Chapter THIRTY-TWO
Rebecca
"Rebecca, get the Box," Sarah said. "Now!"
I was frozen in shock while the demon walked towards us. His eyes were washed in hellfire, his body glowing along the scarred runes dug into his skin. He'd trimmed his beard and slicked back his white hair. Even more surprising, his damaged hand was whole.
"Izak, no!" Sarah moved to intercept him.
I broke out of my trance and headed towards the airlock that separated us from the Box. A line of hellfire rose up in my path.
"Izak!"
Sarah stood right in front of him, looking up at him with tears in her eyes. He met her gaze, and his face twisted in pain.
The Deceiver. I gripped the hilt tight, feeling the warmth of the power through my hand. It was a simple illusion, but I hoped it would be enough. I ran for the door again.
I could feel the heat from the other side of the room. I'd flipped his perception of it, and he had attacked the wrong place. I fell into the clean room, stumbling towards the Box.
"Izak, don't let him control you. Izak!" Sarah pounded her fists against his chest, but he didn't react to her at all. He clenched his new hand and closed his eyes. When he opened them, he looked right at me.
I don't know how he defeated the power of the Deceiver, and I didn't have time to care. I rolled away from the blast of hellfire that flowed from his other hand, passing easily through the glass and striking the air above me. I felt it hot against Elyse's scarred head, and I scrambled on my elbows towards the Box. Even if I reached it, I had no idea how I would get past the fiend.
"Izak!" Sarah backed away from him. "Stop, now!"
I felt the wave of power. I went to my knees and looked through the melted glass. Izak stood there, looking at Sarah.
"You can fight," she said. "Don't let him own you."
I stood and approached the Box, feeling a sense of relief at its proximity. I put down Truth and took it in my hand, and then jammed it under the tight waistband of the yoga pants. It was uncomfortable against the skin, sending waves of heat and cold through Elyse's body.
Sarah was stroking Izak's face, her small hand gentle on his rough skin. He was branded, a puppet to Gervais. That meant the archfiend had to be nearby.
Without warning, his hand came up, and smacked Sarah's away. His mouth curled into a snarl and his muscles rippled in confusion. He shoved her back, throwing her across the room.
I didn't have time to think. I leaped towards him, through the open space the hellfire had made, bringing the swords to bear and coming down on him with a fierce double-strike.
He took two steps back and raised his hands, summoning a sword of hellfire and using it to deflect Truth. He caught the Deceiver on the forearm, the runes flaring and deflecting the demonic blade.
His return blows were blurs, and it was all I could do to get Truth up in time to block the sword and protect me from the heat of the fire. I caught it edge on edge and twisted, turning beneath the momentum and stepping back beside him. He smiled and drove forward, flaring the hellfire and leaving me on the defensive.
The lab wasn't a wide open space to fight in. I ducked and dodged around tables and computers, staying close enough that he had to use his sword but far enough back that he couldn't hit me. It was clear within a few seconds that he was a superior fighter, and it would take pure luck to get out of here with the Box.
Then I tripped on a wire. It caught my foot and sent me stumbling backwards. I dropped Deceiver to put my hand against a wall and keep my balance, and got Truth up only inches from my face. It protected me from the heat of the hellfire, and the demon and I grappled together. He was taller than me, but my face was close enough to his to see his expression clearly. He didn't want to fight, but he had to.
Which made him as much of an enemy as anyone else. More than anyone else. He had put enough fear into Joe that he'd given up without a fight. Looking into his sorrowful eyes, I knew he was the biggest thing standing between Landon's freedom and his complete slavery. If Gervais got his hands on the Box and the archfiend knew what to do with it...
My anger flared, and I shoved against him with as much force as Elyse's small frame could muster. It was enough to slip the lock. I leaped sideways and rolled across a desk, feeling the heat of his blade behind me and hearing the spark and sizzle as it tore through the furniture. I hit the ground already moving laterally, digging into the sports bra and finding the black stone. We were so close, Izak and me. I pressed my palm tight against the stone to summon the black blade in the same motion I threw the rock at him.
He didn't see it as a threat. He didn't even try to block it. It changed in midair, replaced with the long stick of alloy that could kill both demon and angel alike. It went right past his defenses, hissing and sparking when it struck the skin and buried itself deep inside. The runes of power covering his arms flickered and faded. He stopped moving and looked down at the protruding expanse.
Then he looked at me.
I'd expected to see anger, and relief. I hadn't thought his sad expression could get any sadder.
The sword hissed in his chest and the smell of frankincense was overwhelming. He should have fallen. He should have died.
He didn't.
He reached up with his new hand and took hold of the hilt. He was slow and deliberate while he pulled it out of his chest, his eyes locked to mine. If I hadn't been so surprised, I might have been smart enough to run while I could. Then again, I doubt I would have gotten far.
He held the blade up. I watched his wound vanish beneath the stench of dead flesh. It was only then that I realized what was happening, and what Izak had truly become. His hand was whole again, but it wasn't his hand. I couldn't be sure, but it wouldn't have surprised me if it had once belonged to Gervais. That was how he was controlling him. That was how he had healed.
My revelation was short-lived. The spatha whistled through the air towards my head. I backed up just in time, feeling the coldness of it nick Elyse's cheek and send a line of blood into the air. I got Truth up to block the second thrust, and felt the flare of tattoos trying to fight off hellfire that got too close. It would have incinerated my arm, but instead it only burned.
The dance started again, only I had been losing before, and now I was down to a single blade. I ducked and twisted, thrusted and parried, turned and leaped and kicked. I used everything I knew, and every muscle Elyse had worked to perfection.
In the end, it wasn't enough.
In the end, there was only one thing left for me to do. There was only one thing I could do. It was the path of least resistance, and it made me question everything Sarah had said and everything I wished I could be.
In the end, I had to be the demon, and think only of the win. It didn't matter if the cause was good, or even if Elyse would have understood and done the same thing. In my heart I knew it was wrong and I did it anyway. It had worked the first time after all, but I could have saved her the first time.
I knocked aside the hellfire sword and leaned forward, into the path of the second blade. I prepared to be run through, ready to use the moment that Izak dropped his guard to remove his hand.
I hadn't expected Sarah to screw it up.
The Deceiver knocked against the spatha, pushing it out of the path of my body. She put her weight against Izak, shoving him to the side and succeeding in bringing him off his feet. He crashed into a table and onto the ground, his hand raised and shooting more of the flames towards her. The Deceiver protected her from the heat, and she rushed him and brought it down at his chest.
He knocked it away with one hand while bringing the spatha up with the other, stabbing Sarah in the gut and catching her in his arms as she fell. For just an instant his eyes changed, and he let out a weak wail of torment that would plant its memory forever in my soul. His hand fell away from his body, and he burst into tears.
There was no time to waste. I was on him in two steps. I found the Deceiver laying next to them and I scooped it up and brought it down, severing his arm at the elbow. He grunted in pain and looked down at the wound. The hand landed on the ground and began to scream.
"Izak, we need to get her to the armory. Let's go." The Nicht Creidim had one of the amulets. If she were still alive, it might save her.
He didn't hesitate. He got to his feet, still holding her in his good arm and ignoring the damage to the other. The sword was still buried in her stomach and blood was running down her legs, but her eyes were open and holding a measure of life.
He paused on the way out, putting his foot to the hand and igniting it in hellfire. The screams continued until it had finished burning away.
I picked up Truth and we raced out of the lab, down the hallway to the armory. The walls around us were singed and burned, the remains of Izak's inception. I put Elyse's hand to the lock and cursed at the slowness of the door mechanism. Once inside, I found the small shelf where the amulet had been kept and prayed to God that it was there.
It was. I cracked the crystal open in my hand and pushed Sarah's head back so I could pour the blood into her mouth. If Elyse was right, her wound would heal. I could only hope Elyse had been right.
I pulled the spatha from her stomach while Izak rocked her in his arm, the tears flowing down his face. I pressed my hands against the wound, willing the warmth of the flow beneath them to decrease and subside. It didn't matter what I wanted, only how the power of the blood would act on her mortal self.
Her eyes opened more, and she took a deep gasping breath. The wound grew hot beneath my fingers, forcing me to let go. She gulped in more air, and then turned her head to the demon.
"Izak. Are you okay?"
Izak smiled and nodded his head, then lowered her down and kissed her on the cheek.
"Are you okay?" I asked.
"You saved my life," she said.
"I owed you one."