Dark Child
an excerpt

Chapter 39

The Dervish skipped across the ground, spitting lightning from its hands. Dherek cursed and threw himself to the side, barely dodging the angry bolts. He hit the ground and stayed there, the electricity slamming into the wall and spitting chunks of rocks into the air. The hairs on the back of his head rose from the static in the air.
“Will somebody get this thing off me?!”
The blasts continued overhead, the wall turning to dust under the unrelenting attack. Dherek knew that it was only a matter of time before the thing zeroed in on him. Another crack against the wall blasted even larger chunks of rock on him and he made his decision. Danger be blasted, he wasn’t about to wait on the ground to be buried alive. He rolled to the left and came up quick on his feet. A stray bolt leapt out at him, flicking by his face and disappearing into the dark. Dherek flinched even though he knew it was already gone, but he didn’t stop. He came up right in front of the monster, the winds whipping around it nipping at him dangerously. Bits of rock and gravel filled the air around the Nefari. It was so thick that he could barely see the demon.
Another bolt hit the ground next to his right foot. He jumped away, covering his face as gravel scattered. The one nearest him turned back toward him, tossing bolt after bolt at him. Dherek cursed his luck and skipped further away, dodging the searing electricity that lapped at his feet. He could see another Dervish coming at him from the right, angling in from across the wide tunnel.
Where the hell are the others, he growled to himself. As if in answer a blazing sword reared up behind the one coming in to ambush him. It spun in the air so that the point aimed straight down at the Dervish. It hung there a moment and then plunged down to hit the demon in the top of the head. The nasty flinched, its eyes betraying its confusion. It jerked spasmatically, trying in vain to lift its suddenly limp arms. Dherek could tell that it was dead already, its body just hadn’t got the message just yet. He turned back to the one trying to kill him, marking one more of the Nefari from his list of combatants.
Lightning slammed in next to him and he found himself flying through the air. He hit the ground hard, his head smacking rudely against the metal rails running down the middle of the tunnel. Stars flared in his vision. He thought momentarily of drawing back out his angelic form, but discarded it instantly. He had to do this as is. He had to prove to Madison that the form he wore now was the form that she could trust. Metatron was a little too aloof for him to get close to her. Dherek was much better.
“Dherek!”
The sound of Gabby’s voice struck a cord in him. It wasn’t calm or angry. It was full of fear. Fear! The word screamed in his mind. Gabby was with Madison. Fear and panic flooded his normally calm state and the darkness, normally held in check by the calm white light in him, suddenly exploded in his soul. He leapt up, screaming in rage at the thing keeping him from his daughter. The Dervish flinched visibly at his released rage. Dherek took advantage of the moment of confusion, leaping high in the air and coming down on the demon with claws and fangs flashing. The whipping air around the monster tore at him, the bits of debris filling it slashing at him relentlessly. But Dherek ignored it. He tore at the demon with all his frustration and fear. In seconds it was dead.
“Dherek!”
He tossed the body aside, stamping down his rage and the darkness feeding on it. He spotted Gabby across the way, fighting a small group of regular Nefari. She was holding her own, as he expected she would, but that wasn’t what was making his heart fold in on itself. She was down on the tunnel floor. She was supposed to be in the air vent above them, holding out with Madison until they could get to them. He looked up, his heart in his throat, and felt his knees go out from under him. The grate was gone leaving a huge hole where it should have been. Smoke still poured out of it, attesting to the violence that had happened up there.
“Dherek!”
Gabby’s forceful scream shook him loose of the dreadful thoughts going through his mind. He jumped back to his feet and started for her. He caught sight of the other two coming in from the sides, Mike looking pretty much untouched, if not tired. Ralph, on the other hand, looked like death warmed over. He bled from over a dozen cuts, many of them crisscrossing his upper torso. He seemed to be ignoring them for the moment, so Dherek decided to leave him alone about it.
All three of them converged on the few remaining Nefari harassing Gabby. Dherek leapt forward, determined to get to them before the other two. He wanted to vent his wrath and these looked like the perfect ones to do it on. He didn’t even call on his sword. This was personal and he wanted their deaths to be as personal as he could make them. He fell on the first one with wild abandon, calling the darkness back into existence with no restraint. He tore through it as if it was no more than a mere wisp of smoke floating in the wind. Then he turned on the others. He could see the sudden looks of panic filling their faces, but that just made him all the happier. He tore into them, sending them one after another to refill Lou’s many coffers.
“Damn it, Dherek! Stop it!”
Dherek flung the last of the torn bodies against the far wall. Blood covered everything, him included. The Nefari lay in pieces all around him. The darkness, sated for the moment, retreated into his soul, leaving him to face his companions icy stares alone. He turned to face them one at a time. He could see the reproach in their eyes. But one look back up to the gaping hole in the ceiling shunted away any feeling of guilt. He wanted this daughter. This crap didn’t matter.
“Where is she?” he demanded suddenly, turning to fix Gabby with a questioning glare.
“She’s gone.”
Dherek felt his heart stop.
“What?!!!”
“She’s gone, damn it!” Gabby screamed back at him. “She took off after someone down there.”
She pointed off down the tunnel away from the fight, down into the deepest, darkest part. Dherek glared at his friend a second longer and then turned to race off down the tunnel. The others chased behind him, but he would not wait for them. His own safety meant nothing to him. He had to find Madison. His daughter was out there somewhere and he had to find her. He didn’t care if he pulled the whole of the Vatican down around the ears of everyone down here. He was going to find his daughter no matter what. He heard the others calling to him, running after him as quick as they could, but he wasn’t about to slow down. He was going to find her. Somehow, someway, he was going to find her.
Only the coven found her first.
Dherek found the bodies strewn in front of the side tunnel, bodies torn and broken like old dolls. It was definitely Madison’s work. He could see that simply by the lack of finesse. She was a bruiser, just like him. Then something caught his eyes, freezing his heart in his chest. Blood further down the tunnel. He ran up to it. He didn’t have to touch it. He could smell it from where he was. It was Madison’s. Dherek felt like screaming, hacking, tearing something, anything, to shreds. His daughter was hurt!
A few feet away he spotted the culprit. A steel bolt lay among bits of stone and dirt, the shaft still sticky with her blood. Some coward attacked her, striking her down without even having the guts to close on her. Dherek knew what he would do when he found the one that did this.
The others ran up, stopping short of the chaos. He ignored their questions, focusing instead on looking at the ground around him. Something else was there, something that he could almost place. It nagged at the back of his head. Mike came up to him, grabbing him by the shoulder, but he shrugged it off. The angel started to say something, but he waved it off angrily.
“Shut up,” he barked, “all of you.”
It got deathly quiet. He stood back up, looking around quizzically. There was definitely something there. It was driving him crazy. It lingered in the air, in the rocks, in the very dust beneath their feet. It was something that made his hair stand on end, his skin rise in small goose bumps. It was dark and cold.
Something back near Ralph stood out among the debris. Dherek raced back to it. He fell on a pile of rubble and bodies, tossing them aside like toys. Lying underneath a small pile of rocks was a crossbow, the very weapon that had hurt his child. He snatched it up, glaring at everyone as he shook it in their faces.
“They hurt her,” he half snarled half sobbed. “They hurt Madison.”
Gabby choked. The others took on looks of anger. Dherek agreed with them. Anger was good. He would need it soon. When he found the criminal, he would need all the anger he could get his hands on. He lifted the crossbow overhead, intent on smashing it to the ground. At the last second his mind flared with a smell, a touch he now could place.
Lillith!
“Oh lord,” he groaned, “she’s here.”
“Madison?” Gabby gasped.
Dherek shook his head, “No, Lillith.”
Swords flamed to life all around.
Dherek held up the crossbow, touching it gently so as not to disturb the echo still ringing off it. He closed his eyes and lifted to his nose. Suddenly he lifted it high and smashed it down hard, shattering the weapon into hundreds of pieces.
“That witch did it!”
“What?” they all yelled at once.
“That witch hurt my Madison!”
Everyone started to talk at once. Dherek held up his hand again. He had her scent now, the mark she left on everything she touched. He could follow her. And where she was, he was almost positive that there he would find his daughter. He only hoped for Lillith’s sake that Madison was ok. If not, she would have hell to pay.
Dherek walked one last time around the battle site, feeling for his estranged mate. He felt it strongest down near the blood he knew to be his daughters. He walked further down the tunnel, the line of Lillith’s scent just as strong.
“She went this way.”
He took off without waiting for them. Every fiber of his being told him that something was wrong. Something terrible had happened in this tunnel. For the first time in a very, very long time he felt true fear. He knew Lillith was out here and she had hurt Madison, but what else could have happened. What if Maddy was dead? What would he do then? Everything had been about her. The last fifteen years had been completely dedicated to keeping her alive and well, giving her a chance for a normal life instead of the horror that he lived through on a daily basis. Now she was in as deep as they were, and powerless to protect herself against the sickest monster he had ever been taken in by: his own mate.
Dherek shoved those thoughts aside. They weren’t doing him any good. He had to focus on the now, on saving her. If he let himself fall into the possibles or the maybes, she would be dead long before he ever caught up with them. He doubled his effort, racing along the tunnel with all his power.
Dherek slipped and fell. He had seen something and tried to stop, but the ground gave out from under him. He hit and slid a few feet. He bumped into the wall and the smell hit him hard. He rolled onto his back and howled. There was blood everywhere. He was laying in a pool of the sticky mess and it was smeared on the wall beside him. And all of it, every single drop, was Madison’s. Dherek howled out his fear and hopelessness, no longer able to contain it. He lay in the mess, begging God to bring her back.
“Dherek.”
Dherek pounded the ground with his fists. He had no control.
“Dherek.”
He rolled to the side and rubbed his hand in the gooky mess. His Madison bled.
“Metatron!”
Dherek jerked upright. He turned to find the others standing a short distance away. They all looked pasty white. His heart skipped a beat as he clamored his way back to his feet.
“What?”
All three of them stood in a single line, as if blocking him access to something. His heart fell even further into his guts.
“What is it?”
Mike waved him up, “Ah, you just need to come up here.”
The three of them moved to the side as he stumbled in fear up to them. Lying in the rubble behind them was Lillith. She was dead. At first Dherek sobbed in joy, dropping to his knees and thanking God that his child was still alive. Then it really hit him. Something, or someone, had killed Lillith. He fell back on his rear and stared at her body.
“Oh, God,” he barely whispered.
He scrambled onto his hands and knees and worked his way up to her face. He brushed back the loose hair that had fallen over her perfect eyes. They stared out towards the ceiling, dim and unaware. There was no life there, but there was peace. It was something he had never seen in her before. Always he had seen strife, pain, even jealousy, but never peace. He touched her soft cheek, brushing away one final tear that lingered there. He reached up and gently closed her eyes, leaning close to kiss her on each eyelid.
“Please find the peace,” he whispered into her face,” that you have so longed to find here.”
He sat back and cried. His daughter was hurt bad and missing. Lillith lay dead next to him, his rejected love lost to him for all time. Despair welled up uncontrollably in him, and he cried.
“Dherek.”
He shrugged the voice off. He didn’t want words, consolation. He wanted to mourn alone, forgotten in his misery.
“Dherek.”
The voice was much more demanding. He did realize that it was Ralph, one never to push in on him. But he still didn’t want to interact. Truthfully, he wanted to lay down and die, too. All that kept him going was the single thought that maybe, possibly, Madison was still alive.
“Damn it, Dherek,” Ralph yelled at him. When he still didn’t react, something small but hard hit him on the chest. He reacted instantly to that. He leapt to his feet, ready to kill the one that had done it.
“What?!”
Ralph stood across from him, pointing to the ground at his feet. Dherek looked down to find a thick chained amulet lying next to his foot. He squatted down and picked it up. He wiped away his tears and squinted at it in the dim light. It was a thick iron circle, the single letter C carved in its interior. The middle of the letter was broken, as if the letter had been snapped in two and then laid back down on the medallion. Dherek gripped the necklace hard. He knew the symbol well enough, it was burned onto his back just like his daughter.
“Cain!”
His scream rent the air full of hate. His father had his daughter. His father had the key to his crazed plan. Dherek started to take off again, only to have the other three tackle him head on. He fought hard against them, almost allowing the darkness back out even as the white light in him fought against his rage. He heaved and flailed against them, spending the last of his grief on their bodies. The three angels never spoke, they took it all from him. Finally he collapsed against them, weeping in frustration.
“Dherek,” Gabby leaned in to lift his face to her’s, “we don’t know where they went.”
He rolled his head on up to stair at the ceiling. He didn’t want to look her in the eye just yet. Guilt was already pulling him back down into despair.
“I know,” he sobbed. “I know.”
“But,” she continued, “I think there is someone who does know.”
Dherek jerked back down, the unspoken name coming to him as well. Seth. Despite his pain and despair, Dherek smiled. They weren’t out of this yet. He reached around and pulled his three friends into a tight hug.
“I’m so sorry,” he said, “you deserve better.”
“No,” Mike smiled at him, “we deserve our friend.”
Ralph gave him a quick smack on the back.
“Now,” the young, and very worn out looking man quipped, “shall we go talk to a man about a dog?”
“Yes,” Dherek agreed, pulling himself up to his feet. “A very big dog.”
He looked back down the dark tunnel, peering into the depths as if he could find his father.
“I will get her, Cain. And on that day I will pay you back in full.”
Then he turned, and with the others beside him, he ran.