All characters are 18 years old. Here it is, number 100, I can't believe I've written that much smut, LOL. I hope you enjoy this one. I have had questions since I finished Iron Rain and spread out to all the other story lines. Is Nick Shaw going to be in every story? Is there one continuous plot? When the hell are you going to finish what you started?!
So to answer your burning questions here we go. Nick was the first real major character I created and I have a fondness for him and his story. The same is true with most of the major and minor players I have spat out over the last thirteen years. He is kind of the spine that supports my multiverse. Since Jon has done a little tampering here and there not all the stories sync up exactly for a very good reason. I look at each story as a kind of ripple from the main events of Iron Rain. Some are close while others are far different.
I am going to go back after I finish Louis' story and cap off the others like possession and a brief moment. I think 'spell' may go as far as ten parts, but no less than nine I think. Once the others are done I am going to move forward with Evil Bitch and tie all the stories together in an epic climax of the entire thing. After that... I have no clue. So here for your reading pleasure is part seven.
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Demogorgan: Wizard Class Hacker
Nishi Oku: Japanese Akhkharu [spy/assassin]
Surisa Mee Chang: The Elegant Egotist / Blue Eyed Thai
Wizard Class Hacker: Elite programmer specializing in infiltration, data theft and sabotage
[Note: There are perhaps a handful of freelance WCH left outside prison cells or working for a government agency. With the arrival of A.I., countermeasures and security is at an all-time high.]
Time of the Sword Wind:
I made a deal with a devil. I was willing to do whatever it took to protect my family. The entity I had been warned about had ensnared me and threatened those I loved most. It was an insidious thing and I blamed it for the disappearance of Jon Masters. I knew I was a piece on some grand chess board but the manipulations before this had been preparing me for something. But this, this was just a plain old slap in the face. Do what I demand or your loved ones will perish. It was plain and simple. How could I possibly say no? The dark pharaoh smiled when I nodded and agreed to its demands.
"Good, I knew you'd see things my way," it purred. "Let's get things started."
I had gotten Gabrielle pregnant and that had upset the powers that be. I was supposed to impregnate at least one other woman so that it would even things out. I was prepared to leave the cavern when the demon god shook its head. I was confused but not for long. Nyarlathotep produced something gleaming and glittering from a pocket. He snatched my right wrist and slapped the bracelet on me.
"This will take you where you can spread your seed and balance out what you've thrown into chaos."
"Does Yog-Sothoth know what you are doing," I asked and the demon nodded and smiled.
"We both serve the sultan. Our duties are different but in the end its will shall become manifest."
I held up my hand and stared at the device attached to my wrist. The metal gleamed like burnished silver but around the thinnest parts it appeared nearly transparent. It was adorned with sparkling gems of various size, cut and color. My time studying gem cutting I was able to recognize some of the stones but others defied logic and everything I knew of minerology. I heard the dark pharaoh mutter something and the stones blazed to life.
I squeezed my eyes shut against the unrelenting brilliance. When it faded I felt a cool breeze on my face. I opened my eyes and recognized my surroundings instantly. I was standing on the back lawn of the Hyde-White Institute. I had spent almost a year here after my return from the Black Cathedral. I had been having non-stop nightmares and ended up here. It had also been my first encounters with the entity known as Yog-Sothoth. My mind was punishing me for the deaths of my companions and my inability to save them from Yig and his children. The virulence of the nightmares had driven me here. It was a safe place to seek treatment and retain some sense of privacy. It was a kind of celebrity hideaway and I remembered two particular drama queens that had been staying at the same time.
"I wonder whatever happened to Megan and Milena? They both seemed in a pretty bad way when they were here."
Megan's film career had taken a serious nose dive and poor Milena had been struggling with her adult modelling business. As I pondered other people's lives I walked to my favorite part of the institute, the hedge maze. The center of the maze held a secret garden. I walked the shadowed paths of the maze as I remembered the one time my mom had visited me here. I had taken her down these very same paths to show her the garden. The walls were still overgrown but the door remained accessible. I opened the door and peered inside. The checkerboard stonework held the very same arrangement of flowers, how strange. It was as if time had stood still since I had departed. I stepped in and walked towards the center of the garden.
The white marble of the statue shone bright in the summer sun. I walked around it as I had so many times in the past. It was a variation of the St. George and the Dragon theme. Here stood St. Michael triumphant with long spear in hand pinning Lucifer to the ground. Brothers pitted against each other but few knew the story behind the second war in heaven. It came about because Lucifer had lost faith in his creator. How could god be all knowing and fail to be aware of the presence of the Nameless? It had eaten away at the highest angel until he snapped. That and the fact that some of their own went over to the side of the enemy. It had been the 'First' who had been sealed away within a tome of magic that was at the core of Lucifer's own fall.
I looked at the expression on Lucifer's face and it struck me how placid and yielding it was. I looked up at Michael and was curious, as I always was, with his look of anguish. A gal in Cambodia had once explained to me the role of Master and slave in a sensual relationship. She had said...
'There can be no victory without surrender. The true power in a Master-slave relationship is in the hands of the slave. For without their submission there can be no conqueror.'
Those words and the statue complimented each other perfectly. Lucifer had yielded to his brother so that his sibling could retain his power and status among the Watchers. Was my own decision to submit to Nyarlathotep any different? I wanted only to protect and if it meant accepting another's will, so be it. I heard the creak of the garden's door behind me. When I turned and saw who it was I wanted to scream.
"Mom, what the hell are you doing here," I cried out.
"I have no idea," she said. "I'm not dreaming am I?"
"No, I don't think so," I said angry now.
"Do you know why I am here? Louis, so many secrets, tell me what the hell is going on!"
"It is a long story," I said. "I have kept secrets to protect you."
"I know that, but there is a time when keeping things from me does more harm than good."
She was right of course. I took her over to the concrete and wooden bench to sit down so I could tell her everything. I hadn't done this since I had shared with Gabrielle. I stared at my feet just as l had when I was a kid and broken a window or something like that. I took a deep breath and launched into everything that had happened since Lily and I found the extra book in the rare book section. I didn't stop until I reached what had occurred in Bob's basement. I held nothing back, especially the dreams I had shared with her, sis and Mara.
"So you've been fucking me in my dreams," she replied.
"That's your response to all of that," I asked. "Me fucking you in your dreams..."
"Louis, I am your mother, it is bad enough you've been violating your sister but... all three of us?"
"I thought of them as just dreams," I said. "I guess I was just lying to myself."
"I should be upset," Mom told me. "I should be angry at the violation."
"You keep saying should be," I said watching her closely.
