The Devil's Assistant (Watty Awards Finalist 2011)

Devil's Assistant [24]

As promised, here is part two of the chapter. It took me all day to write as I feel like utter crap so in my defence if there are dancing bunnies or some random crap like that then it is not entirely my fault...well maybe because it would kind of be amusing if it wasn't so random. Anyways, hope you like it.

Chapter 23 pt2

The rest of the archives were full of signs that humans had been through here. I was shocked to discover that they had even left empty fast food cartons here on top of some priceless scrolls, damaging them with the grease so that the hieroglyphics became illegible. It was blasphemous to do something like that to something so rare and valuable but then again, these people were only interested in one thing, power.

Strolling back to the circle that was the epicentre of the library, I watched as Donalbain and his men regrouped, all of them looking serious as they informed their leader of their findings. But nothing prepared me for the sudden arrival of a body in the centre of the circle, a fainting popping sound the only sign that it had arrived.

In an instant, everyone was alert but I was more afraid of the black tinged blood covering the entire body that was slowly pooling outwards from the corpse. My eyes were transfixed on the familiar head of blonde hair. Stepping closer, ignoring the arms that tried to push me back, I crouched down beside the unmoving form and with a shaking hand, grasped the rapidly cooling shoulder and rolled the body over.

“Oh god,” I gasped as the ethereal beauty that I had so often called goddess like was now staring lifelessly back at me. Sweeping one of the golden locks from her face I felt myself welling up. I didn’t particularly like the woman but no one deserved this. Her face was contorted in pain and blackish red tears leaked down her face as if she had literally cried her own blood. “What did they do to you?”

Lucius, who had approached slowly and silently from behind, drew in a ragged breath and knelt beside me. His hand reached out and clasped the pale lifeless one, shuddering at the faint warmth still radiating from the body. “How could they do this to her? This was TORTURE.”

 His face was full of pain as he stared into her eyes, as if he was reliving everything that she had been through, his body stiffening and rocking with the waves of agony that rolled through him. “How did they know? They shouldn’t have known.”

I frowned at his back. “What happened? What did they do?” For an explanation, Lucius straightened out Harmony’s arm and what struck me most, was her veins, they looked like someone had poured liquid fire through them so that they had literally burned her inside out. It wasn’t until Lucius pulled back the sleeve of her top that I saw what had been scratched into her arm. But this wasn’t done to her, it was done by herself and I wondered what kind of courage it took someone to be able to mutilate themselves in that way to save the people that they know and love because if the piece of fingernail protruding from the skin was anything to go by, Harmony had painfully carved her own arm before her heart had finally given out.

I felt my stomach roll and quickly backed away before emptying my stomach on the floor. My whole body heaved as my arms trembled and shook under my body weight. I could see it now, the bloody writing that spelled out his name. ‘Phil traitor.’ Harmony had tried to write something else but her nail had come off and it had become embedded in her skin so there were only two letters, ‘UI’ To think that she had gone through all of that just to warn us made me hate these people even more. No one and I mean no one deserved that. But even the carving didn’t explain all of the weird blood.

“What did they do to her Lucius?” I questioned raggedly as strong arms assisted me to my feet. I felt bad for the person because they were standing in my puke but they didn’t seem to care as they swept me off my feet while I turned my head towards the man with all the answers.

He had his head bowed and was mumbling over the body before he reached up and closed the lids to Harmony’s eyes so that it looked as if she was merely sleeping.

“You know what she was, she was a succubus and as such she needed sexual energy to live.” He shook his head back and forth. “What they did was torture her. They gave her energy that was too strong, too powerful, too much for any creature of the underworld to behold even myself. They fed her the love of an angel and yes that means love in every way. It appears there are two casualties because there is only one way to part an angel with the essence of love and that is to kill him and take his soul. See she started writing the name here.” He pointed to the part where there was an ‘U’ and ‘I’ but the fingernail was imbedded at the top of the second letter. I had to turn my head to stop myself from gagging anymore, not sure if I could take anymore gore.

Lucius looked as pained about that as he did about harmony which I could understand, after all, these angels were his brothers.

“Do you know who?” I questioned softly feeling tears welling up in my eyes again, feeling so many emotions that it was difficult to separate them from one another.

Nodding Lucius leant forwards and pressed his lips to Harmony’s which I tried not to feel hurt by. The way that his body started shuddering though I assumed that the reaction was not natural and when he finally rocked back on his heels I saw something I never thought I would see, there were tears streaming down his face. “Uriel.” He whispered and I felt my whole body reel as an image of a young man with dark hair flashed in my mind, my thoughts connecting the face to the name in an instant and I felt myself grieving for a man, no boy who never got the chance to truly live.

Stepping away from the one holding my arms, I pushed forwards and wrapped my arm around Lucius from behind, trying to offer comfort while studiously checking I wasn’t breathing my sick smelling breath on his face.

“We’ll get them Lucius.” I whispered in his ear. “Don’t worry, we’ll get them.”

Nodding his head he allowed me to pull him to his feet and away from the body, just as Gabriel, Ezekiel and a few warriors joined the group.

“I just heard the commotion, what’s going on?” Gabriel began before he noted the body on the floor. “Oh.”

“I think it’s time we go,” Donalbain informed us as he looked down at the bloody mess on the floor. “Do you have burial preferences or are you fine with the traditional way, without the pyre of course?”

Lucius could only nod not knowing what else to do. There was obviously a time limit on these things with the enemy a step ahead of us. I turned my head away as a sudden heat erupted before us as the body was consumed with an unnatural fire. It took barely ten seconds for all evidence of Harmony to vanish but I knew that I would forever remember her like that, blackish tears and her carved arm. She was the martyr for the battle now, no one deserves to die like that and no matter what, I was determined that she would be avenged. Even if it meant destroying Phil myself.