Daywalker chronicles com.., p.55
Daywalker Chronicles Complete Series Boxed Set, page 55
I followed Ninurta from his temple. Hammurabi was waiting on the steps. He didn’t say much. I suppose when a god was walking the streets he didn’t have any reason to interfere. Maybe I should have read that entire scroll, just to make sure I didn’t violate any weird laws that might get me executed or thrown in the river. Still, with a deity as my escort, I figured I was probably good.
Ninurta led me back to Marduk’s larger temple in old Babylon. It had a few more steps than Ninurta’s, and the architecture was similar but more elaborate and decorated with carved geometric patterns.
Marduk’s statue was tall, dressed in a long gown with several patterns. He wore a tall hat and was accompanied by a strange creature. It had hind legs with talons that resembled an eagle’s, the forelimbs of a lion, and a horned snake-like head. It had two fan-shaped wings on its back that looked a bit too small to help a beast of such a size fly.
“What the hell is that? Marduk’s pet?”
“It’s Mushussu. A fearsome beast. It always accompanies Marduk.”
“I can’t decide if it’s more wondrous or hideous.”
“You have nothing to worry about. Mushussu only does its master’s bidding. Stay on Marduk’s good side, and Mushussu won’t eat you.”
“I guess I need to petition him somehow?”
“You told me to get my butt in the room. Marduk isn’t as patient as I am. Allow me to handle it.”
I cleared my throat. “To be fair, I told you to get your divine butt in the room. I said it with reverence.”
Ninurta laughed. “Yeah, right.”
When Ninurta snapped, Marduk’s statue glowed like Ninurta’s did before. Mushussu and Marduk both appeared in the room.
“What is the meaning of this?” Marduk asked.
“We have an Akkadian problem.”
Marduk shook his head. “How many times do I need to conquer those pompous would-be gods before they realize being the first pantheon to be revered by an empire doesn’t make them the best or the most powerful?”
Ninurta grinned. “Hopefully just once more. Sin has already bound five of the Seven Deadlies to himself. We believe he’s already taken his first host.”
I cleared my throat. “I presume Sloth has already come to you.”
“He is well.”
“What about Wrath?” I asked.
Marduk narrowed his eyes. “Who are you to ask me such questions and demand an answer? You are a vampire. I can sense it. You are an agent of Sin.”
I shook my head. “I came here for Ninurta’s help to stop Sin. That’s why we’re here asking for your assistance now.”
“Sloth and Wrath are both in Babylon. They are beyond Sin’s reach.”
“Will you help us or not?”
Marduk smiled widely. “Of course I will.”
“How will we return to Earth?” Ninurta asked.
“We could use Sloth and Wrath,” Marduk suggested. “That kind of singular influence over whatever host we took on Earth, though, might be problematic.”
I snorted. “One of you might be extremely violent, and the other wouldn’t want to do anything at all.”
Marduk waved his hand through the air. “We are gods, not mere mortals. We can master the influence of the demons we use to join the earthly plane.”
“Then why would it be problematic?” I asked.
Marduk rubbed his brow. “We’d still require human hosts.”
“Still, the demons can sense one another,” Ninurta pointed out. “The time is short. We may need at least one of them to find Sin. He’ll sense the presence of his brothers and can lead us to Sin’s host.”
“What about a golem?” I offered. “If I can access an Archeus crystal I can form hosts for the both of you.”
Marduk reached into his pocket. He retrieved an Archeus crystal. “This will suffice. An ideal body has already been prepared within it. To contain a god of my stature, along with one of the demons, requires unique attributes. There is enough power within to create a host for Ninurta and myself.”
“So what’s the plan? You have to get me home before I can use this. The crystal will come with me, too, I assume.”
“Yes. Ninurta and I will take Sloth and Wrath. The golems are already designed to have enough of an inclination for each of them that we’ll have no problem returning to Earth and possessing them.”
“They’re already programmed?”
Marduk nodded. “Unlike Ninurta, I’ve been known to work with demons rather than against them. At the moment, brother, we’ll have to agree to disagree on the wisdom of that position.”
Ninurta huffed. “For the sake of the greater good. However, we must release these demons and bind them with the rest.”
Marduk bowed his head. “They are only a means toward an end. When we’ve handled Sin and the other five, we’ll bind Wrath to them. However, I’ve already promised Sloth a home in my Babylon. I will not renege on my word.”
“Then it is agreed,” Ninurta added.
“I presume, vampire, that you have those on Earth who fervently desire your return?”
I nodded resolutely. “I have good friends.”
“That’s as good as a petition.” Marduk placed his hands on my shoulders. His strange creature’s tongue fluttered from its mouth and tickled my leg. I shivered. Then, a golden power blasted from Marduk’s hands and consumed my form.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
I appeared in my bed—the sheets still hadn’t been washed, and I resisted the urge to hurl.
“She’s back!” Dracula exclaimed as he arched over me. “Sienna is here!”
Zoey, the Van Helsing brothers, and Father Albert ran in from down the hall.
“How the hell did you get back here?” Zoey wrapped her arms around me. “I’m so sorry! I didn’t realize reaping the demon would send you to the void with him.”
I nodded. “It’s not your fault. We have a plan.”
“Good thing,” Alexander said. “We’ve got a problem.”
I looked around the room. “Where is Dylan?”
Zoey took my hands in hers. “That’s sort of it. We think he’s possessed.”
I clenched my fists. “How! Father Albert, you gave Dylan a pendant. It was supposed to protect him!”
The priest shook his head. “From a single demon, it might be sufficient. We’re pretty sure there’s a lot more than one demon in him.”
I grunted. “It’s not demons. There’s five of them in him and a god. How long ago did it happen?” I asked.
Dracula reached for his pocket. “Damn. My phone is still in the shitter.”
Reginald checked his instead. “About thirty minutes ago.”
I pulled out the Archeus crystal. “We don’t have a lot of time.”
“It’s not just Dylan,” Zoey added. “Logan and Ian are with him. And they’re shifted. They’re wolves.”
I sighed. “Of course they are. Dylan is their alpha. Sin must’ve forced them to join him. Why didn’t you go after them?”
“We tried,” Alexander insisted. “They were fast. We only came back to gather supplies to hunt them down.”
“Your weapons won’t work. I’m bringing some help with me from the void.”
“Who did you bring with you?” Zoey asked.
I shrugged. “A couple Babylonian gods. They can bind the demons and send them back to hell. They’ll put them back under Athena’s thrall.”
Zoey tilted her head. “Babylonians? Are you sure that was a wise choice?”
“I didn’t have much of a choice, Zoey. All that matters is that Marduk and Ninurta can help and have defeated Sin and the Akkadians before. They can do it again, and we don’t have much time to deliberate. After Sin and the five Deadlies within him fully integrate with Dylan, we won’t be able to save him. They’ll also replicate and spread to five others, and five others, and…” I didn’t finish.
Zoey shook her head. “Shit. You’d better do whatever you need to do, then.”
Dracula released a little white light into the crystal, and a tall, slender dark-haired golem with olive skin appeared. Drac did it again, and a second golem, identical to the first, materialized.
“Now what?” Zoey asked.
“The gods know what to do.”
It only took a couple of seconds before a golden light blasted from the eyes of each golem and they moved.
“Give me the crystal,” one of them instructed.
I handed it to him. He blew on it and another golem formed. This time, it wasn’t a human shape. Its eagle-like posterior talons, lion-like front paws, and serpentine head let me know that it was Marduk who had taken the crystal. His monstrous companion inhabited the new golem.
“Which one did you get?” I asked the golem I assumed was inhabited by Ninurta.
“I have Wrath. Marduk assumed Sloth. He was determined to make good on his promise to allow Sloth to return with him to Babylon.”
“You’re not feeling especially wrathful, are you?”
Ninurta shook his head. “We are suppressing the demons’ vices.”
I nodded. “Just checking. I assume you can sense where Sin and the other five Deadlies are?”
The two Babylonian golem gods exchanged glances. Marduk nodded. The only way I could tell them apart was because Mushussu was humping Marduk’s leg. “They’re circling the city.”
“I figured they’d be terrorizing Bourbon Street.”
Ninurta was pinching his forearm, fascinated by the elasticity of his flesh. “Sin is buying time. Trying to get through the hour without being caught. If anyone shot him with silver before he had a chance to assimilate with his host, he’d have to jump to another one and start all over again.”
“How fast can y’all run in these golems?” I asked.
Marduk grinned widely. “Fast enough to catch them.”
Ninurta grabbed my arm. “There’s something you should know.”
I gulped. “It’s about Dylan. The werewolf Sin possessed. Isn’t it?”
Ninurta nodded. “He is a friend of yours, I presume.”
“More than that. He’s my boyfriend.”
“I cannot guarantee he will survive. Extracting a god and five demons who don’t want to leave from a host might be painful. Sin likely chose him because, as a werewolf, his body is more resilient than most. Sin will be able to hold on to him longer than a more feeble host might. Even if he survives our exorcism, he might not be the same man you knew. Sin and the demons might take a bit of his mind with them when we pull them out.”
“You’re saying he might be brain damaged?”
Ninurta nodded. “I am sorry. It is possible.”
I clenched my fists. “Zoey. Could you reap them out of him?”
Zoey shook her head. “Dylan is a supernatural. If I did that, I wouldn’t just pull Sin and the demons out of him and send them to hell. I’d kill Dylan as well.”
“You have other crystals you could use. What if you sent them straight to Olympus?”
“It would still kill Dylan. I’m sorry, Sienna. If we do nothing, Dylan will remain a host to Sin and the demons forever. I think this is a risk we have to take.”
“What about Morty!”
Zoey rested both her hands on my shoulders. “Dylan is a werewolf. He can’t harvest Dylan’s soul.”
“That’s not strictly true,” Ninurta broke in. “There is a way to cure werewolves.”
“We don’t have time for this!” Marduk shouted. “If we don’t bind Sin and the demons in the next several minutes, it won’t even matter. This Dylan fellow will be bound to them forever.”
“How can we cure a werewolf?” I asked. “Can we do it in the time we have?”
“The first werewolf was a Babylonian. A companion of the former king, Gilgamesh.”
Dracula nodded. “You’re speaking of Enkidu?”
Ninurta nodded. “The first werewolf, created by Aruru, the goddess of creation, the earth, and fertility. She formed him from a pinch of clay and he was born covered in flowing fur. He is the alpha of alpha wolves. He can even command the spirit of the wolf to leave one who was made, one who was once human, unlike himself. All he needs to do is command the wolf to leave your friend.”
Marduk shook his head. “Without another demon available, even if we convinced Enkidu to help, we couldn’t bring him here. Suppose we found a demon who could. Enkidu could only possess a werewolf.”
Alexander Van Helsing stomped his foot. “It’s not worth the risk. We are short on time as it is. The chances that we might retrieve this god of werewolves from Babylon in the void, and still get to Dylan and the rest of his pack are almost nonexistent. Meanwhile, every minute that passes Sin and the demons sink their tendrils deeper into Dylan’s spirit.”
“He is right,” Dracula insisted. “We cannot trust that this god who we do not know would be willing to help. The sooner we get to Dylan and the wolves, the better shot we have to extract Sin and the demons without damaging Dylan’s mind in the process.”
“Not to mention that if we don’t get this done in time, we’re placing the rest of the world at risk on the off-chance that we might be able to save one werewolf,” Alexander added.
I wanted to scream. We weren’t talking about another werewolf that the Van Helsings might hunt down and kill with a silver bullet or blade. We were talking about Dylan. My mind was swirling with conflicting thoughts. I also had to make a choice. I could try to recruit a Babylonian werewolf god who might not want to help, and risk losing Dylan completely while I ventured through the void again. Or I could go after him and pray to a god who wasn’t involved in any of this and might not even exist that Dylan would be all right after we pulled Sin and the demons out of him. The longer I deliberated, the odds that either option would work decreased.
Father Albert stood and straightened his shirt. “I cannot offer any guarantees. Perhaps the consecrated pendant wasn’t strong enough to protect Dylan’s body from intrusion, but maybe it will hold his soul intact.”
I took a deep breath and nodded. “Fuck it. We’re going after him now.”
Zoey took my hand in hers. “We’re with you. Whatever happens.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
Even in their golems, the Babylonian gods moved fast. Every bit as fast as Zoey and I did on the astral plane.
Ninurta and Marduk had to make physical contact with Dylan to do the job. Sin was the Akkadian moon god. That must’ve been why he could force the werewolves to shift. If we were going to stand a chance to get to Dylan, we had to deal with Logan and Ian first. Since the Van Helsings could only travel in conventional ways, and the wolves were circling the city, the plan was for the Van Helsings and Dracula to meet them on their path to the north in the Bayou Sauvage National Wildlife Refuge near Fort Macomb.
Interstate 10 intersected the bayou and gave the Van Helsings the quickest and most direct route to the path the wolves were taking. If our timing wasn’t perfect with the two gods, Zoey and I could slow them down and pen them. With Lakes Pontchartrain and Borgne on either side of the bayou, it gave Sin and the wolves less opportunity to escape.
It was questionable whether we’d even have enough time for the Van Helsings to make it, but that didn’t mean they wouldn’t try. If we could handle this before they arrived, we’d have a better chance of saving Dylan with his sanity intact. The Van Helsings were our Plan B.
I didn’t want to get to Plan B. Alexander and Reginald had nets of silver chainmail that could restrain a werewolf. They also had silver-tipped crossbow bolts and bullets. They were only working with us because they wanted to stop the demons as much as we did. They didn’t care about saving a few werewolves, and the only reason they agreed to try to restrain the wolves rather than kill them was out of courtesy. Courtesy only took one so far, though. If it came down to saving the world from Sin and his demons or saving a few wolves, it didn’t take a genius to know what choice they’d make.
Ninurta and Marduk were our compass. Zoey and I followed them on the astral plane.
Even in the astral plane, running over the top of marshes infested with alligators was unsettling. It wasn’t easy to shed all my rational fears—even when being astral made it irrational. Knowing that Dylan’s life was at stake helped me push all hesitancy aside.
From what I understood, Ninurta could cast out and bind the demons. He needed Marduk’s power to cast them to Hades. Once they were bound, we’d have to take them to Hades and transfer the bond to Athena. It made sense. Ninurta was known for casting out demons. Even in Babylon, Marduk used them to help kings like Nebuchadnezzar spread the empire.
Dealing with Sin himself was a different matter. Sending an Akkadian god to Hades was problematic. Gods couldn’t be bound like that. The only way to bind a god, which was what happened to Athena after her coup against Zeus, was to call the god out of the void to Olympus. From there, Sin could be forced to go to hell. With no demons in the void, though, it was just as good to send Sin back to Ennigaldi. Without any demons to use to come back again, he’d stay there like every other dead and forgotten god.
Zoey had her void crystal in place. If she used it, it would send whoever she struck to the void, rather than Hades. Marduk would harness the other demons until we got Sin out of the picture, then he’d take them to hell on his way back to Babylon. All it would take was for Zoey to form a portal to the underworld, we’d take a ride with the boatman to Hades, Marduk would drop off the demons after transferring the bond to Athena, and Euryale, the gorgon, would petrify Marduk’s golem which would send him back to Babylon in the void. Marduk had the Archeus crystal and said he could create a vessel like a golem, with everything required to contain a god like Sin, but without any ability to move or act. A lump of clay with the insides of something that resembled a possessable person.
A little complex, but if we managed to exorcise the demons and Sin from Dylan, the rest would be easy peasy, carotid artery squeezy.
Sin didn’t know our plan. I still had lunar power. Could I blast the demons out of him, too? He knew more about my power than I did. He’d recognize Zoey’s scythe. Even if Sin hadn’t encountered her before, he had access to Dylan’s memories. One swipe and she could send Sin to another plane. We didn’t want to risk him getting loose again, and didn’t want to send him to Hades, where he could challenge Athena for control over the demons.
