Alex – Saturday: 5 Days to Plague Day
Alex’s wife, Lisa, was pretty. Ever so slightly lopsided and with a slightly larger nose than he’d like, but pretty nonetheless. Kali, on the other hand, was beautiful. She was the colour of chocolate and had a face that was perfectly symmetrical. Her smile seemed to promise things and despite the crisp Indian accent, they were things he thought he’d probably never even imagined. She had eyes the colour of night. He’d thought they were brown to start with, then the light had caught them and they’d glowed so dark blue they were almost black. And her body…
Luke grabbed her arm, snarling as he dragged her toward the church.
‘There’ll be clothes in there, find some and put them on.’
Kali’s eyes widened, searching Luke’s face as though she would find the answer there to why he was being such a dick. Alex almost reassured her that he was always this way, but he had the feeling the two of them had known one another far longer than he had.
They raced into the church, which was disappointingly ordinary inside and found something for Kali to wear in a duffel bag hanging on a set of hooks. She took the robe off and dropped it on the floor, entirely unselfconscious about being naked in front of the two men. She even turned to Luke with a look that made Alex shiver and said. ‘Sara sends her regards. She misses you.’
Luke turned away and Alex, blushing red, did the same, but not before catching her eye. She gave him that smile again and he stopped turning, unable to take his eyes off her. She kept smiling, taking a long while to pull the t-shirt over her head. Even with it on, her figure was on display and his face grew hotter. She finished getting dressed slowly, not taking her eyes off his.
Luke cleared his throat and grabbed Alex’s arm. He pulled him away across the church and smiled. It wasn’t his normal smile, nor the evil look he seemed to enjoy so much. This was a forced smile, dragged up from somewhere but reluctant and overworked.
‘What’s wrong?’
Luke stared, eyebrows rising and then he let go and closed his eyes, taking deep breaths. His face relaxed and when he opened them, his eyes bored into Alex. ‘Is that better?’
‘I don’t know. You look better, sure, but—’
‘I’m fine. There’s nothing wrong. Kali over there is a succubus. You’d do well to steer clear of her. She is very sexy and very beautiful and will happily ensnare you with the sole motivation of eating your soul. Your only consolation will be that the last few minutes of your life will be very pleasurable.’
Alex grinned and Luke shook his head. ‘That isn’t as nice as it sounds. Trust me, someone doing anything to your soul is bad enough. Eating it is on the outer limits of what you can handle before your brain goes pop.’
‘I wasn’t grinning about that, I haven’t heard the word succubus in years, not since I played Dungeons and Dragons.’
Maybe he should ask Kali whether Luke had a mental issue or something. He turned to walk over to her and Luke’s hand wrapped around his wrist. ‘When will you start believing? You saw what I did to those soldiers’
‘And believe you me, it was impressive. But the whole God thing and now succubus? I mean, really?’
Luke smiled more naturally this time. ‘I really will enjoy watching your face when it hits you. When you can no longer deny it, it’s going to be so much fun.’
Luke shoved his arm away and stalked across the church. Kali was clothed now, though managing to look even more alluring in a tight t-shirt and tight jeans and just tight everything. That she had no underwear on made it even worse. Alex gritted his teeth. He needed to focus on the cure, on the formulas. There were so many things he had to remember that weren’t on the board. Pages of stuff he hadn’t thought Luke needed to hear.
The crazy man grabbed Kali by the arm and dragged her across the church toward the altar. She struggled for a brief moment, but something he said stilled her. Alex rushed over. Why was he being so unpleasant? He couldn’t believe he was still wondering that, but Luke had just rescued her, so that had to count for something. Why rescue her and drag her about like she was worthless?
As he grew closer he heard what they were saying.
‘The Father didn’t send you, don’t lie to me. Who sent you?’
The smallest of worry lines marred Kali’s forehead, but made her no less stunning. If anything, the addition of humanity made her even more desirable.
‘It was him. He was worried about your behaviour here so far, he—’
‘So who’s watching me? If you’ve seen my behaviour, who else has?’
She cast her eyes to the ground and looked up at Luke through long dark lashes. ‘Everyone. There’s a screen in the Dome. It’s on all the time so you can just go and watch it.’
Luke burst out laughing. ‘So I’m the entertainment. Where has the Father gone?’
‘He’s still at the Do— oww!’
Luke slammed his hand across her cheek and let go of her wrist. She dropped to the floor, knees making a dull thump that chased her cry of pain around the church.
‘The Father wouldn’t put up a screen. He wouldn’t make this a spectator sport, not for you or anyone else. Who did this?’
She looked down again, shaking her head. Luke knelt beside her and grabbed her chin, forcing her to look at him. Alex stepped closer. ‘Look, Luke, surely we can do this nicely, you don’t need to hurt her.’
Luke waved his hand in dismissal and Alex hesitated.
‘Who did this?’
Kali’s mouth stayed shut. Luke stared at her for a moment and Alex caught a glimpse of his face. His eyes flared, golden light spilling from the edges and his mouth was so tight his lips all but vanished. Alex took a step back as Luke surged to his feet and turned. ‘You want proof? You want to be enlightened?’
He hauled Kali up by the arm and dragged her over the altar and past it to where a huge golden cross towered above them. Kali writhed and whined and the sound wasn’t entirely human.
‘I don’t want proof. Whatever you’re doing, stop it, I don’t want proof.’
Luke turned back, sneer on his face. ‘This isn’t about you. I just thought you might be interested.’
Without another word, he spun back, grabbed Kali by both arms and lifted her, slamming her against the cross. The moment she touched it a hissing sound filled the church and she screamed. Smoke rose from her back and she struggled and kicked. He gagged as a smell like burning hair filled his nostrils.
Luke held her there, every muscle tense. The hissing grew louder and Alex backed away as her face changed. The beauty was gone, just like that, replaced with red scales and a nose almost flat to her face. Her eyes shifted, melting from the front of her face out to the sides and her mouth grew wider and wider.
He put his hand over his mouth, gasping as she changed completely. She looked like a lizard, the colour of blood and five feet tall. Her jaws extended and she snapped at Luke. He wagged his finger in front of her. ‘Uh, uh, none of that. You are here now, corporeal and entirely present and either I get my answers or I break your neck, understood?’
The soft melody of her voice had become a deep croak. ‘Take me off this damned cross.’
‘I think you’re the damned one.’ He pulled her away from the cross and threw her to the floor. She came straight back up, mouth snapping as her nails scratched on the stone floor.
‘Who sent you? Who sent you to watch me and who framed me in the first place?’
‘That’s a lot of questions, which would you like answered first?’
‘It doesn’t matter, you’re going to answer all of them anyway.’
The laugh that emerged was thin and rough and scraped across Alex’s brain. He was already struggling to stay something resembling sane, and the voice didn’t make it any easier.
Kali, assuming she was still called Kali when she was a giant lizard thing, hisses again. ‘The Father sent me.’
Luke grabbed her around the throat and shoved her against the cross. The acrid smoke billowed up and she screamed. The sound faded and rattled in her throat as her struggles weakened. He held her there until her legs hung limp at her sides, then tossed her to the floor.
‘My patience is at an end. You will tell me what I wish to know now.’
She laughed weakly and ran a scaled forearm over her lips. ‘Trust me, Luke, the person who sent me here is far scarier than you.’
‘Do you know who I am?’ As he roared, golden light spat from his eyes and the shadow he cast from the flickering candles moved independently, creeping forward to crouch above her.
‘I know who you were. But that was a long time ago. You’ve been neutered by your time as a Guardian. Everyone knows it except you.’
Luke took a step back, head shaking back and forth. Kali clambered to her feet, mocking smile on her face. ‘I mean, come on, would you have let the Father send you here before he let you back in? You’re a shadow of who you were. Why do you think Sara let you in? She felt sorry for you, Luke, and she knew you were going. It was time for you to go.’
Alex cringed. Luke was going to hit her. He could see the tension in his shoulders as he wound up to it. Then the tension drained and his head dropped onto his chest. His voice was soft, defeated. ‘So you will tell me nothing?’
Kali sighed and rolled her shoulders. ‘I’m sorry, I can’t. Worse will happen to me if I do. Had it not been my master, it would have been someone else. There are a lot of people with a grudge against you.’
Luke nodded and turned to Alex. ‘We better get going. We need that cure.’
Alex let out a long breath and nodded. This was a better ending than he’d expected. Luke met his gaze and he saw another flash of gold and stiffened as Luke turned back to Kali.
‘Oh, something you might want to pass onto your master. I may be weaker than I was, but I’m far from defeated. Tell me, Kali, what are you most afraid of?’
The succubus stared at him in horror for a brief moment, before a figure appeared before her. It was huge, twelve feet tall and covered in thick red hair. It could have been a bear, only it was human shaped, long-legged and narrow-waisted.
Luke said only one word as he watched the thing grab Kali around the throat and lift her off the floor.
‘Az.’
Next installment Thursday 30th October
