Devil Inside, page 49
Suddenly, hands on her shoulders stopped Harley from thrashing. She saw Levi’s deep black eyes enter her field of vision. As he blinked down at her his eyes cleared to their original dark blue.
“I’m going to get you out of here,” he said.
Harley wasn’t able to respond but she did her best to stop struggling against the pain as he lifted her off the floor. As he forced his way through the crowd of fighting devils and demons, Harley finally blacked out from the pain and drifted into unconsciousness.
Chapter 45
Harley floated in alternating darkness and light for what seemed like forever. This time she didn’t get to talk to her Nocte. The flashes of white where jagged and painful as they burst across her brain. In contrast, the blacks were cold and infinite and took her breath away. The flashes came quicker and more violent as time drug on. The cold familiarity behind the black void and the foreign strangeness of the white light finally helped Harley realize what she needed to do.
Harley knew she needed to trust her Nocte and she gave into that need. The intensity of the flashes had not lessened since they began. If anything, it had increased. She knew her Nocte needed her help, just as Harley had needed her Nocte’s help so many times before. She did the only thing that felt natural or normal and that was to move towards the darkness whenever she was able to see it. As she did so, she felt the darkness envelope her and she let herself sink into the void. She wasn’t afraid. She embraced the darkness like the old friend that she was.
Together, Harley and the Nocte were able to wrap themselves around the light. The pulsating and flashing whiteness began to slow and become more contained within their darkness. The blinding white heat thumped against the surrounding dark but it wasn’t frantic or violent any longer. Instead, the beat became rhythmic and in time with the beating of her heart. The darkness and the light caressed each other until they fit together in a natural rhythm that calmed and soothed Harley all the way through her center.
As her internal struggle calmed and faded Harley felt her body beginning to relax. The calmer she became on the inside she more she became aware of her body and the warmth that surrounded it. She floated out of the darkness of her mind and settled back into her physical being and drifted into a deep sleep.
As Harley slept, she dreamt. As before, she knew she was dreaming right away. She was sitting on a swing set in the middle of a field. A beautiful meadow stretched as far as the eye could see. She slowly and gently swung back and forth. She looked down at her body saw that she was wearing pajamas pants and a tank top and no shoes. The pants had little purple bunnies on them. Harley ran her hand over the cartoon print and closed her eyes. The pain that formed in her chest was raw and it took her breath away. Almost a year later and Jamie’s death was still unbearable. The pajama pants had been Jamie’s favorite from when they were teenagers. Harley had bought them for her friend for Christmas. She had only gotten the money to buy them because Jamie’s parents had let her do chores around the house in order to make a bit of cash. Harley fought the urge to cry.
“We did good.” A voice spoke from Harley’s right. She gasped without opening her eyes. She didn’t need to look to know who sat on the swing next to her. It was Jamie. She would never not recognize that voice. Taking a deep breath Harley opened her eyes and turned to look at the woman beside her and what she saw froze her solid for a moment.
“Well, that’s an asshole thing to do,” Harley finally said with steel in her voice.
Her Nocte smiled at her with Jamie’s face. Harley knew it wasn’t really Jamie and that it was her Nocte, because while it looked exactly like Jamie—the eyes were the only thing that weren’t right. The eyes were solid black.
“I can’t help it. I needed to use an image and I can’t show you my real one. I’m forced to pick images out of your head. It helps you process what you are seeing.”
“Why can’t you use your real image?”
“…You really wouldn’t be able to process that,” she chuckled. “It’s better for the both of us to leave that to your imagination.”
“What happened?” Harley asked.
“You mean during the fight? Or after? Or something else?”
“All of the above.”
“Well, during the fight I finally figured out how to take care of the bastard. Neither of us was going to be able to kill him the old fashioned way.”
“Why? Why was he so strong?”
“Haddon—as he calls himself—made a decision a long time ago. And that decision set into motion the things that have happened to you, and me, and Levi, and the Lux, and the entire world—hell all of the dimensions have been affected by Haddon’s decision.”
“I don’t understand,” Harley admitted.
Jamie shook her head sadly. “It’s a story that is not easily understood.” Neither of them spoke for several minutes. Finally, the Nocte continued. “Where we come from, the Lux, the Ignis and the Nocte, different rules apply. We are not governed by the same moralistic standards that humans have. But we do have ‘rules’. One of those rules is ‘do not kill your own kind.’ Haddon disobeyed that rule and created an imbalance in our world. Had that imbalance been allowed to continue it could have irrevocably damaged your world as much as mine. He came here to continue his vile deeds.”
Harley mulled over the Nocte’s words. “Did you come here looking for Haddon?”
“Yes.”
“Why you? And why did you choose me? Or did I just happen to be looking for a bond the same time that you did?”
“Why me?” The Nocte sighed. “I’m—I guess something like what you would call royalty. But our royalty—the Nocte—we don’t sit around in castles doing nothing. I made the sacrifice to come here after Haddon.”
“Sacrifice?”
“Yes. Sacrifice. I can never return to my world.” The Nocte tried to conceal her sadness but it showed through in the softening of her voice.
“Why me?” Harley asked again. “Did I just happen to be there?”
“Oh, no,” the Nocte said seriously. “I had been waiting for you for a while. Well not YOU in particular,” the Nocte chuckled. “But a human that was a right fit.”
“Why was I the right fit?”
The Nocte shrugged, “You and I are both strong, stubborn creatures. I guess when an unstoppable force meets and immovable object there is quite the potential for a reaction. A reaction that we both needed on some level that neither of us will probably ever fully understand.”
Harley smiled and nodded. “That sounds about right I guess. What happens now?”
“We do what we do best. Kill Ignis. Maintain the balance of light and dark. And have sex with Levi and Castor. We need to do that a lot more.”
Harley tipped her head back and laughed. “I won’t argue with that. What about the Sol Invictus?”
The Nocte sighed. “Unfortunately, I doubt we are done with them. I agree, I don’t think they realized what they were getting into with Haddon.”
“How responsible are they for what he became?”
Her Nocte was silent for a minute. “I think they—like us—were what each other was looking for.”
Harley sighed. She knew without a doubt the Sol Invictus wasn’t done. A group like that wouldn’t give up their mission easily. They were the worst kind of evil. The kind that believed they were righteous.
Harley and the Nocte both swung silently letting the warm breeze blow over their faces and through their hair. “Will I ever see Jamie again?”
The Nocte looked at her surprised. “How the hell should I know?”
Harley’s mouth fell open and after a moment she laughed and shook her head. “Sorry, you’re right. That was a stupid question.”
Without warning Harley was ripped from the dream and she blinked against the glare of a lamp shining into her face. When her eyes adjusted to the light she realized she lay in a bed staring up at the ceiling. She slowly turned her head and surveyed the rest of the room. When she did so, she was greeted by the site of Levi and Castor in chairs beside her bed. Castor’s head tipped backwards over the back of the chair with his mouth hanging open. Levi was wide awake and when he saw that she was awake he scooted to the edge of his seat and examined her closely.
He smiled softly at her. “How are you feeling?” Her skin tingled looking at the Nocte. The man never ceased being drop dead gorgeous. His dark hair carelessly hung around his face and his blue eyes glowed. As usual, he looked like he needed to shave. Not in an “I’m trying to look like I need to shave” kind of way. But in an actual “I need to shave kind of way” that Harley loved.
Harley considered Levi’s question for a minute. She felt like she was housing enough energy to power an entire city. “Fucking amazing.” Levi chuckled. Harley looked at Cas and snorted. “So. What happened?”
“Well, for that we should wake up sleeping beauty here.” Levi nodded at Cas.
“OK,” she shrugged, sitting up in the bed as Levi hit Cas with the back of his hand to wake him. It took several tries but finally Cas was startled awake. When he saw that Harley was awake he jumped up and sat on the edge of the bed. Levi scowled slightly but didn’t say anything. Cas looked tired and barely alert but he was making an effort to become coherent.
“So, what happened?” Harley asked them both.
Levi started. “Well, when you bit the Rogue the Ignis started closing in. We started fighting back. When you started flipping out and looked like you were in some serious pain I got you out of there. I brought you back here.”
“Where’s here?”
“A cabin that I rented the night before the fight with the Rogue. We are in the Rockies. This cabin is huge. It sleeps twenty if you squeeze them in. I figured we all might need a place to lay low for a while. Your turn—what happened when you fed from the Rogue?”
Harley took a deep breath and let it out before she answered. “I took his life into mine.”
Both Levi and Castor looked stunned but not really surprised. “How did you know you could do that?” Cas asked.
“I didn’t really. My Nocte just did it.”
“What did you do to Castor?” Levi asked her cautiously.
Harley looked at Cas uncomfortably. “Sorry about that.”
“Don’t be,” he brushed her off.
Levi looked at the two of them waiting for an answer. Finally, Harley answered him holding his steady gaze while she did so. “Well, it’s like when I’ve feed from Cas before.” Admitting to this was the closest she had come to telling Levi ‘I’ve had sex with Castor.’ Even though he knew this was the case—saying it out loud made it much more true. To Levi’s credit his gaze never wavered and his looked remained totally neutral. “When I feed from either of you—I’m able to take some of your energy into myself. It just doesn’t normally hurt because I give some back too.” Levi nodded following her explanation. “During the fight I honestly had nothing left.” Both Levi and Castor’s faces hardened at that. “When I made eye contact with Cas at the moment when I was almost gone, I could feel my Nocte draw from Castor. It was just weird because I didn’t even need to touch him to do it. How bad did it hurt you?”
“Meh,” he shrugged. “I bounced back pretty quickly.” He didn’t meet her eye when he answered the question.
“But…?” Castor didn’t answer.
Levi sniggered as he leaned back in his chair.
“What?” Harley asked, looking from him to Castor.
“Apparently, you would only have been able to do something like that if you two had…um…been close. And, apparently, neither Randall nor Alice knew that for sure until that moment. They got a little pissed,” Levi was trying not to smile and Harley was surprisingly relieved that he didn’t seem mad about it.
Harley’s stomach dropped as she looked at Castor. “What’s going to happen?”
He shrugged and brushed off her concern. “It’s nothing. It will all blow over eventually.” Harley looked at Levi—he looked as doubtful as she felt.
“OK,” Harley said letting that subject drop. “What happened after you got me out of there?” Levi and Castor shared a look and it gave Harley a bad feeling.
Levi hesitated again. “Cutter and Raven got away. As usual.” Harley felt the anger boil inside her. One day at a time right now. I’ll deal with that soon enough. “The Praesidio and the Ignis fought and the ones that we didn’t kill ran with Cutter and Raven.”
Harley hesitated to ask. “What about everyone else?”
Levi studied her carefully before answering. She didn’t think he had more bad news really—he was just making sure that she was handling everything OK. “There were injuries. But they have all healed. Nya, Evie and two of the local Nocte are here with us.”
Harley nodded.
Castor was studying her carefully.
“What?” she asked him, working really hard to not sound as annoyed as she was starting to feel.
Castor put his words together carefully before speaking. “What happened when you took the life force of the Rogue?”
Harley looked at him evenly. She slowly let out a breath and answered his question. “His energy is still with me. If that’s what you are asking.” Again, neither Levi nor Cas looked surprised. Instead, they looked at each other before looking back to Harley. “What?” she asked.
“We…kind of suspected that,” Cas answered.
“Why did you suspect that?”
“Well—when you let go of the Rogue—after he was dead…your eyes were different,” Levi explained.
“Different how?” Harley’s blood felt cold.
“Well, they were black and white,” Levi answered.
“What does that mean?” Harley wrinkled her brow.
“Well, your whole eye was Nocte black—except for the part that would have been green. That part was Lux white. Like Castor’s eyes.”
Harley’s jaw dropped open. “Seriously?”
“Yep,” Cas answered. “They stayed that way until you woke up. Now they are your normal green.”
Harley didn’t know how to respond to that. She wasn’t really surprised but she hadn’t really been expecting it either. “I bet that looked pretty weird—huh?”
Levi gave his half smile and Castor chuckled. “A little,” Cas answered.
“Well, OK. I guess that just makes me stranger than usual,” Harley shrugged. Castor and Levi looked at each other again. “You both are going to have to stop doing that,” Harley snapped. “What?”
Castor shifted uneasily. “Well, the Vigilum has been calling trying to find out what happened. Randall and Alice didn’t leave after they drug me out of the building. They saw you when Levi brought you out. They saw your eyes.”
“So?”
“Well…they are concerned about your power.” Harley looked at Castor bewildered. He sighed before going on. “Well, they know how strong you were before. They are concerned that you are even stronger now. They are worried about the balance.”
“So they say,” Levi cut in looking angry. Cas didn’t argue with him.
“What do you mean?”
“I think they are just worried about a Nocte being so much stronger than them.”
“That’s absurd,” Harley argued.
“Hey,” Cas held up his hands in surrender. “We agree with you.” Everyone was silent for a moment. “Are you stronger than before?” he asked her. Harley glared at him and Levi rolled his eyes.
Harley chose not to answer the question. Harley flopped back against the bed. She had taken in a lot of information in the last few minutes and she was feeling overloaded. She heard Levi stand up from his chair.
“Castor, let’s get out of here and let Harley rest. I think she’s dealt with a lot today.”
Cas looked like he was going to protest then thought better of it. Harley didn’t sit up when she called to them just before they left the room. “You know,” she said without looking at either of them. “Just so that it has been said. I’m not going to choose between you. If either of you are uncomfortable with the way things are—you should just back out now.”
Levi’s answer was immediate. “I have no problems.”
“Good,” she said.
Castor took a moment longer to answer. Long enough that her stomach had begun to sink. Annoyed or not—she cared about Castor and didn’t want to stop spending time with him. “I’m fine,” he said finally.
“Good,” she responded. “We are partners. Teammates. This is who we are,” she said with a finality that didn’t leave room for them to argue even if they wanted to. The door shut softly behind them as they left the room.
Harley rolled to her side and concentrated on keeping all thoughts out of her head. She couldn’t deal with friends’ deaths, increased power, becoming the enemy of the Vigilum and regret and anger and still not having taken her revenge on Cutter all at one time. Harley knew that even worse trouble than the Rogue was coming. Harley took a deep breath and forced it from her mind. There was no way she could prepare for what was to come until she got rest and healed and adjusted to the change that she had undergone—she still didn’t even know what changes had taken place. She just knew that inside her, she now contained both Nocte and Lux—light and dark. As the two forces came together she felt stronger than ever before. She didn’t know what that meant for her long term but she knew that it had made her a target of both the Lux and the Sol Invictus.
Harley looked around the room and spotted her machete on top of the dresser. It was encased in its leather holder and it looked like someone had cleaned the blood off of it. She was surprised by how relieved she was to see that someone had brought it back for her. Well, she thought to herself, I may be screwed—but at least I have a machete.
