Page 32 of Nexus
Crowmon frowned at my harsh tone, but Fate put a calming hand on his arm. “An agent of Chaos created the gate after the battle between good and evil was over,” she said. “They hid the spell and its whereabouts was lost over time. I believe it lies within one of the nine realms. You must prevent the overlords from gaining possession of it. If they find it, they will band together to wipe out all life on your world.”
I was highly skeptical about her claim and couldn’t quite muffle my noise of disbelief. “That sounds really dire,” I said lamely when I sensed her disapproval at my reaction.
“Show her the rest, love,” Crowmon suggested. “Saige needs to see the ultimate result if she fails in her duty to save her world.”
Fate waved her hand again and eight more doors materialized to form an arc in front of us. Images from all nine realms of the underworld appeared within the doors. They changed too quickly for me to take everything in. I saw armies gathering and the overlords of each realm rallying their soldiers for war. Instead of just the one compound I’d been shown, there were hundreds in each realm. The overlords in each doorway all held a short, raggedy scroll and took turns reading from them. A spectral looking glowing blue gate appeared in front of them all simultaneously. The doors swung open and a shockwave almost blew the armies over when the spell kicked in.
I felt like I was watching a movie about an alien invasion as creatures from the nine realms poured through the axis-gate into Nexus. The city couldn’t stand against the monsters in their true forms. Once the citizens were all wiped out, the overlords spread out to conquer the rest of the world.
My unease grew and so did the roiling in my stomach as scenes of devastation appeared in each doorway. City after city and country after country fell beneath the might of the invaders. Modern technology and weapons couldn’t stand up to the magic that was used to disable them. Once their guns and missiles failed, humans had to rely on knives and makeshift clubs. Their pitiful defense wasn’t enough and humanity was utterly wiped out.
Most humans I’d dealt with had been horrible to me, but I still felt some pity for them. As if reading my mind, eight of the doors vanished, leaving the original one behind. Nexus appeared, but it was now a shattered ruin. I saw the charred remains of the Den of Iniquity. Lenny was a broken, badly burned and now unanimated corpse. The patrons I knew on sight were all dead, including a few of the men I’d used for sex during the past few months.
The image shifted to Lord Gilden’s silver tower and it had been blasted apart. Drake’s body was sprawled in the wreckage, lying on a pile of gold coins. Smoke wafted from his nostrils, then petered out. I sucked in a breath at seeing his handsome face battered almost beyond recognition.
A pile of ash and black clothing lay near him and I instinctively knew it was Ruen. The vampire had tried to guard his master and had died as a result. Those two deaths hit me harder than all the rest, but the last body I saw took me to my knees.
My mom lay on the floor in her living room, eyes glazed and unseeing. Something had torn her apart, leaving a bloody ruin behind. Tears welled in my eyes even though I knew this was just a dream. A sob escaped from me, but the nightmare wasn’t over yet.
A final image appeared on the screen. It was almost as horrible as seeing my mom’s lifeless body. “No!” I wailed in horror, broken at last by the consequences of what would happen if I failed my duty.
I struggled to my feet and turned to confront Fate and her consort. “You have seen the price you will pay if you fail your duty,” Fate said ominously.
“You won’t recall much of this dream, lass,” Crowmon said. “But you’ll remember enough to know you have an important destiny that you dare not shirk.”
I opened my mouth to scream at them to make this abomination stop, but an invisible hand pushed me backwards. My heels tottered on the edge of the cliff and I pinwheeled my arms. A second shove was enough to push me off balance. I fell screaming and closed my eyes, so I didn’t have to see the rocks that were rushing towards me.
Chapter Twenty-Five
JERKING AWAKE, MY STOMACH flopped over from the sensation of falling for what had felt like a thousand years. Lurching off the bed, I raced for the bathroom. I managed to reach the toilet and puked until my nausea subsided. When I was done, I sank down onto the tiled floor with a groan, clutching my aching head.
“I feel like I drank an entire bottle of Drake’s horrible whiskey,” I complained in a raspy voice, then flushed the toilet. The dragon always delayed paying me by offering me the strong alcohol. One shot wouldn’t make me drunk, but a whole bottle might.
After a few minutes, my illness passed and I heaved myself to my feet. Brushing my teeth, I ambled over to my closet to choose an outfit. It was just after eleven am, so it was about time I got up anyway. My stomach had settled down enough to eat a bowl of sugary cereal. I washed it down with strong coffee, then returned to the bathroom to grab my hamper full of dirty clothing.
Although our building had laundry facilities, I took my clothes to my mom’s house instead. I’d be spending the day with her anyway, so it made sense to do my washing at her place.
After stashing my hamper in the back of my car, I slid behind the wheel and dumped my kill-bag on the passenger seat. Twenty minutes later, I pulled into the driveway of her bungalow. My head was still thumping from my phantom hangover when I used my key to unlock the front door. “Hi, mom!” I called out after stepping into the hallway. “I’m going to put my washing on! I’ll be right back!”
“Hurry up!” she called back. “We’ve got a lot of monsters that need killing!”
Snickering at her impatient tone, I opened the first door on the left to reveal the stairs that led to the basement. I put my clothes on to wash, then headed upstairs. Pausing in the kitchen, I poured two mugs of coffee and walked to the living room. Mom grinned at me when I entered the room. A variety of snack food was sitting close to hand. “Are you ready for the challenge, Lil Bish?” she asked.
“You bet your butt, Big Momma,” I retorted, placing our mugs on the coffee table that sat between the identical recliners. Taking my seat, I reached for the gaming handset that was charged up and waiting for me. “Let’s do this,” I said with a smirk and we resumed the latest videogame we’d been playing.
“These zombies aren’t going to know what hit them,” mom said, then we proceeded to slaughter our electronic enemies.
Drinking coffee and snacking on junk food, we killed a horde of undead before taking a break. We took turns using the bathroom, then mom made us a gigantic plate of sandwiches. “You look like you have something on your mind, honey,” she said when we sat down at the dining table to eat.
I took a sip of my fresh cup of coffee before replying. “I had a really weird dream last night.”
Quirking an eyebrow, she gestured at me to go on. I’d always had vivid dreams, so this wasn’t exactly startling news. “What was it about?”
“Us,” I told her. “Part of it was about our heritage, anyway.” Now intrigued, mom waited for me to continue. “A hooded woman who called herself Fate and a weird little dude called Crowmon interviewed me for a job.”
“What sort of job?”
“To become their champion and save our world from an apocalypse.”
