare that had left her in a pool of sweat. She tried to take in a slow breath, her body trembling as she fought the tears that were threatening to fall again.
She'd been in her room now for the last five hours and all she'd done was break down and try and rationalize what had happened. Nothing made sense anymore. Was she really remembering that her mother had been killed but some supernatural force or was this another trick to make her think that she was going crazy?
Lydia let out a whimpering moan as she tried to roll back toward the wall giving herself some sort of semblance of safety. Since her episode during her therapy session her head was clearer than it had been since they had started to drug her up.
She ran her fingers over the edge of her thumbnails to keep her mind focused on the here and now. She went over every session she'd had with her doctor, every time a pill was pushed in her direction. She kept her breathing slow and steady to keep calm sorting her thoughts and memories. Letting herself get out of control only resulted her in her being sedated… and that was the absolute last thing that she needed.
It had started off simple, the doctor talking to her about what he thought her underlying issues were, why her coping mechanisms were spinning out of control, and finally the last session.
She swallowed hard. Now that she could remember that day, the smaller details that she had forgotten were starting to filter through. The strange man's name… Azrael… she knew that name to be an archangel. Something that her mother had her learn all those years ago when it was just the two of them. She had taught her many things that Lydia had been told were just between the two of them, never to be spoken about to anyone even her father.
But now… she knew that the man that she had grown up thinking was her father wasn't her father at all.
What had Azrael said to her mother? That she was the proof that she had betrayed someone… Sam… something. Her mind still coated in fuzziness.
Who was her father? Had her mother known?
She bit back the tears that were burning her eyes as she thought about it. Why had her doctor wanted her to remember that? The more pressing question was, how did he know what had happened. No one outside of the three people in the house had known what had occurred. She couldn't let on that she had remembered. She would continue the ruse that her mother had committed suicide, that she blamed herself for falling asleep and not being there for her.
She could feel a wash of determined stubbornness. She refused to let them beat her down.
Lydia did something she hadn't done in almost ten years. She closed her eyes and slowly concentrated on her breaths, slowly breathing in and out counting as she started the long process of meditating. She remembered her mother telling her that this was the only way that she could feel the truth of who she was. At the time she had laughed and thought it was silly… now… now she wasn't so sure.
It took a long time before Lydia could feel herself gently slipping into her subconscious.
She found herself standing in the darkness, in front of her a mirror covered with a sheet.
This was important. She could feel it. But what was it?
She heard a breath of a whisper… "Three times." It was so soft she was afraid she had imagined it.
Slowly she walked around it her fingertips grazing over the dusty white sheet. Stopping back in front of the mirror she reached for the sheet and in one swift yank, pulled it down uncovering the gothic embellished ornate mirror.
When she peered into the it, there was no reflection… only shadows. Narrowing her eyes, she stepped closer to it reaching out to touch it. It shocked her, It was ice cold; she jerked her hand back rubbing her fingertips in her other hand to get rid of the coldness that seemed to seep into her skin.
It was then that she felt it, she wasn't alone in her own mind. She closed her eyes her breaths coming in slow sharp gasps as the darkness of the room seemed to start to creep in closer around her. The danger was starting to overwhelm her... it was the same feeling she had when she was with her doctor.
Panic and terror filled Lydia and she knew she had to get out of there, or she would be stuck there.
She turned away from the mirror staring into the darkness and dug her fingernails into the palms of her hands hard enough to break skin, the pain ripping her out of her meditative state just as the door to her room slammed open.
Lydia scrambled into the corner of her bed not realizing that she was bleeding, smearing blood over the sheets and the wall.
The orderlies rushed in pulling her out of the bed and onto a stretcher where she was immediately strapped down. Orders being yelled to stop the bleeding and get her sedated.
Lydia shook her head screaming out loud for the first time in weeks, her voice rough and hoarse. "NOOOO!" she fought hard to get up, get away from them. The straps held her down rubbing her arms raw as she panicked and started to hyperventilate. She couldn't breathe. Everything was spinning around her, too many hands on her… pushing and pulling her in every direction till she snapped. Her eyes rolled to the back of her head and she passed out, succumbing to the blissful arms of darkness.
hr
Daniel stood there in the doorway watching as the orderlies and nurses fought to control a tiny slip of a girl that was strapped to a stretcher. He was impressed by her strength. He tipped his head to the side watching as her blood dripped from her hands onto the floor and drew in a deep breath. His eyes narrowed as he stepped in closer.
She didn't smell right.
She smelled human enough… but there was something more there. A power simmering just under the surface. But something was keeping him from pinpointing what it was.
That… was too bad.
He had his orders.
The girl was to die by her own hand before her 18th birthday.
He had less than two weeks to get her pushed to the edge and watch her fall.
hr
The second that Betelgeuse appeared in the Netherworld he could see that things had changed since he'd been there last… at least in this part of the Netherworld. He walked slowly toward an outcropping of black rock and willed everything in him to be seen. He hadn't done this yet and he hoped that it worked. If not… he'd be fucked, and it would be back to square one.
Something he didn't have time for… and time he knew deep down that Lydia didn't have either.
He stopped suddenly when he felt something heavy resting on her shoulder.
"Halt! Who dares come into this land with out passing through the great gates!" a deep rumbling voice shook through him.
He turned slowly making sure to keep the hammer on his shoulder where it was at and not swinging at his head.
"Charun! Old Buddy… pal!" he said as a wash of relief hit him realizing that the demon could see him. "It's been ages!"
Charun narrowed his eyes at the trespasser. "State your name trespasser and I may allow you to keep your head attached to your shoulders."
Betelgeuse wiggled his eyebrows at the demon. "Has it been so long you don't remember your best pal Betel?" he feigned a pout just as a female voice broke through the darkness.
"How are you here, the last anyone had heard you were stripped of your powers and sent to exile."
Betelgeuse looked over Charun's shoulder seeing the figure of a woman wearing a pleated skirt and hunting boots… from a millennia ago. A ring of keys fastened to her belt. Vanth, winged demoness of the dead.
"Looking good as always Vanny… and the rumors of my… exile are greatly exaggerated." He slipped out from under the hammer and rocked back on his heels looking at the demons in front of him. Two of the most important Guides in the underworld. Probably the only two that wouldn't out him to the higher ups. There was no lost love with them.
Vanth arched her eyebrows at Betelgeuse and crossed her arms over her chest knowing that this wasn't just a friendly visit. "Spit it out, you need something. What do you have to barter with?"
Betelgeuse let his smile slip into a smirk and he snapped, the mace he had picked up from his trunk. "I have here the one and only Mace of Sharur." He said holding it out knowing that Vanth could feel the power from it.
Vanth's eyes widened in shock. "I don't even want to know how you got that." She muttered and reached out taking the weapon into her hand. She could feel the power, the sentience the mace had. It was more than she had ever expected Betelgeuse to produce. Slowly she looked back up at him. "This… this is a lot and makes me think that this isn't some little request."
Betelgeuse swallowed and nodded. "It's not… I need help, I'm going against the Arches… they have information about someone, someone I am bonded to." He said as he shoved his hands into his pockets. "What the higher ups did to me… they blocked the bond; I can't get to her." He shook his head. "She's in danger and I can't find her." He said letting the worry slip out into his voice.
Vanth handed the mace to Charun. "Follow me." She said and headed back toward her office. She stepped in and held the door open for Betelgeuse to come in. Going over to her desk she sat down and reached for her book of names. "Alright, what's the name of this demon… let's see what I have on them and what we can do." She said looking up at Betelgeuse.
Betelgeuse shifted in his seat looking at Vanth with a guilty look on his face. "See… that's the thing there Vanny…" He said and swallowed uncomfortably.
"She's human… and not… dead."
Vanth dropped the book on the desk in shock. "Oh Betel…. You better be fucking kidding me." She stood up and went to her bookshelf pulling down books looking for a certain one dropping all the ones that wasn't the one she was looking for.
Betelgeuse rubbed the back of his neck. "Nope. Name's Lydia Deetz."
Vanth stopped when she finally found the book she was looking for. She dropped it on the top of her desk and looked over at Betelgeuse. "You said you have a bond with her, and that its blocked?" she tapped the top of the book and looked at him. "How in Hade's name do you have a bond with a living woman!?"
Betelgeuse let out a forced chuckled. "See… that's the funny thing, right? I… I mean her and I… we started to get married, said the whole I do's and all that in front of a minister. And we were interrupted, I got eaten by a fucking sandworm and that was the last time I saw her…" he had stood up and started to pace.
"Got punished by the higher ups for that, you know, forbidden to see her, they put a ban on her home and whammied me back into my lovely accommodations." He sighed running his hands through his hair making it stand up even worse than normal, showing just how much this was affecting him.
"But the funny thing is…my powers, they're changing… my juice is different. Have to conserve it so I can get myself places. I can make myself unseen to the dead and living and even the lily-whites!" he stopped and looked down at Vanth who had leaned back in her chair, her hands folded over her chest as she listened in rapt attention.
"I can still feel the bond, it's there and it's pulling me to do something. She's in danger and it has something to do with the Arches… they fucking sent Daniel down to 'take care of it' whatever the fucking shit that means." He said through clenched teeth.
Vanth frowned that wasn't good. "Is there any way that you can find her in the mortal world… you know I can't leave here, or I'd look for you." She said softly the apology clear in her voice.
Betelgeuse thought back to the folder he'd seen… his eyes narrowed. "Yeah, got some ideas." He said knowing that she had to be in some sort of hospital. Winter River wasn't that big.
Vanth nodded and sighed. "Do that and come back and tell me what you've found out. I'll see what I can find out from my contacts…. But if the Arches are involved, this is something that you might not be able to stop Betel… this might be her fate." She said delicately.
Betelgeuse growled as he stalked toward the door. He looked back over his shoulder looking at Vanth, the coldness and determination in his face was enough to stop anything else she was going to say.
"You and I both know that fate is shit, if they hurt her Vanny… no force this side of the Netherworld to the fucking Empyrean will stop me from killing them all… that's my promise." He said and with a snap of his fingers disappeared.
Vanth sighed and rubbed her fingers over the book on her desk.
Lines and linages of the lost ones
"I hope it doesn't come to that B…" she whispered.