Sell you a Bridge chapter 288

June 14th 2016 The Street of Gods 4:00 PM EDT

I  expected stepping through the door of the temple to be some big change,  like the library had been, some kind of shift in the world, but really,  I just stepped into a dank stone building. Granted, the place was lit  with creepy dull green torches, but aside from that and the weird  jumping shadows it was exactly what it looked like from the  outside...except the huge pit of boiling liquid darkness in the middle  of the room. That was definitely unexpected, as were the two forms  dangling over it by long iron chains.

Kit looked different  than the last time I'd seen her. The red skin and horns were there, but  she'd grown into them. The stone in her forehead had vanished,  presumably completely integrated into her after so many years. She  looked older too, taller and with more muscle. The guy hanging next to  her must have been her boyfriend, his skin was a darker red, closer to  crimson, and his hair was white. They were both unconscious, but  breathing as they hung there. Breathing, but not in great shape. I could  see cuts and bruises all over both of them, and their clothes were  shredded. They'd been beaten pretty severely.

I felt frost  begin to gather around me and my eyes blazed up green as my ghostly  nature began to seethe. I'd gotten this effect before, but it wasn't  nearly this extreme, apparently becoming a god had given more than just  my combat strength a bump. I'd been testing that in the Outer Body state  when I trained my domain and I was quite a bit more powerful, but I  hadn't realized the rest of my powers got the tune up too. That was  something I'd have to look into training up...after I unleashed it on  the smug fucker sitting on the dark stone throne in the back of the  room.

Neron looked...like an arrogant asshole. He was  big...like, seven feet tall at least, though it was hard to tell with  him sitting. Sculpted symmetrical features that looked too polished to  be real, and long platinum blonde hair. His eyes were white, like all  the way through, but despite the lack of pupil or iris they still seemed  to project an impression of malice and mockery, especially paired with  the grin pulling back pale lips from razor sharp sharklike teeth. His  chest and shoulders were broad to the point of near freakishness, as  were his arms, but managed to remain just a hair shy of grotesque,  somehow pulling together into an imposing package that screamed angelic  handsomeness.

I hated him. Literally on sight. I could  feel my eyes burning with their otherworldy green glow in a way I'd  never been able to actually detect before, and the blood in my veins was  like a riot of freezing sleet, roiling and crashing around inside me to  the beat of my heart, like war drums driving a winter storm. I reached  down, through my armor, drew my gun, and emptied the entire thing right  into that smug fuckers head. The grouping was tight, my ninja accuracy  and my enhanced senses working together to make the shots dead center in  his skull.

His head jerked back with the impact as the  shots rang out, and I kept pulling the trigger until it clicked empty.  He sat there, head lolled back and still as a corpse, and I rolled my  eyes. "Belle already did the whole 'surprise I'm alive thing' don't be  derivative. I know you aren't dead, and I'm not even close to done with  your ass. So sit the fuck up and tell me why I'm here, before I come  over there and find a way to kill you for real." My voice was cold and  harsh, without an ounce of forgiveness in it, and I felt my friends  shift slightly around me. They'd never heard me like that.

I'd  never heard me like that either. I was pissed. Not just a little angry  either, like actual cold rage like I'd never felt before. I felt like  the angel of death, like an instrument of vengeance that needed to  destroy everything around me. If I was anyone else I might not have  understood it, or I might have been able to tell myself it was natural.  But I wasn't. I felt the lie in that thought. My becoming a god had  supercharged a great many things about me. This was what happened when  the sin of wrath met ghostly obsession, and it wasn't getting any  dimmer.

I felt strong though, stronger than I'd ever been.  It was easy to see now why I'd been so focused on finding Kit. Because  the stronger I got, the stronger my ghost half became. Ghosts were  creatures of drive and stubborn implacability. Will that transcended  even death, and I'd been aimed wholeheartedly at finding Kit. My will  could be appeased, could be subverted or distracted, but it couldn't be  denied. Now that I was here though, I had a new will, a new purpose. I  wanted to fucking HURT Neron. I wanted it bad.

Not just  because he'd injured my cousin, shed blood of my blood, though that was  there. But because he'd made this my fault. He wanted me, he hurt Kit to  get to me, and if I'd come earlier she would be fine. He'd made me  complicit in this. My ghost half wanted blood, and my devil half howled  in answer. I was a god now, but I was still a ghost-devil, still equal  parts each. I was just a god too, as little sense as that made, and that  only made the drive for retribution I felt even stronger, even more  terrible.

Neron gave an annoyed huff and leaned forward,  white eyes locking with my green ones. "Boo." He grinned at me, all  sharp teeth and malice. "No? Not even a chuckle? Pity. Oh well, to  business then. You're a bit late, so I might have gotten bored and  played with your cousin a bit. Nothing too strenuous mind you, she's  still alive...for now. Still, she was fairly boring. She barely even  screamed. Just whimpered for a most of it. When I was working on her at  least. She screamed plenty when it was the boy's turn."

I  was pretty much shaking with rage at this point, but I forced myself to  calm down. This was an obvious show, and I needed to know what for. I  could crack open Neron's chest and claw out his still beating heart  after I figured out the reason for all this. I forced myself to calm,  suppressing the whirling storm of ice and hate in my veins enough for my  voice to come out merely coldly furious. "Yes, you're evil, you kick  puppies and drink orange juice after brushing your teeth, we fucking get  it. Maybe you can stop jerking me around and tell me what the fuck you  want. I'm not going to attack you for whatever reason you're trying to  bait me into, so just fucking spit it out."

Neron grinned  wider. "Oh I like you. See, I told him it wouldn't be that easy. He was  sure you would go ballistic when you saw her. I told him that months  away in another plane would be enough to change you, but he's never been  one for adaptability. He's a scary old bastard, don't get me wrong, but  he's slow to change and expects the same of others. I'm  more...mercurial. Very well then, since we can't do this his way, we'll  do it mine. I've been tasked with retrieving you, my employer wants you  delivered to him directly, preferably in a vulnerable state."

I  blinked. That had been...easy. "Ok. That seemed like it was a bit more  up front than your reputation would suggest. I know lies, and you didn't  tell one just now. That was all true, or you believe it was." Either  that or he was such a good liar I couldn't read him, but I didn't think  so. I recognized lies for what they were. I knew them in my bones. He'd  been telling the truth and I had no clue why.

"Lies?" He  asked jovially. "Why would I need to lie? I set the trap here with  failure as a potential outcome. I don't need to lie to you. You don't  have any recourse here. You don't see it yet, but you WILL do as I  require. Even if you don't want to, the fact remains that you'll be  going through that portal, and when you do, you're going to be in a  vulnerable state. Whether that's from uncertainty at your fate or from  worry about your little friends...well that's more open to  interpretation, now isn't it?"

I glanced back, confirming  the others were behind the shield, ready to react if he tried to attack  us. I wasn't liking this scenario, not a bit. Something was happening  here that I didn't understand. Since he was being so up front though, I  figured I might as well ask. "What exactly is that portal? Where does it  go? And who is HE. You keep mentioning your employer, but I don't know  who the hell he's supposed to be. Maybe you could fill me in on whats  happening, since you're such a chatty cathy."

Massive  shoulders shrugged carelessly. "I suppose I can do that." He said, his  voice carefree. "The portal leads to a dark mirror, a broken, twisted  version of this world. It isn't anything special on its own, just one of  many, but it exists within a plane that belongs to the one I serve." I  caught a twinge at that, a flash of prideful fury at that term. Serve.  Neron wasn't lying, he did serve, but he didn't do it well, and he  didn't do it happily. Whatever he was working for scared him deeply, but  for all his faults Neron wasn't a coward. He wanted out.

I  tried to think of how I could use that, but I had to keep him talking  to do it. "Why me? Like sure, my powers are interesting, my armor is  cool and I'm part ghost, but I'm nothing special in the grand scheme of  things, nothing better than any of the powerful people here. Your boss  could find a thousand people like me if he wanted to, why go to all this  trouble when he's never even met me?" That last bit was bait. However  he reacted would tell me something, and if he lied I would hear the  truth beneath it.

That seemed to set him off into gales of  laughter. "Stupid boy. A thousand like you? There isn't anyone like  you. We know you're more than just some armor or a ghostly form. He's  been waiting for you for a long, long time. Delirium wanted to hide you,  to keep you from him, but too bad for her you came here on your own,  delivering yourself into his jaws. He lurks beyond the portal, boy,  patient and hungry. But he isn't heartless. He's willing to make a deal  with you, to spare those you love. In exchange for your cooperation.  A...gesture of goodwill, for the working relationship you're soon to  have."

None of that sounded good to me, or like anything I  would trust. He wasn't lying, but he didn't have to be. Spare was a  pretty broad term, plus the boss wasn't talking, Neron was. Just because  Neron believed it didn't make it so. "I don't make deals with faceless  entities I've never met or heard of. I'll need a name for your boss if  you want me to go any further in this negotiation." As I said that, I  created and illusion, using my domain to make a copy of me who was  invisible and intangible as my ghost form often was, slowly easing it  around to the side of the portal.

Neron didn't notice,  which wasn't surprising, an illusory invisible intangible image was  basically nothing. It had no presence, gave no signs to detect. Neron  was a bit busy gloating anyway. I saw his eyes burn with a pale, sickly  light as he basked in inflicting the fear he felt on someone else. "Who?  Oh that's simple boy. He is the eater of worlds, the destroyer and the  unmaker, the Dragon who waits in the darkness. You stand in the temple  of the overlord of the dark multiverse. You have been chosen by the Bat  God. Barbatos."