Chapter 10

Glen knocked tentatively on Thea’s bedroom door, having seen her come in holding her head, tears in her eyes as she ran to her room. The door swung open and Glen gasped softly. Her normally bright and sunny room was now blackest black and it’s tendrils seemed to reach out, sucking all the light from the hall into the darkness.

“Thea?” he called out as he slowly stepped inside, every inner warning screaming at him.

“Glen...” he heard hissed at him in a voice that made him shudder.

“Thea is that you? I’m turning on a light.”

“Let us,” the voice hissed.

The soft light on the bedside table turned on, barely illuminating the room. On the other side of the room was Thea. She was almost unrecognizable except for her hair color. Long dark purple Daemoni horns curled around her hair and head, her eyes were solid blood red, her skin swirled with darkness that seemed to extinguish all the light around her. Her once beautiful face was distorted into the face of a Daemoness from Glen’s nightmares.

Gasping, he took a step back as he exclaimed, “Nihasia?”

“I’m hungry, Glen... come feed us. Your soul is so lovely!” she said with an evil smile, showing her elongated fangs dripping a dark substance that sizzled as it hit the ground, the scent of sulphur and ash choking in its thickness. She beckoned to him with deadly looking claws, her power pulling him towards her against his will.

Shaking his head, he momentarily broke her hold on him and quickly backed out of the room. Closing the door, Glen said an incantation he hoped would keep her there until he could get help. This was bad... this was worse than bad. This was the end of the world bad. Grabbing his phone he shivered as he heard Nihasia cackling and calling to him from behind the door.

As the voice on the other end answered, he said, “Damian, I need you at Thea’s house. NOW! Nihasia has emerged, fully, tried to consume my soul, emerged.”

“Darius and I will be there momentarily.”

As Glen was hanging up, Darius and Damian appeared in the hall. “Is anyone else in the house?” Darius asked.

“No.”

“Don’t let anyone else in, if she consumes a single human soul her father’s curse will fall to her.”

“This is so bad. How did this happen?” Glen asked as he wrung his hands.

“All day she’s been struggling with all the different personalities from her specialized training,” Damian explained as they all heard evil laughter reverberate through the house.

“Thea has been sleeping a lot lately because of her headaches. Isn’t Innara fond of using dreams to communicate?” Glen asked.

Darius nodded. “She is indeed. We’ve all known Innara has been plotting to free Mordecai. The question was always why attack using an Ahriman. That doesn’t get her what she truly needs. I feared it was to cause a rift between us and in particular between the two of you,” Darius explained to Damian.

“That was my fear as well. The Ahriman weakened Theanna allowing Innara to access her mind and even free Nihasia. Drama has always been part of our relationship. She used that to her advantage,” Damian concluded. “She needs to feed before she can free Mordecai. That can’t happen.”

Glen looked at them worriedly. “What can we do to save her and bring back Theanna?”

“Stay outside and make sure no one enters this house, Glen. Damian and I have to do this. No matter what you see or hear, DO NOT RE-ENTER THIS HOUSE. As Nihasia fights she’ll want souls to make her stronger.”

“Samyael, come forth!” Damian commanded. As Sam appeared he instructed, “Help Glen. I sense humans approaching. They MUST NOT enter this house,” Damian ordered to which Sam nodded and guided Glen outside.

“Darius, I know we’ve rarely agreed on anything regarding Theanna but we must be united in our powers and not let her use our history against us. Nihasia has always proved herself to be very powerful and cunning and not one to be trifled with.”

“Agreed. We need to follow each other’s cues. We know what needs to be done so let’s do it.” Taking a deep breath, he opened the door to her room and walked in.

With a flick of Damian’s hand he turned on the lights in the room, causing Nihasia to hiss at them. “My Zoqa, you’ve changed,” he smirked.

“Dnirya... you came with Darius, our grandfather? Are you so weak?” she hissed with derision. “Mordecai calls to us. Shall we set him free?”

“Nihasia, it hasn’t been nearly long enough. I must say there’s no pleasure in seeing you. Why don’t you just return to your hole and release Theanna?” Darius suggested.

“No wonder Nira abandoned you and your corporation. She saw the truth for herself. At least she was smart about something,” Nihasia spat.

“I didn’t think Innara would be so stupid as to free you. You’re stronger than her, why do you think she needs Mordecai? I bet she thinks that with him she can control you and thus make the world how she wants, not how tou want,” Darius mused matter-of-factly.

Nihasia squinted her eyes at him with a sneer. “No one controls us!”

“Zoqa, think about it. Why else would Innara push you to free him? Mordecai wants to destroy you by using your powers to destroy everything you love.”

“It only matters to Theanna and she’s weak. A pitiful slave Daemoni managed to nearly destroy her. That’s why I was freed. Innara wants us to be strong. Mordecai is her reward for freeing me. Enough of this! We're hungry!”

Nihasia hissed as she approached them. She used her powers to pin them to the wall as she approached Darius. “Your soul, grandfather, shall we taste what an immortal soul is like?” she asked as her tongue licked his cheek, scorching the skin.

“Theanna wouldn’t hurt me.” Darius tried to break her hold on him. Suddenly it was no longer the Daemoness in front of him but rather Nira, looking beautiful and alive, with her long white blonde hair and violet eyes. She was wearing a white sundress just like the last time he’d seen her alive. “Nira...”

“Why did you abandon us, father? Why didn’t you stop us from getting killed? You could’ve had grandmother bring us back to life,” Nira accused, her eyes flashing angrily.

“It’d been too long. You’d passed on,” Darius tried to explain as guilt and pain filled his heart.

“You wanted to keep Theanna from us, didn’t you? This way you could control her and use her powers how you saw fit,” Nira spat at him.

“Darius! Snap out of it!” Darius heard as he realized Nihasia was feeding off of his emotions, allowing herself to get stronger by playing off his past guilt.

Suddenly Nira was gone and Nihasia was back, laughing psychotically. “Ah, so delicious! Such helpless power!”

“Enough!” Damian commanded as he managed to break free from her hold. “Theanna, I command you forth. Nihasia tires me.”

Nihasia laughed. “You dare to command us, Dnirya?” She turned to him, her hand encompassing Damian’s throat, droplets of blood forming where her claws dug in. “You’ve no power over us. Your ‘love’ has made you pitiful and weak. Ikisat will fall and you’ll simply be a lower Daemoni who we might consider allowing in our court.”

Damian didn’t allow her manipulations to deter him from their plan. He had to save his Theanna once and for all. Her full attention was now on him, as he’d hoped it would be. Capturing Darius’ eyes, he rasped out, “Now!”

Darius closed his eyes, accessed his powers and began an incantation in a very old language. As he did so, a powerful orb formed in front of him, appearing yellow in color as if it were the sun itself.

“You betray us, Damian? You think Theanna cares for you? For either of you? She doesn’t love you. She despises you and your weakness. How could she truly love someone so hideous in appearance? Let her remain gone and continue to be the mate of Nihasia. Together we could rule all of hell and earth. We’d never worry about humans again. We could have feasts of souls. Our power would be immeasurable.”

“While tempting, I cannot let you be free,” Damian stated as he blasted her with his power, pushing her towards the orb. “You’re only one part of my Theanna. She’s beautiful and kind. She’d never free Mordecai or allow Innara to succeed. It’s time for you to be gone permanently, Nihasia!”

“No!” she screamed as every window exploded and the walls shook, causing those outside to duck for cover. The power she emitted caused plants to wilt, as burn marks started to form on the walls. Anger poured from her as she suddenly flew at Damian, her claws elongated as she dug them into his face causing his black blood to pour out. “We shall devour you bit by bit.”

As Nihasia tore at his face, Damian, his mind on only what he had to do, ignored the pain and continued to move towards the orb, pushing her closer and closer. He knew it could kill him but that didn’t matter. It was their only option to help his mate.

“Theanna, hear me. I’m sorry, my love.” With that admission, he pushed them both into the orb causing it to explode forth in a massive magical explosion that threw Darius to the ground unconscious and destroyed what remained of Thea’s home, leaving only a shell of the building left.

Outside, Glen, Sam, Kira, and Keyx were thrown to the ground as the blast wave hit them and dissipated before causing any further damage. Quickly standing back up, Glen tried to run inside as a horrid smell of sulfur mixed with smoke poured out of the second floor. “Thea!”

Sam grabbed him and yelled, “No! Don’t go inside! If you do and Nihasia consumes your soul we’ll lose Theanna forever. Let me go check. None of you enter or all could be lost. Do you understand?”

They all nodded as Sam turned and went inside the house, the front door falling off of its hinges as he opened it. Leaning the door against a wall, he made his way inside. Nothing had been spared. Decor was burnt and shattered, light bulbs exploded with glass littering everywhere.

Heading up the stairs towards Thea’s bedroom the destruction was even worse. Scorch marks were on every wall as curtains smouldered, some still burning. Photos that lined the walls were completely destroyed. Once he finally made it to the remains of the bedroom, he entered to find no sign of Damian or Nihasia. Seeing Darius unconscious as he laid on the ground, he ran to him as he exclaimed, “Darius!”

Suddenly a bright light filled the room as the elusive Gaia appeared and immediately went to her son’s side. “Daemoni,” she greeted as she checked on her son.

“Goddess,” Sam acknowledged.

“He’s alive, though drained,” Gaia stated with relief.

“Do you know what happened to Damian or Theanna?” Sam asked worriedly.

“They aren’t in this realm. They are in-between. Helen come forth,” she commanded, bringing forth a very worried looking Helen. “Take Darius home, let him rest. Samyael, stay here and protect those that Theanna cares for. I have a meeting with Lucifer. Innara’s games must end!”

“Do you think Theanna still lives?” Helen asked worriedly.

“She does. I would know if she didn’t. She and Damian are together. When they’ve healed, they’ll return and all these dramatics will come to an end!”