Chapter 17


Swimming around in Frank's memories were not quite the interesting escapade I had first anticipated them to be. He seemed to take delight in showing me some of the more horrifying and despicable moments of his life, and I was still struggling with calling up memories of moments I hadn't experienced first hand. More often than not I found myself frustratedly wallowing in the dark recesses of his mind, falling sullenly to the floor as I surfaced to hear him chuckling gleefully at my failure.

"Y'know this isn't supposed to be so amusing. And you're not helping, my failing might be funny to you, but it gets us nowhere."

"You're problem, Love, is that you're trying too hard. You said yourself it happened with Lucas because you weren't trying to force it, pick something, let it come to you more naturally. Trust you have the power and stop trying to bulldoze your way in or I'm just going to keep showing some of my very 'best' memories. Now won't that be fun."

"You're sick, you know that." I stood up again and brushed down my clothes. I was getting rather tired of ending up on the floor each time I managed to surface from the sucking pull of memories. There had to be a better way to do this.

I sat down in one of the stone chairs and rubbed my forehead, easing out the knots I could feel forming and the headache that threatened to overcome me. While I knew this was the only way I was going to learn how to manage this new power, the only way we were ever going to succeed, I was not enthusiastic for yet another trip down memory lane with Frank.

"Demon, Love, or had you forgotten. And you're no saint yourself now, are you?"

"Ha, nothing I've done will ever compare to you."

"Now that is something we can agree on. It's how we're made, Love, it's what we're here to do, our very purpose in life. Don't go getting all preachy on me now or I might start to think this whole Revelator business is going to your head."

"Not preachy, I understand that much. But all these truths that have been revealed so far, they've certainly made me think, made me question all of it. My whole life up to now was a lie, it's a rather sobering, not to mention depressing thought"

"The prophecy was made for a reason, Rayne," Lucas said, sitting back from the papers and files he'd finally given up on trying to glean any more information from. "It was foretold that a time would come when big changes would be needed in Hell for it to continue to function as intended. That time is now, corruption has leached in through all the red-tape, and corruption among those that hold the power can't be allowed to continue. It was inevitable this would happen at some point, it was just a question of when. So a solution was formulated, a fail safe if you like, and that is us."

"And oh how we wish it wasn't," I muttered with a sigh.

It could have been anyone, any other demon in Hell could have been saddled with this burden, why had it been me? Life had been simple, I'd even enjoyed it to a certain extent...but I'd always felt different hadn't I? Something made me not quite fit in with the Hybrid breed, something was off and this was why. It could have been anyone, but it was decided upon my birth, the mix-breed daughter of Lucifer and a Saint, that it would be me and there was nothing I could have done to change things.

Acceptance was still hard, even after the Requiem proved that everything the prophecy foretold of was true. Hell's most reluctant saviour, that was me.

One idea had struck me as I indulged in my moment of self-pity. It probably wouldn't help me out with the power much, but if it could stop me from having to pick myself up off of the floor it would be a start.

"Okay, one more try before this completely melts my brain."

Frank held out one bony hand, his talons clacking against each other as he waited for me to take it, but I shook my head.

"I want to try something else a little different. I figure Lucifer, or any of the other Powers are hardly going to just let me go up and touch them, are they? It might be how I discovered this power worked, but it can't be the only way to make it work, right? You yourself said it was like an extension of my aura manipulation power, and I could make that work without having to physically touch someone. I want to see if I can make this work the same way."

"Well it's nice to see you thinking on your feet for a change, Love."

The backhanded comment made me roll my eyes, but a smile crept back to my lips, he wouldn't be Frank if he wasn't insulting me even as he expressed pleasure in something I had done, somehow it kept me grounded and was a large part of the reason I'd wanted to keep him around – that and the fact that there were no other pureblood demons around I could count on to take the aspect of the Triangle.

And now I had to dive back into that demon's head yet again. If it bothered him, or even if it had bothered Lucas when he was acting as my guinea pig for that matter, neither of them let it show. But it did feel rather voyeuristic to keep diving around inside their heads, I knew for certain I wouldn't have appreciated being on the receiving end of such a power. However as the saying went 'necessity is the mother of invention' they realised as much and were willing to help me figure out new ways to harness and gain control of this power. Besides, it was the least they could do after they'd literally killed me.

Not touching flesh slowed the process down quite considerably. The sucking pull was not nearly as strong and I had to search for a way in. I was familiar with the process in theory, but this was different. I couldn't seek out an aura for my connection, I didn't want to just connect with his mind I needed to sink fully inside it. With much more concentration than I had the energy to muster I sought out a hole in his psychic defences, allow the feel of this new power I had started to become accustomed to feel its way around; it knew what it wanted to find, so I had to trust that it would without battering a hole through which I could reach.

Eventually I felt something. Allowing the power to feel around without too much urgency had taken great self-control on my part and in the end it paid off, I felt a jolt, a spike of warmth as it found a crack through which it could seep. Then I felt as if I were spiralling down into the blackness once again. Physical touch was definitely quicker, there were no barriers to find a way through, but it was comforting to know that I could achieve the desired result remotely too, it would be sure to save us some trouble.

The memory coalesced around me, around us, and I found myself experiencing a feeling of deja-vu. Threadbare carpet, polished dark wooden surfaces, bottles and glasses gleaming, clinking, filled with amber coloured liquids – among many others, and there was me, busying myself behind the bar.

Oh no, not this, not here. I don't want to relive this moment.

If there was ever more incentive to make Frank's memories change this was it. I knew what was coming next and I did not want look on through his eyes as we destroyed Frances' pub attacking each other. I held a knife to Frank's throat at one point, I'm not sure I could stand to look through his eyes and watch myself in that moment. He picked that memory on purpose, I was sure of it.

I wanted to close my eyes, but it wouldn't work like that. I wasn't anything more than a presence inside Frank's head, I had no physical body beyond that in the memory I was possessing, and that body wasn't mine, it wasn't even in the present, I could only follow the actions that Frank had taken on that night. Unless I could drag us away to another moment in time I wouldn't have a choice in what I saw.

Think of something else, make him see another part of his life. The words rolled around in whatever piece of consciousness connected with Frank's memories, but I couldn't see anything other than the inside of that pub.

"No, don't you snap at me Frank, don't you dare. Because, you know what, you're right, it is nothing to do with me. I don't want to know and I don't care. I just want you gone, now." I heard myself say, but at the same time I could hear Frank muttering. Not human Frank whose eyes we were looking through, but Frank the Whisperer living up to his name. He was possessing the human in this memory and I could hear the muttering of suggestions that he was planting into human Frank's head. It occurred to me then how similar this power of his was to my own – it seemed we were all connected through our powers, each one reflected the other, offering small aspects of this new power I now possessed. It made sense in when looking at the big picture, why we all fit together, why it had been us that were chosen. And it reminded me of how I had to make this work.

Quiet suggestions, whisperings in the back of his mind, that lingering little voice that speaks to you and drags up memories from the depths of your mind you thought long forgotten, that's what I needed to be. I couldn't manage to get thoughts of Frances and Alan out of my head, their ghosts were still haunting my memory, their needless deaths one of a few nightmares that assaulted me as I tried to sleep – in a way I was thankful my body seemed able to survive on much less rest that it once needed. And so I kept them in my thoughts, hoping instead to see the first time that Frank came into contact with the pub owning couple. When had Frank the demon first come to that village?

With some jerky, juddering motion, like video footage that's been badly cut and edited back together, the scene shifted. We moved away from the current scene just as I winced seeing the pair of our bodies crash through the large, round topped table. Frances would be running down those stairs and into the bar at any moment to see what all the commotion had been about, only I wouldn't see any more of it, but I could see Frances.

She was looking harried, serving drinks behind the bar, while I spied Alan out of the corner of my eye, cleaning glasses off of the busy tables. A jolt of guilt hit me like a tonne of bricks upon seeing his face again, walking around, living, doing his job...he'd just been doing his job... I'm so sorry, I thought to myself, unable to cast his stricken face from my vision. His had been a senseless death, and one I could never forgive myself for.

The image before Frank's eyes flickered some more, I was not focussing hard enough. It was too difficult to see, to be reminded of what I had so needlessly taken. Frances meant little to me, I felt no remorse for her death, I felt I could justify it in a somewhat warped and twisted manner. But Alan had been senseless, I should have handled it so much better, but I'd been spiralling out of control and had acted rashly. Too rashly, and now they were both dead.

I didn't want to see them any more, couldn't stand to stay stuck in that memory any longer, so I wrenched my consciousness out of Frank's head, slumping back into my chair and blinking away the sting of tears that prickled in my eyes.

"Well that was different, Love," Frank said in a low growl.

"It worked?"

I nodded at Lucas' question. "Yeah, I managed to change the memory to something I'd not seen before."

"You didn't see much of it then," Frank added, questioningly as he studied me quizzically.

"I saw enough," I snapped, my tone too short and frustrated for them to believe that nothing was wrong with me. "Don't ask," I added, looking mostly at Lucas, "I'm tired and drained from all of this swimming around in people's heads, I need a break for a while."

"I thought you were worried about Malick?"

"I am, but if I don't get some rest I'm going to self-destruct. Jesse won't wake up until I give him something to reverse the effects of that sleeping draught, so I guess I can rely on you two to make sure Malick doesn't slaughter us all while we sleep?"

"We still need to find out how to show Jesse what we know, convince him to join us again."

"I know, Lucas, I know. But I can't do anything right now, I'm too exhausted. I've figured out a lot already, I'll get it tomorrow, I'm sure I will. But I really need to sleep so, excuse me."

I didn't wait for another reply from either of them as I made my way through to the sleeping quarters, heading for the rooms at the very end of the corridor. Though I could hear them talking behind me when they thought I was just out of earshot.

"Is she okay?" Lucas asked.

"I think I made a bad choice of memory, brought up a few 'issues'. I got a strange feeling while she was in my head, some emotion that didn't feel like mine. Let her sleep, she'll get over it, whatever it is, and we'll start again. You hold the fort here, I'm going to scout around, see if there's any more news to be found."

I should have known he would go, he could never seem to stay still and in one place for too long, but it made me nervous to know that there was only Lucas awake and looking over our hideout. I lay down on one of the stone beds, made slightly softer with several blankets I have no doubt Lucas managed to smuggle from somewhere, and stared up at the darkness above me for some time. Physically drained and exhausted I still found myself to nervous to relax, and I lay there for at least an hour before an anxious and restless sleep finally dragged me under.

Bạn đang đọc truyện trên: AzTruyen.Top