The Black Madonna (The Mystique Trilogy) (27 page)

I was startled into looking down at myself, but I was still invisible. How could he know I was there?
Was it Levi?
I couldn’t voice my suspicion or I’d give myself away.

The Dracon came closer. ‘We’re not here to change the past,’ he reminded me and I knew my guess was correct—Levi had changed to Dracon form.

‘You grabbed the auric simulator from the back of my trousers on the way through the wormhole,’ I said. ‘But how did you locate me here?’

‘It was easy for me to sense your positive presence in this horrid place.’ Levi’s gaze shifted to the boys being tortured in the room I’d been peering into. ‘You could not desire to shut down this project more than I—’ he began, then gasped and moved closer to the glass. ‘I have to check something,’ he said and entered the lab.

Curious, I followed.

The current had been switched off and most of the poor boys had passed out; those that hadn’t were only semi-conscious and moaned quietly with the little energy they had left.

Levi came to a stop by the bed of a young dark-haired boy who stood apart from the others, who were all Aryan types—blond and blue-eyed. He opened the file hanging from the end of the cot. ‘Damn…I thought I recognised this one.’

Upon second glance, I was stunned to recognise a pre-teen Killian Labontè.
There’s an eight-year-old version of me here somewhere
, he’d commented earlier, but it hadn’t occurred to me that he’d meant ‘here’ in the building! ‘Killian is one of the Montauk boys,’ I uttered under my breath, as I struggled to comprehend the ramifications of the discovery.

‘It explains a lot,’ Levi agreed. He plucked a hair from the unconscious boy’s head and tucked it into his Dracon disguise.

‘That’s how the Nefilim have been aware of our every move,’ I realised as I cast my mind back over the events of the past few weeks.

‘If Killian is one of the Secret Crew, all he’d need is a strand of your hair, or Tamar’s, and he’d be privy to
everything
,’ Levi said.

‘Even this?’

‘Even this.’ Levi’s tone was unsurprised as he nodded towards the glass plate in the door. I followed his gaze to see a flock of reptilian guards in the corridor.

They did not enter, however; they stood back for Lord Erragal, who was accompanied by Killian Labontè. Strangely, Killian behaved as if he were in charge. He stormed into the lab ahead of his Nefilim company, hand out, demanding, ‘I’ll take the auric simulator and that strand of hair you just plucked from my head, Timewalker 456143, aka Levi Granville-Devere, aka Signet Key Eight,
Dreamkeeper.
’

Levi complied, knowing it was futile to resist. As he handed back the auric simulator he returned to his true form—which I much preferred, especially as humans were grossly outnumbered by aliens in this instance.

‘Show yourself, Mia,’ Killian ordered, ‘or I’ll have your daughter and her long-lost lover dipped in a vat of liquid Orme.’

‘So you sold your soul too,’ I accused as I appeared right in front of Killian’s face.

‘My soul was shattered long ago, before I had a choice in the matter.’ He motioned to the unconscious boy on the bed.

‘So stop it happening!’ I implored him.

‘I don’t want to stop it happening!’ he yelled back defiantly. ‘I am the most powerful human being on the planet! And pretty soon I’ll become one with the most powerful god in history!’

‘Ill isn’t a god,’ I said. ‘He’s a misguided, damned entity who wants to take every living thing on Earth along with him to his ultimate demise.’

The room fell silent and every one of our enemies glared at me.

‘I’m afraid you’re the one who’s misguided, Dr Devere,’ Killian, livid, stared me down, ‘aka Signet Key Twelve, Triogenes, aka the Blue Flame Bearer, aka the
Black Madonna.
’

‘Bingo!’ Erragal finally spoke. ‘Even better than Castor to retrieve the Rod of Power for us.’

I was amused by the suggestion. ‘I would never—’

‘Never say never,’ Killian warned, ‘not when we have your daughter.’

‘Prove it,’ I said, calling their bluff. I had only Killian’s word on the matter, and that was obviously worth very little.

‘Follow me,’ he said, striding off.

I looked at Levi, who raised his brows and moved to accompany me.

‘Not you, techno boy,’ Erragal said, grabbing him. ‘I have other plans for you.’

‘He stays with me,’ I insisted. ‘Or I turn this entire operation into a demolition site right now. Your choice.’

‘What about Tamar?’ Killian turned back to threaten me.

‘What about your wormhole system?’

A tense moment passed, then Killian smiled. ‘You’re not afraid of me at all, are you?’

‘Not in the least.’ I surprised myself, for it was the truth, and with Killian’s telepathic link to me he knew it.

He glared at me. ‘Do you know what I could do to you?’

‘More importantly, you know what I could do to you,’ I replied flippantly, ‘and that’s why you’re trying to intimidate me, which clearly isn’t working.’

I walked out of the room, past the Dracon, and Levi followed. When Killian, Erragal and their guards attempted to move, they discovered that the soles of their shoes had mysteriously melded with the floor.

‘Mia! I’m warning you, don’t fuck with me!’ Killian yelled after us.

‘Should I let them go?’ I asked Levi, who was smothering his amusement as we proceeded down the corridor unaccompanied.

‘We really should find out what they know about Tamar,’ he replied.

Just as our captors had removed their footwear, they came unstuck from the floor.

‘I thought this was supposed to be a hostage situation,’ I taunted them.

Two barefoot Dracon finally raced into the corridor and took aim at us.

‘Now that’s more like it,’ I said and Levi nodded in agreement.

Killian may have been smiling as he emerged from the room, but his body language conveyed that he was ropeable.

‘Don’t push me, bitch!’ He grabbed hold of me and stared into my eyes. I felt a sharp pain in my sinuses and then my nose began to pour with blood. Levi couldn’t help me, restrained as he was by the Dracon guards.

‘How fast do you think you can regenerate an imploded heart?’ Killian asked nastily, and let me go.

‘It’s all just matter.’ I was more emotionally rattled than physically harmed, but wouldn’t show it. I undid the damage to my sinuses and the blood vanished from my face. ‘There is nothing you can do that I can’t undo, not now or ever,’ I told him.

Killian looked taken aback, and I took advantage of his brief confusion to examine him with my auric vision. I had to find the piece of me that he was using to spy on us all; it had to be on his person somewhere. The Blue Flame energy being emitted from the strand of my hair caused it to light up like a neon sign against his aura. It was wound tightly beneath the wristband of his watch. Upon my bidding, the hair dissolved to nothing, with Killian none the wiser.

‘Tell that to your daughter,’ Erragal said, using his great height as an intimidation tactic. ‘She’ll have the sixty plagues of Nergal brought down upon her if you don’t start cooperating.’

He pointed to a doorway further down the hall, and I headed over to see what proof they could show me of Tamar’s imprisonment.

Inside the room I found a long table of black onyx. Lying on its top was an etheric fibre suit like those worn by the Amenti staff members. Beside it was a long thick coil of silky black hair which, viewed psychically, glowed richly violet. There was no doubt it was my daughter’s beautiful hair, every strand of which could expose her every move to our enemy! There was also a liquid-light gun, a small treasure chest, a metallic ball and an electronic hand-held games unit. I reached for the latter item knowing it did not belong to Tamar, and found the name Emmett Rich programmed into the display;
still
, I thought,
anyone could have entered that name into the unit.
Next I opened the treasure chest, to find it empty.

‘There’s nothing in here,’ I said.

‘Oh yes, there is,’ taunted Killian. ‘Let your fingers do the seeing.’

My heart skipped when I felt the invisible ring; as far as I knew, there was none other like it.

‘I’ll take that now, thank you.’ Killian snatched it from my fingers. ‘Aren’t you going to ask about the metallic ball?’

My gut told me that I didn’t want to know.

‘Touch it,’ he prompted. ‘Go on.’
As my fingers made contact with the cold metal, the sound of Tamar’s inspirational singing voice filled my heart with joy and then sadness.

‘What is it?’ Levi asked curiously, for only the person touching the ball could hear the voice; a precaution that prevented these damned creatures being driven insane by the purity of her song.

‘It’s a recording of Tamar—’ I began.

‘No, no,’ Killian corrected, ‘it’s not a recording of Tamar’s singing voice, it
is
Tamar’s singing voice. She gave it up to pay a toll to enter Irkalla, where she is now, sedated, naked and quite subdued.’ He smiled, convinced that he now had the upper hand.

Contrary to his expectation, I didn’t attack him. Instead, I felt deeply sorry for him and the emotion showed on my face.

‘What?’ he asked, wanting an explanation for my sad look.

‘How much pain must you have endured to be able to knowingly betray your greatest ally in such a manner,’ I sympathised.

He revelled in what he’d done. ‘Beautiful, isn’t it?’

‘Does she know the truth about you?’ I asked, and the query took a little of the wind from his sails.

‘I suspect she will soon,’ he responded, ‘now that you know. You Dragon Queens have your own communication network, don’t you?’

He obviously knew of our telepathic connection. He also knew that my link with Tamar was strained at present, and indeed her detainment in Irkalla explained the interference during her last attempt to contact me.

‘So the next time you ladies chat,’ Killian continued, ‘you can tell Kali that Ill and I greatly look forward to wedding our most powerful rival. And in return for her complete cooperation, we won’t summon her love’s alter ego from the darkest depths of hell for another rematch of wills.’

I had expected a death threat, but Ill knew of Mathu’s existence, and where he was, which was far worse. I refused to be intimidated by them, however, and continued to pity their naivety.

‘You and Ill are insane if you think you’ll be able to control my daughter,’ I said.

‘Kali
is
under our control!’ He pointed to the table. ‘How much more proof do you need?’

Erragal came forward, his dark presence towering over us. ‘And that means you’re going to retrieve the Rod of Power for us.’

‘Only I am genetically capable of wielding the rod,’ I pointed out, hoping to discover what they planned to do with the item.

‘
Until
…’ Killian raised a finger to stress his point, ‘…you reunite the rod with the Ring of Power to form the key to Amenti. Which you will then hand to Kali, my intended, and she and I will have the honour of opening the doors of Amenti.’

I was perplexed. ‘The doors will not open for you.’

‘Nor for
any
thereafter,’ he concluded with a smile. ‘Not for another twenty-five thousand years anyway. Plenty of time for us to utilise your stargate system to conquer every guardian race connected to this pathetic little backwater planet!’

This was no longer Killian speaking; for a moment he was possessed by a darker, much more sinister presence. Psychically, Killian did not seem to have any malign entities attached to him, but perhaps his own psychic skills allowed him to connect with the dark presence he was allied with.

‘And to ensure you don’t supply us with another fake,’ Erragal said, still annoyed by the memory of our last meeting, ‘Killian will accompany you back to the battle of Badon Hill, where he can see you retrieve the Rod of Power from the hand of Arthur himself!’

‘What?’ I could hardly believe my ears. ‘That plan is beyond foolish, it’s pure insanity! The battle of Badon Hill was a significant event in history—’

‘Which no one can really pinpoint in terms of location or date,’ Killian cut in. ‘Hell, historians can’t even prove Arthur existed! Ever wonder why that is?’

I opened my mouth to reply but Killian was on a roll.

‘Because the battle of Badon Hill is such a significant event in the inter-time war that its outcome is ever-changing.’

‘There is no wormhole back to the battle of Badon Hill,’ Levi said, being fairly knowledgeable on the matter.

‘Not a direct one,’ Killian granted. ‘But a brief changeover with the Illuminati sects of pre-Nazi Germany will see us all the way back to our destination.’
Tamar had warned me about all of this and I’d still ended up becoming embroiled in it.

‘If you’re talking about Project Phisummum, that wormhole was highly unstable due to the dark powers that were summoned to create it,’ said Levi. ‘It will never be able to withstand the traffic of a permanent wormhole interchange; you’ll be lucky if it stays open long enough for you to get back through it—that is, if the Illuminati don’t kill you for crashing their inter-time party in the first place.’

‘Once the Black Madonna holds the Rod of Power, she will be able to cut a path to anywhere in history.’ Killian was more certain of this fact than I was.

‘And should you deviate from our orders,’ Erragal warned me, ‘we’ll know of it, and I’ll see to it that your daughter is raped by every demon in Irkalla, before Nergal’s sixty diseases go to work on her.’

He certainly painted a vivid picture and I felt sure he meant every word he said.

‘Your technological friend will stay here with us, as insurance,’ the Nefilim added, but I didn’t find the terms acceptable.

All Amenti staff were psychically gifted to a certain degree, but I didn’t know enough about Levi and his skills to be confident he could defend himself alone against the dark forces assembled here at Montauk. True, he had done it before undercover, but now he was exposed as a threat, and I had a good idea of how the Nefilim would deal with such a potential menace. I began to protest but Levi quashed my objection.