DEMONS OF EDEN SERIES - UPON THIS ROCK - Chapter 3

Urvashi stepped off her private jet onto the scorching San Antonio tarmac and slipped on a pair of Bvlgari polarized sunglasses. The ninety-seven degree heat sent ripples through the air in the distance, and she could already feel her warm-brown skin roasting in the harsh Texas midday sun. She itched to hone in on the location that received the phenomenal power flare she’d sensed from her mansion on the outskirts of Moscow two nights ago. In all her years, she’d never detected an energy signature so intense, apart from isolated incidents of nuclear weapons discharge.

Initially, she’d flown in to visit the site of the explosion at the Svenhard Particle Accelerator. The loop-shaped construct had been built fifty feet underground in Helsinki, Finland, but was now nothing more than twisted, burnt wreckage embedded in a deep crater. The investigation hadn’t yielded any meaningful results. They called it a massive overload, a reaction that bypassed all the protections built into the local power grid and caused a blackout. The scientists studying the blast zone speculated that Svenhard might have actually generated a singularity that collapsed – a common fear among detractors of particle accelerator experiments.

Seemed their fears may have proven correct.

X-ray and gamma ray evidence suggested Svenhard might have sparked off a fusion event equal to a miniature sun, or that a singularity stemmed from the fusion, an unforeseen reaction. Contradictory theories abounded, but none explained how all that power was siphoned and directed hundreds of miles away to something – or someone – on the other side of the world, in San Antonio, Texas.

Urvashi looked to her manservant, Renault, as he stepped down from the plane. “Bring the rental car out front, I’ll go on alone. Get another car for yourself and take my luggage to the hotel. Await my further instructions.” She didn’t want anyone else involved in this operation. She believed something momentous had taken place, or may yet. She needed to understand the full ramifications of this event, before the knowledge leaked from her control.

Renault nodded curtly. “Your room is at the Embassy Suites, at the Riverwalk. I’ll text you the details.”

She eyed the I-410 freeway overpass clogged with rush hour traffic and yearned for nightfall. The obscurity of darkness allowed her to move more freely. For now she was confined to car travel, and the convoluted mess of San Antonio streets and highways.

* * * *

Mithra cursed Sitri for calling him away from his connection to Ashley to answer for his actions. In the end, his Principe accepted his assurances that everything progressed as planned. Sitri trusted Mithra’s judgment and acknowledged Mithra knew best, working to benefit them all. At parting, looking deep into each other’s eyes, Mithra sensed his Principe knew there was more to the situation, details gone unspoken.

Mithra quickly took his leave to return to Ashley. He had no more time for placating his Principe. Ashley was too fragile, too unstable. She didn’t grasp the powers at her disposal. Mithra couldn’t risk anyone learning the full truth of what he’d done. Luckily, the surge was so massive it obliterated most trace data in the aether. He hoped none of the Devas across the Superum understood the result of his actions, but their ignorance could not last long.

With the power levels he’d grafted into his Tesorina, her aura shone too brilliantly to go unnoticed. Every moment away from her heightened the risk of her discovery. In her current state, she was too vulnerable, too easily manipulated, or hurt.

He recalled her tormented screams of agony, and winced at the pain he’d inflicted on her … the potential damage to their relationship. He feared she may never trust him again. There had been no time to explain, to ease the transition. The power demanded an outlet, and he couldn’t waste the opportunity to charge Ashley with the resources necessary to fulfill her destiny. She would need every bit of the power he’d poured into her.

He hastily donned his dimensio gear and leapt onto his perturbateur platform. He tore through the initiation sequences and dived into the aether to find it filled with Devas and the shining lights of their hosts. What once was an empty sea of space and time, had become a crowded tangle of interweaving connections. His enemies swarmed, reveling in the power levels Mithra had dispersed across the network. As feared, the immense power he’d briefly harnessed bled over to all surfers of the aether. The Devas tapped into record levels of influence and connectivity.

In seconds, without seeking her mind, he connected to Ashley in a direct binding. Her senses joined his, everything she heard, saw and felt came to him as though he inhabited her body … as if he possessed the full faculties of her soul.

She recoiled against him, her mind fighting to shove him out.

{{I beg your forgiveness, my beautiful Tesorina. I never intended you harm. Events escalated out of control. I was forced to deliver a dangerous gift of power. You were unprepared, and I did not ask permission. I pray you forgive my transgression.}}

She was wide awake, in a meeting with several men arrayed in a circle of chairs. How unusual. Mithra had never connected to her conscious mind, yet now they were intimately intertwined, sharing her body.

The meeting struck him as suspicious. Ashley never attended public functions. She was a solitary soul, preferring only his company in lieu of others.

“Stop! I can’t …” She spoke aloud to the room. Everyone looked her way, and Mithra sensed her deep embarrassment at her outburst.

{{Leave them. We must speak privately.}}

She excused herself and escaped out the door leading up a dark, concrete stairwell. He plucked the particulars of the room from her mind … a basement. Nicholas and his group met there once a week, in the basement beneath his sister’s tanning spa. His group lacked funds to rent a location, and his sister let him use the room for group meetings. They had gathered to talk, to support each other and search for answers.

Answers to what?

Her mind readily supplied the details he sought. Alien visitations. Ashley had mistaken their relationship for something else.

By the time she reached the top of the stairs, street level, hot tears ran across her vision of the city, a sight Mithra had never seen clearly until this moment. For many centuries now, since the time of the Operti Wars, he had not witnessed the world of Eden in anything more than a foggy, dreamy likeness.

Now he saw as clearly as Ashley. Through the darkness, he viewed a sprawling, blocky landscape of concrete, asphalt, and shiny steel vehicles racing past. Lights mounted atop poles lit the way to a city bereft of natural beauty. He wondered if these foul remains of the once-verdant Eden were worth his centuries of toil to regain access to the lost world.

“Oh God, I can’t believe you’re doing this to me. I can’t do this! You’re not supposed to be here when I’m awake!” She heaved in panic, and her hands fluttered to find the wall, to keep from falling over. She sobbed against the hard cement wall of the unsightly building.

{{You wished for me to join you in person. I empowered you, Tesorina. Together we can make your wish a reality. Accept my gift and allow me to show you how we can be united in your world at last.}}

“I can’t accept what I don’t understand. Mithra … you hurt me so bad. I remember screaming, I remember agony like nothing I’ve ever felt. What did you do?”

{{There is little time to explain, Tesorina. I gave you the power to complete the journey that will bring us together, as you wished. I gave you the strength to wield the key. By your hand, we will open the way.}}

“You always want something, but you give me circular riddles! You never tell me in plain English. I thought I loved you! I would have done anything for you … But I can’t trust you. You hurt me so much. I still feel it … an ache in my bones, a vibration in my skin, a horrifying memory of unimaginable agony. I’m done with you. Leave me alone!”

Her body shook with fear and anxiety. He caught a taste of her remembered agony, a pain he wouldn’t wish upon his worst enemy. He’d gone too far, too fast, without warning. She needed time to adjust and recover. But there was no time.

{{As you wish, Tesorina. I meant no harm.}} He backed off, yet stayed with her, sending a silent sensation of soothing calm. She quieted under his influence, and the illusion that he’d let her go. His Tesorina needed guidance and protection, whether she wanted his help or not.

* * * *

Urvashi watched the girl stop at the entry to her apartment, the obvious scene of the power-channeling event two days ago. The burnt scarring in the woman’s bedroom bore traces of the cosmic forces poured into this location. More evidence of what had happened here – the woman’s aura flashed with deep hints of power, a sign she couldn’t fully contain the brightness within.

A young man accompanied her, as though he intended to enter with her. He appeared completely normal. “I’m sorry it didn’t work out for you. I really think you need to give the guys a chance. They’re good people, and they want to help. There’s more of us than you know. People all over the world have some form of direct visitation.”

She glanced back towards the charred room inside her modest apartment. “Nicholas, how many people accidentally burned a hole into the concrete floor of their bedroom?”

He chuckled. “None that I know of, but that doesn’t mean it hasn’t happened. For every person willing to talk about their experiences, there’s at least three more who will never speak of what they experienced. People are afraid, Ashley, like you are. I only want to help alleviate their fears, help find the answers … or help them live with it.”

Ashley nodded, and stepped inside her door, blocking his entry. She hadn’t invited him in, and he stepped back, realizing their evening had come to an end. She looked out to the street and her eyes landed on Urvashi masked in the darkness. Ashley’s face lit up with shock. The girl looked up and down Urvashi’s body and locked gazes with her. “What are you?”

The man called Nicholas turned towards Urvashi, but didn’t see her. Urvashi’s cloak of shadows hid her from the visual spectrum of the average person, yet Ashley clearly saw through the illusion.

Ashley looked to the man with fear and confusion. “You can’t see her? She’s standing right there, and … oh god, she’s …”

Urvashi shed her shadowy veil and revealed herself. “I’m here to learn the truth.”

Nicholas flinched as if she suddenly appeared from nowhere.

Ashley backed up several paces into her apartment. “She’s not human!”

* * * *

A Kardashian look-alike glided towards my doorstep with a golden-fiery aura streaking out in waves. Power flowed off her body like watery tentacles and lashed the air and ground.

“You see much. Too much. Tell me your purpose here, and I may let you live.” The sound of her words reverberated through my mind, as if projected in my head at the same time she spoke aloud.

“Don’t you have a sex tape film shoot somewhere? Your threats are not appreciated. Leave Ashley alone.” Nicholas stepped into the woman’s path to block her.

The flick of her hand sent a splash of her golden aura to wrap around him like the tail of a whip. She snapped her binding aura and flipped him off his feet. Tied in her golden power, the inhuman devil slapped Nicholas on the ground with a hard thud. He groaned in pain, but couldn’t rise. Her power held him flat as she glided past and up to my front steps.

“I don’t know what you want. If I knew I would tell you.” I backed away from her advance. “Please believe me, I don’t know anything.”

“Begging will not satisfy me! I’ll have the truth tonight, one way or another.” Her feral gaze flicked to Nicholas and back to me. “I can hurt him. Would you let him die for your secrets?”

I shook my head, incapable of speech.

“Run Ashley! Call 911!” Nicholas struggled on the ground, but the demoness wouldn’t let him up.

She flicked her fingers in his direction and a tendril of her power wrapped around his mouth and sealed it shut. He groaned and struggled. Muffled noises escaped him as he fought to breathe through his nose.

“If I cut off his air, he dies in the next four minutes. Unless you talk.”

I looked left and right for a way out. I wanted to run, but … Nicholas didn’t deserve this. He tried to help me. I couldn’t just let him die for me. The wrongness of the moment compelled me to stay and fight the crushing anxiety and fear. My body refused to run to save myself.

{{She has promised nothing if you speak to her. Defend your secrets, Ashley.}}

“At what cost?” I whispered hard under my breath to the treacherous asshole. “What of your promises? You did this to me, and now Nicholas is in trouble.” Mithra had no right to tell me what to do anymore.

The Persian devil’s eyes flashed with suspicion and her fierce gaze bore into me, as though she could dig the knowledge from inside my head.

“Please don’t hurt Nicholas. He doesn’t know anything. He tried to help. It’s not Nicholas’s fault … Mithra did this. He did something to me and caused a fire. Now the world is different. I see things. I see you, the light all around you.” I traced my fingers in the air, following the shape of her power coiled around Nicholas, hoping to reason with an inhuman Kardashian look-alike. “Your light is so bright … but I don’t think Nicholas sees what you’ve done to him.”

She watched me with hard suspicion and animosity. I couldn’t stop my hands from shaking. If she didn’t believe me, Nicholas and I were both dead.

God, I should run. Get help. I could do nothing for Nicholas. Why not run?

But I stayed. She stood and drilled into my soul with her judgmental eyes. Her silence strengthened me enough to wipe my tears and push forward. “I told you what I know. Please let him go.”

Her stern gaze roamed over the man pinned at her feet, then back to me. “I want to believe you, Ashley. I want to believe in this façade of an innocent girl whose pure spirit holds no malice or deception. Make me understand. Why were you targeted? Who is Mithra? How did he do this?”

I looked at the people passing by under the streetlights. Several had stopped to watch us. They must’ve sensed something wrong about the man on the ground groaning and struggling.

“Let him go and I’ll tell you anything you ask, anything I know of Mithra.” I stepped away from the door, indicating for her to follow me inside.

{{Talk and she may kill him regardless.}}

“I have to try.” Besides … I had a strange feeling that if we made an agreement, the Persian demon would live up to her word.

Her eyes saw through me to a truth I could no longer hide. “He speaks to you even now … Mithra? You are connected?”

I nodded, unwilling to put words to things I’d rather not explore in depth. Mithra had never spoken in the clarity of my waking mind. Something had changed between us. Our connection had deepened.

She flicked her hand downward and her power dissolved away from Nicholas – as if it had never been. Glorious relief flooded me as he sucked in a full breath of air. He sat on his knees and looked up at his attacker with a strange expression of wonder. “All this time … I knew there was something out there waiting to be discovered. It’s an honor to finally meet you.”

She chuckled and walked past me into my living room. “You discovered only a taste of my mercy. Leave before you find the end of it.”

He stood on shaky legs and dusted his hands off. His eyes showed fear, but he bravely stepped forward and almost opened his stupid mouth.

I snagged his shirtsleeve and pulled him inside. “Don’t leave me alone with her.”

His eyes darted back and forth between me and the Kardashian-thing. The fear was there in his face and aura, but he stayed with me, which was all I could ask of him.

The dark-haired Persian woman sighed in irritation that he remained after she’d told him to scat. “The knowledge you seek will only endanger you. I know what you want. This is not the truth, Nicholas Castro. The truth lies in Ashley’s connection to something or someone very powerful. Whatever caused this event,” she looked to my charred bedroom, “ended the lives of more than thirty people in an explosion on the other side of the world. Ashley plays in a dangerous game, and it ends tonight.”

Nick straightened, his serious eyes flicked back and forth between me and the black-clad Kim who obviously wasn’t Kim. “If anything, Ashley’s a victim.”

She turned her dark, severe gaze on me and suddenly something flashed over her, as if the model perfect woman were merely a hologram covering another form beneath. The blip happened so fast I couldn’t make out any detail except one … her eyes underneath the mask were a vibrant golden-yellow cut by a jagged black vertical pupil. Almost like a reptile.