An Angel's Touch Page 28

  The Dragons, in one telepathic voice spoke. The words felt like drum beats in my head, even though the speech was smooth. “We are the Council of Six—the Wise Ones, the Prophets, the Keepers of Balance.”

  I listened intently.

  “View the cavern walls. View your reward when earth ends.”

  The sixth realm crimson walls played holographic visions of me leading Dragon armies through celestial skies. I did not feel Tazmarkian. Though I stood on the cavern floor, I felt myself flying in a Dragon body experiencing all the hologram played. In a time-lapse fashion, like a movie preview, I, with my army of Dragons, ravaged worlds that called for Chaos. My blood coursed spicy hot, hotter, rabid, cleansing; destructive urges crawled in my wings, churning, churning, my eyeballs popped to witness demolition. My claws ached to puncture, to rip, to clutch the guts of something, anything. Pressure increased in my lungs, this vaporizing heat invisibly building, building for a mighty explosive roar to expel this fire storm within me, fueled and fueled and fueled by the secret silent screaming of those confined in a coffin existence. And oh how savory those holy screams from unholy places, and those unholy screams from rage and hate, those screams for endings, for anything different, anything new, for those tormented by the status quo . . . and it is I who brings relief!

  The collective voice spoke in a way that calmed me. “Your future, Ixion, your future.”

  I felt myself again in my puny Tazmarkian body.

  The council of six, great and wise, continued speaking in telepathic union, “As Panacéa reclaims the pieces of herself, we are able to view what has been camouflaged by her presence in our worlds. Coming clear now are rich deposits of Divine Light, weaving in and out the realms like a great netting that spans the universe, a netting she created and left to be nourished by Divine Light creatures everywhere. Oh, the goddess was clever. By depositing the pieces of herself in our Worlds, she hid her greatest project: to make the universe Utopian. The netting has grown thick, muffling the call for chaos. The universe is suffocating from too much peace. To break the netting, we must destroy the weaver.”

  I felt eclipsed by the one I used to be—Ixion. I said, “Yes, I can see that. We cannot destroy the netting by using force from the outside because the source of chaos is extroverted. Destructive energies flow out, seeking targets. Our power is felt at the point of contact when disbursement occurs. The source of benevolence is introverted. Healing energies flow inward, pooling into reservoirs of Divine Light, strengthening the netting from within. To destroy it, we must strike from the inside out. Yes, we must destroy the weaver.”

  The Council said, “Your wisdom proves impressive, Ixion—as always, drawn from realms that are often beyond our reach. We must destroy the weaver, and we must also destroy earth to help restore balance to the universe.”

  “Hmm,” I felt very professorish, partaking in intellectual discourse with my almost peers. “How is it you heard earth’s call with the Divine Light webbing so thick?”

  “You made it so, Ixion, with all the chaos you inflicted. And we are starving. Earth’s destruction will nourish us greatly. But first, we must rid ourselves of Panacéa once and for all. Woo her. You know how. You are the Prince of Deception. Restore her fully. As long as she loves you, you will be steeped within her. And from there, you can destroy her. You can turn her to stardust forever more. Then, if you choose, you can shed your Tazmarkian body and become a full-fledged Dragon permanently.”

  I smiled. Soon I would be free from this cage called earth, and this body called Tazmark, and this thing called love.

  The collective voice said in my mind, “When you leave here, free Aruka. We have used her to help facilitate the restoration of Panacéa. And we will use her to facilitate the destruction of earth.”

  “And her reward?” I asked.

  “She will be destroyed with the earth, but we have led her to believe that she will be promoted to level ten and co-rule the Dracovar Worlds with you.”

  “Ah, so that is why she did not care if earth was destroyed.”

  “Yes. However we need you to rule supreme, Ixion. Before Panacéa derailed you, you were the wisest, most efficient champion of chaos the Dracovar Worlds had ever known.”

  I inquired, “If Aruka learns that I have conceded to work with you, won’t she become suspicious?”

  “She thinks that it is you whom we are using, that is . . . until you have restored and the destroyed the goddess. That done, then you would be granted co rulership with her. But she would never settle for that. She would inevitably seek to imprison you in a Black Box on Dracovar Prime, forevermore.”

  “Aruka can create a Black Box?”

  “We taught her so that she would believe our promise. No Tazmark less than level ten has ever been taught, so it was a convincing ploy. And if you complete your task, we will teach you too.”

  “Why must I wait to learn?”

  “You must prove yourself first. We would be unwise to grant . . . you, in particular, that power before you have proven your loyalty. You could not obliterate the goddess, then. We will see if you can now.”

  I nodded, understanding. I did understand. I wouldn’t trust me either.

  “Let Aruka believe that she yet fools you. If she discovers the truth, she will rally the Tazmarks against us and lure Panacéa to her side.”

  I said, “You never intended to promote Aruka to co-ruler?”

  “Graduate a female? Of course not. Females are breeders, and enhancers of male power. We don’t want them vying for rulership. A female Ruler would threaten our Worlds.”

  “And what of Diego? Even though Quen-tan claims he is accepting of being second in command and governing one of the six Dragon Worlds, I find that hard to believe.”

  “He has long been working with us, and proven his loyalty by acting in the best interest of our Worlds. In that, he concedes that without you to restore and destroy Panacéa, the Dragon Worlds cannot be free. He concedes that, given you prove yourself, you are the one most likely to restore balance to the universe.”

  “Perhaps you lie. Once I have restored Panacéa, you might destroy me, fearing I’d get entangled with another goddess.”

  “If you obliterate Panacéa, our faith will be restored that you can obliterate any goddess.”

  Hard thoughts slid out with my heavy sigh. The explanation sounded reasonable.

  I began to grow sleepy.

  The collective voice continued, swirling in my brain like an echo in the mountains. “Sleep Ixion, sleep.”

  I closed my eyes where I stood, my limbs weighted with fatigue.

  The collective voice traveled inside me like a dream. “Sleep.”

  I collapsed.

  “Sleep Ixion. When you awaken, eighteen days hence, you will be . . . level . . . ten.”

  I sank into a void, falling deeper and deeper into luscious darkness, cold warmth, ice fire. Pleasant, ah, so pleasant. I slipped from consciousness.

  Part Two

  Within my mind

  all cloaked in gloom,

  I plan, I ponder

  your final doom.

  A web of lies

  to hide my smile,

  grinning like

  a crocodile.

  Euthanized heart

  without a soul,

  eyes like burning

  lumps of coal.

  Look in mirror

  truth I see,

  eyes reflect

  no sympathy.

  Mirror, mirror

  on the wall,

  love will make

  the princess fall.

  I'll be the wolf

  to your little red,

  you left the path,

  and now you're dead.

  Chapter Sixteen

  When I awoke in the sixth realm cavern, I remembered the Council had promoted me to level ten. I wasn’t hungry, thirsty, stiff, or frustrated. Most importantly, I wasn’t in love any more. My lip curled, exposing fang. I was cured.

&
nbsp; I rose and stretched my body. My incisors felt enlarged. My intangible webbed wings felt like machines on my back. I suspected they were superior, stronger, sharper than normal.

  I flew from the cave, slicing space at record speed. I went to Aruka in the year 1210, landing before her in third realm Pericludies. She was there just as I had left her, invisible to the human eye and bound in the gossamer web I’d woven. Just to her side was a circle of French warriors at an evening campfire, unaware of her presence.

  I stared hard at her face to determine her state of being. And I think she was staring back by the seething glare in her eyes. She was alive. There was much a Tazmark could do to survive as long as the infamous Black Box wasn’t the trap.

  I sucked the threads back into my being. A few broke on her like pieces of cobweb. She fell out of Pericludies and collapsed to the ground. She became visible before the circle of warriors. She just lay there at first, stunned. Time had stopped for her during her encasement, and disorientation was certain.

  One warrior gasped, “Regarder!”

  The lot sprang to their feet and stood back, hands grabbing for weapons.

  Aruka pulled herself up awkwardly. Her black hair was fanned over her body, laced with remnants of web.She stood proudly with fists, looking up, scanning the sky. “I know you are out there, Juan. And you will pay for this!”

  I wanted to taunt her vengefully, but I cloaked myself in tenth

  level black light, so that she wouldn’t detect even one fragment of the truth.

  The men closed in around her with swords drawn. She transformed into the dragonwoman, then blew them away with white fire until they had fallen. I swooped down with my machine-like intangible webbed wings and sucked in their spirits. That much taunting, I could do. My chest felt billowy. The spirits were marshmellowy within me. I realized then that I had not sucked hard enough to accommodate this complex body I’d attained. There was a thickness to it, yet it was lighter and less clumsy than before I changed. With a brisk inhale, I sucked in the marshmellowy mass, and felt it deeper in my being, where it was supposed to be.

  Aruka cried with her fists to the sky. “Heaven be upon you, Juan!” Then driven by hunger, she dug her claws into a crispy blackened man, pulled out his pumper, and gorged on it like a pig.

  Turned on by the sight, I muttered, “Praise hell.”

  I had to go. Now, I must woo Panacéa.

  I flew to Granny’s cottage and landed in the third realm. It seemed to be around mid-afternoon. Standing at the front door, I magically made myself clean and dressed in a black silk shirt tucked into black jeans, and black leather boots. I envisioned my hair combed and flowing neatly down my back. I manifested tears and a believable story to seduce Jen. I could seduce her with lies. That would be easy. It was the truth she could not swallow. I reveled in my newly armored heart.

  I knocked.

  On the other side of the door I heard Jen’s voice, “Go away johnny, or Charlotte and I will make you go away.”

  “I will go away. I won’t come inside by muscle or magic if you don’t want me too. I just want to tell you, I’m sorry and I won’t bother you anymore.”

  I felt her mind move into mine. Her ability to mind read had intensified, but not so greatly that I couldn’t block her with lies. With my lies of love I mustered the holiest of tears to stream from my very orange eyes.

  After a long pause, she opened the door a crack. When she saw my tear-soaked face, her stern expression drooped with compassion, and the door opened wider. Her blonde hair was loose, flowing over the chest of her navy blue maternity top, rather form-fitting for a woman in her state. Her belly was fit to pop. The maternity blue jeans she wore must have had a foot of stretch.

  “Charlotte says you want to end the world.”

  “I like earth,” I said, “I don’t want the world to end.”

  She stepped back, searching my face strangely, cocking her head to one side. Her hair caught the sunlight, and for a brief moment I wanted to smell it and nuzzle my face in the shiny strands, oh not an act of affection, but indulgence.

  While I was admiring her hair, apparently she had noticed mine. “Your black hair has such a blue cast to it. It seems so much longer johnny. And your features are so much sharper. What’s happened to you?”

  Granny charged around the corner with the hem of her sky blue skirt flying. “Don’t trust him!”

  I paused, soaking in the realization that my inner transcendence had manifested in my third realm body as well. I summoned a lie. “I have acquired more power, but I have chosen to use it to help the world. Using energy that way alters my appearance.” Right there in the doorway, I fell to my knees and wrapped my arms around her thighs in a desperate hold, my cheek against her womb. My cheek got kicked. Little beasts. I looked up at her, tears still dripping. I tried to create a sobbing tone with my words, but I just couldn’t pull it off. I did manage to whine a little though. “I don’t want to be the Prince of Darkness if it means losing you.”

  Now that my bond with her was completely severed, feigning love was easy.

  She was coming down to her knees to be on my level, so I loosened my hold on her thighs. As she came down to me, I placed my hands on the sides of her breasts.

  She quivered from the generated passion. Without actually touching my hair, she stroked the outline of it from my head, down the length of it over my chest. I felt the vibration of her trembling fingertips inside my brain. She wanted to believe.

  I sent my essence gliding into her deepest wants, and without whirling my eyes, I accomplished the deed that usually made them whirl—mesmerizing, hypnotizing, cauterizing her doubts. “Your wish is granted, ma chère. I’ll use my magic to fight evil and protect the innocent.”

  She twisted her head back at Granny, almost guiltily. I had her.

  Granny shook her head, clearly not buying into my charade.

  Jen captured my hand and rose, bringing me up with her. “I love him, Charlotte,” she said. “He forever comes through for me. I know he loves me. Who else has survived this long with him, been this close to him, and loved him so much?”

  “Yes,” said Granny, “and if he ends you tomorrow, what good is that?”

  “I don’t care,” she said, looking up at me with tearful eyes, “I don’t care.” She suctioned her arms around me. “I am so happy you want to change, that you somehow can change. So happy.”

  I had loved her. I really had. But now I loved raw power more. And now it was all that I loved.

  I returned her embrace, lighter, but no less intense than hers to me, with her big belly bowled between my hips.

  She swayed her body over to my side, facing Granny. “He has changed. I am certain.”

  “He has changed all right,” said Granny, “but not the way you think.”

  I softened my eyes and moved my essence into Granny. “I apologize for the disturbance last time I was here. Jenséa knows how enraged I get when she doubts my love.”

  Granny probed my mind. But she couldn’t get past the Black Light Shield I’d caked with memories of how I once loved Jen. It was far harder to block her than Jen, and it was beginning to strain me. Granny was too much work.

  I whispered in Jen’s ear, “Let us depart for a few days.”

  “But the babies are due any time.” When she said that, I clairvoyantly saw the baby goat in the backyard, grazing on grass. Jen’s reproductive center was restored.

  I kissed the top of her head. “We will not journey far, just a few miles down the road. When you go into labor, I’ll bring you back and Charlotte can help you deliver.”

  “What he says is far too good to be true,” Granny said. “Don’t go with him, child. Stay with me.”

  Jen shook her head. “I can’t, Charlotte.”

  I steered Jen toward the door, twisting my head back to the wise old Shen with a bit of fire in my eyes. “I’ll take grade A care of her.”

  “Don’t go, child,” her voice quivered. “He deceives y
ou.”

  Jen looked up at me questioningly. “She’s wrong, johnny, right?”

  Funny, the name johnny no longer fit me any more than the name Jen fit her. I almost corrected her by saying, ‘My name is Ixion,’ but instead I said, “I need you, Jenséa.”

  Jen said to Granny, “He needs me.”

  Granny replied, “He needs you, but not for what you think.”

  “I have to go,” Jen said.

  Granny reached out, pointing her soft wizened fingers to Jen’s heart. “Stay child. I’ll teach you more about the power of Shen.”

  I squeezed Jen’s arm. “ ‘I’ will teach her more about the power of Shen.”

  Suddenly, Jen was in a pearly stretchy bubble. Even though my arm was around her back, the bubble was between us. Granny’s face looked so determined. Telepathically she said, I’ll not let you take her.

  Jen said, “What is this stuff around me? I feel saran-wrapped.”

  “You are saran-wrapped child from his power over you.”

  “I’m going of my own free will.”

  “No, you are not,” Granny said.

  Jen sighed, “johnny, maybe I should stay, just until the babies come.”

  I projected my essence into Granny and flew around inside her being, dusting away her doubts with memories of all I had once sacrificed for Jen. I pushed the passion I’d known and the sacrifice I’d endured into every cubicle of her inner world, using my Dragon talents to the tenth power.

  “I don’t know,” Granny said.

  The bubble disappeared. Granny seemed scattered. “I . . . I’ll get your bag. I . . . I washed your clothes.”

  She disappeared into a bedroom for a minute and returned with Jen’s floral travel bag.

  Jen hugged Granny. “I’ll be okay.” She took the bag from her.