Sword of the Gods: Agents of Ki (Sword of the Gods Saga) (158 page)

Lucifer's trachea bobbed as he swallowed and nodded his consent. He believed her. He could see she was flawed, but he also saw she was sincere.

Zepar grabbed her from behind and physically tried to pick her up.

"Get her out of here!"

Ninsianna shrieked and struggled to get free. Zepar's dirty white wings knocked over the rolling tray of implements as he shoved her towards the two cold-eyed goons who were every bit as dark as
he
was. She bit the hand which clenched around her bicep.

Zepar howled. "Ow!"

“Unhand her!” Lucifer moved to stand between her and the cold-eyed goons. "Ninsianna stays until I tell you otherwise."

He gave Zepar with a look which said he would not be dissuaded, and then turned back to
her
.

“Tell me what to do.”

“But …” Zepar sputtered.

Ninsianna could see the dark storm cloud gathering around Zepar's corpse, which she understood
was
a corpse, an empty shell which had been reanimated by an evil spirit.

“Eligor said you are a healer,” Lucifer said. “Eligor said that you can help. Tell me what to do, and I will move your sun to make it happen.”

It was an awesome, fearsome leader who stood before her now, a chief of chiefs, a man who controlled the powers of an empire so vast her mind could still barely grasp its scope or scale. She could see why the Evil One had chosen such a vessel to inhabit, especially if the ability to rule the galaxy was innate.

“I can make no promises of miracle healings or cures," Ninsianna said. "All I know is that my husband healed from an equally grievous wound when his ship crashed because I refused to leave his side. Let Doctor Halpas repair his body, but
you
must give him the will to live.”

“I am a destroyer of worlds,” Lucifer said. Anguish tinged his voice, “I don’t know
how
to heal!”

“And yet, he is still alive,” Ninsianna said. “You called him back from the dead, didn't you?"

Lucifer's silver eyes were like brilliant, silver stars, filled with tears as he groped for the hope she offered to him.

"Teach me?"

"I will teach you what I can," Ninsianna said.

Zepar shoved Lucifer aside and grabbed Ninsianna's arm as he roughly attempted to shove her out of the room. The two goons moved to help him and shoved aside the two nurses.

"This is madness!" Zepar shrieked. "Lucifer is insane. Tell them, Eligor! Tell them how the Prime Minister is unable to function unless he has his antipsychotic medicine!”

All eyes turned to Eligor.

Eligor shrugged.

"I'm just paid to fly," Eligor said. "Not to think. But I do know this. The last few months, the Prime Minister has wanted
me
to take him everyplace and not Zepar. He hasn't trusted him since he ditched him to rot in the Emperor's prison. It was
me
who asked the Speaker of the Commons to file the Writ of Habeas Corpus before Parliament that sprung him, not Zepar
."

Doctor Halpas stepped forward and stood in front of Zepar.

"In all matters of mental health," Doctor Halpas said. "It is
my
judgment which rules this ship. Not yours. And not even Lucifer's."

"Lucifer is insane!" Zepar hissed.

Three more Angelic guards came into the room, guards that Ninsianna recognized. One of them nodded at Doctor Halpas and handed him something in a box.

“It was a strange story that Lerajie ran to me and told today," Doctor Halpas said. "According to them, it was
you
who ordered them to hold twenty
human females as sex-slaves and a Sata'anic prisoner-of-war." He reached into the box and held up a bag filled with a dark red substance. "I just sent a crewman down to verify there is a lizard on this ship, and if there is, to bring me two pints of H-phenotype blood."

“How
dare
you speak to me that way!” Zepar snarled. “Do you have any idea who I am???”

“You are my assistant,” Lucifer interrupted, “and right now you are not being very assistive. So please. Leave this room and let Doctor Halpas get to work.”

Zepar's rage was physically palpable as a blue vein throbbed visibly on his forehead. Doctor Halpas and the nurses sensed it too as they instinctively stepped back, back away from the evil which animated the empty shell which was Zepar. The hair stood up on Ninsianna's arms.

Eligor stepped between Zepar and the two cold-eyed goons, his expression absolutely unreadable and flat.

“You're very upset, Sir,” Eligor said. He signaled three new Angelics who had just come into the room. “Let’s let the doctor get to work now, Sir. You can discuss things with the Prime Minister after his friend is out of danger.”

Ninsianna noted the pulse rifles pressed into the backs of the two cold-eyed goons. For a moment she feared the room would erupt into a firefight, but then Zepar turned to them and subtly nodded. They trailed out of the room as if there had been no disagreement at all. Eligor and the guards followed them, but before he left, Eligor met her gaze and gave her a subtle nod. The rest … was up to her.

“I have to put him under anesthesia now, Sir,” Doctor Halpas said to Lucifer. “If you would like to stay, you must get prepped so you don't pass an infection into his wound.”

“I'll stay with Jamin while you do," Ninsianna offered.

Ninsianna watched as the most depraved creature in the galaxy caressed his lover's cheek and spoke lovingly into his ear. She could not hear what Lucifer said to him, but Jamin's dark features grew peaceful as he drifted in between the worlds. Lucifer hurried away. Ninsianna bent down to whisper in Jamin's ear.

“Jamin,” she said, “you have won the most unwinnable heart in the galaxy. You proved capable, flawed creature, of accomplishing in your darkest moment what I, favored creature of the goddess, could not do when blessed with the brightest light. Please … you must fight to live for
him
.”

Lucifer came back, clad in the same hideous blue tunic as
she
wore and anxiously retook his place at his lover's side. Doctor Halpas injected something into the clear, flexible reed which terminated in Jamin’s arm while the two nurses cut the clothing right off of Jamin's body, dabbing at the wound with various cloths and liquids. Ninsianna watched, fascinated, as they placed green cloths around the injury until only the wound was visible, as if only that existed and not the man it was attached to. Jamin relaxed as the doctors put a clear mask over his mouth and nose. In the background, the subtle beep of a machine told her that his heart beat far slower than it should.

“Put your hands on either side of his head," Ninsianna coached Lucifer, "and picture you can send white light into his body.”

“My mother had this gift," Lucifer's voice sounded mournful, "but she kept it hidden. She was always afraid of what the Emperor might do if he found out she was a better healer than
he
was. She cured me once of a bullet to the heart.”

“The life-gift flows from the goddess,” Ninsianna said. “If your heart is pure, she will help you heal your lover.”

“I don’t have a heart,” Lucifer said.

“Obviously you do,” Ninsianna said, “or you would not have been able to bond with him.”

A soft, feminine voice whispered into her mind.

‘His name means Morning Star,’ She-who-is whispered. ‘I sent him to the Emperor to keep him safe, but Hashem failed me when he abandoned him to chase his mother into the dreamtime. Moloch sent his Agent to twist him to his purposes. I thought he was lost to me forever, but your angry young prince snuck right past Moloch's defenses and bonded to him right underneath his nose.’

Ninsianna glanced down at the progress of the surgery. Doctor Halpas's hands moved with speed and skill, but the monitors which kept track of Jamin's heartbeat said his life energy was erratic. Lucifer was not able to compensate for the injuries. The goddess' energy made her entire body ring, but only a trickle got through to the two people who needed it.

‘How do I fix this, Mother?’ Ninsianna asked She-who-is. ‘How do I help a creature that is so dark and damaged heal another creature that is dark and damaged?’

‘You must make Lucifer trust you enough to remove the blockage.”

‘Lucifer trusts no woman,' Ninsianna thought. 'He only allows me near his lover because he is desperate to save him.’

She sensed a giggle.

‘You do it just like this…”

The cone of golden-white light suddenly disappeared.

The heart monitor flat-lined and began to screech.

"We’ve got a code blue!" Doctor Halpas shouted. "Prepare 240 cc's of adrenaline and get the defibrillator charged!"

The two nurses rushed around. One pulled out a small, clear tube with a long, sharp, vicious-looking needle at the end.

"Doctor Halpas!" Lucifer said. His eyes were desperate and filled with tears.

"Step back, Sir!" one of the nurses shoved them both aside.

"Administering adrenaline."

Ninsianna winced as the nurse shoved the needle straight into Jamin's heart.

"Charging now, Sir."

"Two hundred, two twenty, two fifty, three hundred…"

"Clear!"

Doctor Halpas rammed two flat panels onto Jamin's chest. Jamin's entire body jerked. The scent of lightning filled the room. The beeper beeped, and then went flat again, never stopping its incessant shrieking.

“He is leaving me!!!” Lucifer cried out. "Ninsianna! Please! You have to help me save him!!!”

Lucifer quivered with emotion, so beautiful in his grief that she wondered how she could have ever feared such a beautiful, helpless creature? His beauty was like the first rays of light of hope piercing the darkness that precipitated the dawn. Love moved her heart for this poor creature that had had its light obscured by darkness, and she reached up to kiss him, the kiss of a mother for her child.

All her life she had feared the dead, but the dead woman who pleaded with her now to allow her to take possession of her body so she could tell her son what he needed to hear so greatly moved Ninsianna that she stepped aside and allowed Asherah to use her body as a vessel.

“Lucifer, my son,” she-who-had-been-Asherah spoke in a voice that neither sounded like, nor even looked like Ninsianna. “I did not abandon you, my son. I wait for you to join me, as does the mother of your mate.”

“Mama?” Lucifer trembled. “Is that really you?”

“Your father did not abandon us,” she-who-had-been-Asherah said. “He was taken from us as
you
have been taken from us. He was twisted as
you
have been twisted. But now you are in grave danger.”

“How?” Lucifer asked.

“The one whose voice I speak through is about to bear a child more powerful even than you are,” she-who-had-been-Asherah said. “When Moloch could no longer control your father, he killed him and seized
you
, just as he intends to kill
you
now that you have slipped his control and he has found a vessel to replace you.”

Beneath her possession, Ninsianna trembled at that warning.

“All I care about is saving my mate,” Lucifer cried out. “Please, Mama, how do I save him?”

“You must forgive me, my son,” she-who-had-been-Asherah said. “For I know you feel the compulsion to follow your mate into the Dreamtime. You must now understand I did not leave you entirely by choice
.
”

Lucifer began to cry great, wracking sobs. He leaned upon her for support and, as he did, Ninsianna hugged this evil creature who had done nothing but cause her harm, for She-who-is herself had stepped into her body to welcome home the brother she feared she had lost forever.

“The time has come to choose,
Luciferi,
” She-who-is-Ninsianna spoke with a voice that made the entire ship resonate with her words. “Love … or power. Choose love, and you may draw upon the life gift which I offer you to heal your mate.”

White light burst forth from Lucifer's entire body and filled the room, so bright they needed to cover their eyes. Lucifer swayed and collapsed onto her for support. Ninsianna knew, even before the modern heart monitor made its first beep that Jamin had come back from his trip beyond.

She-who-is released her body, but she had not abandoned her, but left her with the strong, golden thread which Ninsianna had always used to speak to her beloved mentor.

"Thank you, Mother," Ninsianna whispered. "Thank you for using me as your sacred vessel."

“Let’s finish stitching this young man up!” Doctor Halpas ordered.

Ninsianna watched the medical team stitch Jamin back together using a needle and thread, and a kind of goo that reminded her of spider-web silk, not so very different than what
she
would have done had Jamin been her patient back on Earth. It seemed, perhaps, her Mama's medicine wasn't so primitive after all?