Chapter 34
Abaddon’s Russian orphanage on the outskirts of Yaroslavl, Russia
Calise stood in a dimly lit hallway that branched and spread out before her like a maze in an old psychiatric hospital. Multiple doors stretched out in all directions. Cold seeped into her bones no less here than it did outside. She exhaled and watched her breath dissipate into nothingness.
“How many rooms is this place?” Michael could be anywhere.
“Hundreds,” Shane answered.
“Maybe we should split up?”
“Nursery is that way down the basement,” he pointed. “I’ll head to her private quarters. Meet here when you have Michael.” He padded silently away from her until his silhouette melted into the blackness. Moans and creaks assaulted her from every direction. This was more sanitarium than orphanage. The place reeked of urine and feces, a barren environment not suitable for any child. She was revolted even thinking about Michael, or any child, being held here. Her footsteps echoed, sounding to her ears as if a giant clomped down the hall, even though she tried her best to be quiet.
Stifled sobs came from a room on the right. She switched on the flashlight Shane gave her and edged up to the large door to peer through its small Plexiglas window, terrified of what she might find. The inside of the room was pitch black. She tried the doorknob. Locked.
She crept closer and shone the flashlight at the tiny window, then stifled a scream and jumped back. A pair of eyes had looked back at her, then disappeared. Angel eyes.
She shone the flashlight in the window again but kept more distance between the window and herself.
No eyes.
The lights flicked on in the room. She peered inside, two girls in hospital gowns circled a third girl, tied up in the center of the room. She was the source of the sobs. All of the children’s cheeks were sunken in from malnourishment.
“Give us the bread!” One of the two disheveled girls barked at the girl bound with ropes, who rocked on the floor. She shook her head vehemently until the two girls attacked her, slapping and punching her, until they removed the scrap of bread she had been protecting.
Then the two wrestled against each other like two children fighting over the Thanksgiving wishbone until each scurried to a corner to devour her scrap of a feast.
The girl on the floor raised her head and looked right at Calise. “Help us!”
The other two crept to the small window and, realizing Calise wasn’t a demon, chimed in. “Help us! Let us out!” They banged on the door.
She flinched backwards.
What the hell is going on here? Where is my baby?
She tread softly along the long, clammy corridor, unable to bring herself to look into any other rooms. She heard babies crying when she reached an intersection of the hallways. Why were babies kept far away from the other children? She followed the sound. At the end of the hall, she followed a dimly lit stairwell to the basement. The infant cries grew louder and louder with each step.
Her palms slippery with sweat, she feared the flashlight would slip from her hands, despite the cold temperature that had her constantly shivering. She tried to take some deep breaths to slow her heart rate and calm her nerves, but to no avail.
How can I fight Nara?
What angel can I summon here in the middle of nowhere?
The basement appeared more neglected than the first floor, if that was possible. The cracked, concrete floor gave way to patches of earth showing through. The temperature felt ten degrees colder than upstairs. How could an infant survive in this environment?
Double doors at the end of the hallway appeared to open on the nursery. She hugged the wall. The stench of mold and curdled milk grew stronger with each step. She kept the flashlight turned off because besides the necklace, the element of surprise was all she had on Nara. Unless Shane got to her first.
Calise pushed open the door. One rickety crib after another held two or even three infants in varying degrees of health. None properly covered, all obviously malnourished, and most, although awake, never even looked up at her. Her heart broke for every one of these angel babies, none of whom were Michael.
A creak startled her. Someone occupied a rocking chair facing the corner.
Nara?
Calise clenched her necklace tightly and approached the rocking chair. A few feet away, she could hear a woman humming to the child. She dared a glance over her shoulder. A swaddled baby, but not Michael. Wrapped in pink with shining cherry-red eyes, it was a tiny demoness.
The woman spun around and Calise was face to face with her sister-in-law, Liza.
Liza’s expression betrayed her surprise, and she put a finger to her lips to shush Calise. Then she motioned to a door in the corner of the room and mouthed, “I’m sorry.”
Liza was a demon, yes. But she’d changed. Her features were softer and for a moment, Calise believed Shane was right—Liza might actually be on their side.
Liza’s head snapped to the side door, and she whispered to Calise, “Hide!”
Calise crouched between two cribs and slid to the floor when the door opened. Heels clicked across the floor.
“How’s my darling little girl?” Nara’s voice purred. “Daddy’s on his way here, darling. And when he sees you, he’ll be mine forever. Now, Liza dear, give my precious little girl several extra blankets and her own crib. Also, her feeding schedule of every two hours is not to be interrupted, for anything. Understand?”
“Of course, Nara. She is my number one priority. Where did that new baby come from? Should I make room for him somewhere in here?”
Michael.
“Soon enough. I just need to castrate him and scar up his face a little. Then I don’t give a shit what happens to him. You are not to feed or hold the new one under any circumstances. Let him die slowly, starving for attention and food.” Nara laughed.
Calise could barely contain herself under the cribs but knew her clumsy appearance right now would be disastrous. The element of surprise and the possibility of Liza and Shane’s help were all she had.
“Send Shane to see me the moment he arrives. On second thought, take my baby upstairs and let her sleep with me where it’s warmer. Go on, move it!” Nara snapped.
Liza’s hopeless look returned. As she gathered her belongings, she dropped several keys on the floor near Calise. “Sorry, Nara. I’m so clumsy sometimes.”
Liza kicked a key under the crib where Calise hid before she left with the demoness. Nara’s heels clicked past Calise once again, heading toward the door at the back of the nursery.
Calise stayed low as she made her way to the door. Crouching, she put the key in the door and turned the handle, then cracked the door open. And stifled a gasp of horror.
Nara was standing over Michael with a knife pointed right at his midsection.
****
“I see you found us.” Nara kept her back turned. She set the knife down and picked Michael up by one leg as he screamed. The room was a makeshift kitchen attached to the nursery. Everything was stainless steel with raw edges and hard lines.
“Put him down!” Calise took a step closer and reached for her necklace. “Now.”
“Or you’ll what?” Nara beckoned with two fingers for Calise to approach her. “Use that?”
Calise felt something pulling her tight around the back of her neck and involuntarily, she stepped forward. The necklace from Lucas stuck straight out in front of her, pulling her toward Nara. She grabbed the back of her neck in vain as the necklace snapped off, flew to the ground and skidded toward Nara. The demon caught it with her foot and smashed the glass with her heel to reveal the shard of wood. Her blood red eyes rolled back in her head. “Let the fires of hell consume you!” she hissed, then opened her mouth and heaved out a stream of flames.
Her dragon breath destroyed the artifact.
Calise watched in horror as the only thing she had to fight Nara with was a pile of ashes at her feet.
“Did you really think that trinket of wood would protect you? You have no one to help you. You’re alone. Are you ready to watch your son die?” Nara lifted up the knife she’d laid on the stainless steel kitchen island.
“Wait, Nara. Take me. Don’t hurt him. He hasn’t done anything to you. It’s me you want.” Calise edged closer and closer.
Nara’s steely eyes watched her every move.
“His daddy killed my mom. Tit for tat, bitch.” Nara’s lip curled. “But, if you’re willing to make a deal, I have an offer.”
Calise panicked. She wanted Nara’s soul to burn in hell for an eternity. Nara eased Michael down on the cold silver island. He whimpered and Calise ached that she was so close but couldn’t hold him, comfort him, and tell him mommy would fix everything. “What do you want?”
Nara’s aura pulsed in vertigo-inducing black waves making the tension between them palatable. “You have something that I want.” Nara’s voice was icy.
“What’s that?”
Nara smiled at her. “Shane’s heart. Break it.”
“What are you saying? Break it how?” Calise held her ground.
“I know he brought you here. I know he wants you back. I want you to make him fall. Completely.”
So Nara wanted Shane to be a demon, like her. “How am I supposed to do that?”
“Figure it out or watch your son die before I kill you.” Nara scooped Michael up and in a blur, they were gone.
All the adrenaline left Calise’s system, and she dropped to her knees, feeling as if the wind had been knocked out of her. Make Shane fall? How could she do that to him? Yet how could she refuse? She was powerless without the necklace. And the hell if she’d let Nara hurt Michael. Maybe if Shane was a demon, then Nara would finally leave Calise and Lucas alone.
I’m an idiot. Demons lie. Calise would make Shane fall and Nara would still kill her. But there was another baby here, Shane and Nara’s—she’d seen her. Nara wanted her family together as much as Calise did. They did have that one thing in common. If Nara killed Calise, Shane would never forgive her.
Something crashed in the nursery. She ran out to see Shane pushing past each crib and looking inside. “Shane!”
“Have you found Nara? My baby is here somewhere. Help me find my baby so we can get out of here.” He rushed from one bed to the next.
Calise steadied herself on the door handle and spoke without a break in her voice. “So that was your plan all along? Find your baby and to hell with mine? I should have known you were lying when you said you wanted to help me. Michael’s not even here, is he? You want a prisoner. You want me and your child to live together and be a family. Well think again, because I’m not going anywhere with you.”
In the blink of an eye, Shane’s weight was pressed hard against her. His breathing ragged, he tried to kiss her.
Calise slapped him hard and spit in his face. “Don’t touch me. I don’t want you. I never wanted you. You tricked me from the first time you met me. You knew you could seduce me. You knew I would worship you. You might as well be a demon because you are no better than one.”
Shane’s eyes narrowed and his body tightened. “I promised to try to help you. If Nara isn’t here with your son, that’s not my fault. You said you loved me, and we would be together.” His voice amplified and he slammed his hand back and forth over his heart and hers. “We will be together.”
She pushed him back. “You belong with Nara. You and your demon daughter.”
His eyes widened.
She crossed her arms and pressed on. “Yes, your daughter is here. With Liza. She’s a demon, Shane. A demon! You want me to raise a demon with a father who’s just as bad as one? You lied and tricked me in college. You broke into my apartment and threatened me. You’ve brought me here promising me my baby. All lies!” Calise screamed. Her eyes welled up with tears as she watched her words break Shane’s heart.
Again.
“Calise, you’re wrong—” he pleaded.
“I hate you. You can die dreaming about me for all I care. You’ll never have me again. Get away from me. Lucas is a better man as a human than you ever were as an angel.”
He backed through the nursery, bumping into cribs as he went. With each step, he seemed taller and darker. His chest heaved and his body shook as his heartbreak turned to full out anger.
Then he vanished. Alone, and without help, and she couldn’t have felt any weaker.
A hand squeezed her shoulder and she jumped.
“Bravo, Calise, bravo.” Nara clapped condescendingly. “Almost there. There’s only one more thing you have to do.” Nara’s cold and calculating voice in her ear sent a shiver down Calise’s spine.
“Where’s Michael?”
Nara shrugged. “Make Shane fall and I’ll let him rot in the nursery with the other whining blobs. Too bad you won’t be so lucky. Now, succumb…” she rasped.
“Huh?” Calise turned around to ask but she was gone. A piercing sound hit her. It was like the roar of an eighteen-wheeler approaching at eighty miles-per-hour. She sank to the ground, covering her ears.
The door to the nursery busted off its hinges. Shane stood in the opening, the hollow circles of his eyes rapid-fire cycling—transitor, demon, transitor, demon. He held his head tall, his demeanor changing from meek to powerful. “I’ll never have you? Is that what you think? Well, you’re wrong! You’ve forgotten how good I am. I’m going to remind you. Over and over.”
Shane raced forward to loom over her. He grabbed her by the hair and dragged her out of the nursery.
“Shane! No! What are you doing? Let me go!”
“Shut up,” he commanded and she lost her voice. He couldn’t hear her when she tried to scream, “Nara made me do it!”
Her legs kicked and dragged, and she grabbed onto his sleeves for leverage before all her hair got ripped out. Her neck cracked in pain, and her head throbbed as he continued to drag her. She clawed at his arms and kept screaming even though no sound came out. Her world went silent, and she watched the doors with the tormented children behind them pass by. The dim flickering hall lights led her to her doom.
Nara had said, “Succumb.” To what?
The room he dropped her in smelled like semen and blood. Rusty tools were all over the place, and she caught glimpses of tattered clothes strewn in the corners. This was like an S&M dungeon from hell. He grabbed her wrists, dragged her to the far wall, and a shackle clicked, binding her wrist to the wall. She fought, but he bound her other wrist to the wall and then put a gag in her mouth.
“You will remember how great we were together, one way or another,” Shane assured her, then ripped her shirt open.
She moaned and shook her head.
Succumb. Nara wanted him to rape her. He would fall and become a demon. She had a flashback to when Shane saved her from the creep in college. He lit up the room that night when he busted in. This isn’t happening.
“Don’t worry, I won’t be gentle.” Shane unbuckled her belt and roughly pulled down her jeans.
Then it happened. He didn’t just have the intent to rape her anymore; he was in motion.
He fell and Calise watched.
The gray cloud of his aura covered him and cold wet air surrounded them. She inhaled moisture and mold, coughing and gagging with the ball in her mouth.
Then she heard a sound that reminded her of hot wax being ripped from the skin. Shane screamed. Something ethereal and white left his body and floated toward the heavens.
Was his essence ripped from his soul?
The haze around him turned from gray to black and began to retreat. Shane was naked, down on all fours. She looked on helplessly while his fingers grew and long yellow nails covered his nail beds. Webbing appeared from his knuckles and spread back to his arms. He raised his soulless eyes to hers, and they were empty and glowing red. Black circles surrounded them and when he opened his mouth to yell out, razor sharp teeth appeared. He clawed at his hair, which all fell out, leaving him looking like a hairless rat. He screamed again as red horns exploded from his bald head above his ears. The horns curved toward the back of his head in the shape of the letter “S.”
In the presence of a monster, she froze in fear as tears rolled down her cheeks.
It was over.
She’d lost.
Every hair on her body stood up and cold sweats overtook her as the being rose to his full height and, with burning eyes, advanced on her.
He pointed a finger at Calise, and it grew and wriggled toward her. She clamped her legs together as the yellow fingernail slowly crept up her leg to her inner thigh. As it was about to enter her, she heard a voice.
“That’s enough, baby. If that claw is going in anyone, it’ll be me.” Nara stood in the doorway to the dungeon holding a baby bundled in flowing red silk.
He snapped around to the sound of her voice, and Calise again saw the familiar shag of hair that was Shane’s. “Give her to me,” he growled. “Give me my daughter.”
“Of course, my love. Now, we are together as it was always meant to be.” Nara transferred the cooing bundle to his waiting arms. “Come along now, Daddy.” Nara pulled Shane in for a kiss but all Calise saw were two long pink worm-like tongues wrestling in circles over the baby.
He flicked his red eyes toward Calise. “What about her?”
“Liza will be down here to dispose of her,” Nara promised.
“Good, because the filthy human deserves to die. They all deserve to die.” Shane held his demon baby tight. “Do you trust Liza?”
Nara laughed. “Of course. She’s in my service, so she knows what the penalty is for her disobedience. Good-bye, Calise Rowe. And good fucking riddance.” Nara blew her a kiss of black smoke, and the door on her prison was slammed shut and bolted from the outside.
In the darkness, creatures began to skitter up her legs then bite. Calise screamed.
Did minutes pass? Hours? She had no idea. But when the heavy bolt slid open and the door to her cell opened again, Liza was there, holding a gun.
“Help me Liza!”
Her sister-in-law waved a hand in front of her eyes. Her red eyes gleamed.
Calise's whole body racked with convulsions. “They were eating my skin, and the pain—What happened? Where did they go?”
“It was an illusion. I know what I have to do.” Liza backed up and raised the gun to Calise.
CRACK!
The gun fired.