The glancing blow slices the moving appendage as the ever-alert Devlin wheels around to face his enemy. An insane leer is pasted on his angelic face, his mouth dripping the girl’s bluish blood. The sociopath’s eyes blaze violet, his pupils, a scarlet red.

Welcome, Father. We’ve been expecting you.

The voice—telepathic. Very deep, almost hypnotic.

Father?

As the being leaps toward Jacob, the twin slips inside the nexus.

The crimson ceiling instantly brightens, the beating wings of the Seraph slowing to a crawl.

Pushing forward through waves of energy, the white-haired twin meets the attacking humanoid with his raised sword, this time aiming for the mutant’s exposed head—

—ignoring the female transhuman, who is suddenly racing at him at ungodly speed.

Lilith!

The Succubus embeds her fingernails into the flesh of his back, while her son claws at Jacob’s forearm, tearing tendons and muscle, forcing the twin to relinquish his weapon.

Jacob swoons, the toxin adhered to Lilith’s fingernails quickly attacking his bloodstream.

The paralyzed twin collapses in the ankle-deep mire.

Lilith scans the swampy shoreline, her predatory senses sweeping the area. ‘Where’s the other twin? Do you see him?’

‘No. And I did not sense him enter the nexus.’

‘Hmm. Perhaps he’s more cunning than his brother.’ She gazes at Jacob, then whispers in his ear, ‘I’ve missed you, soul mate.’

Devlin looks down the beach to the canyon walls. ‘We’re vulnerable here. Let’s return to the portal with this one. The other twin is sure to follow.’

He manipulates his injured wing, testing it. Satisfied, he allows his mother to wrap her arms around his neck, then he bends down and picks up Jacob, as if the twin were a small child.

Flapping his mighty wings, the Seraph rises away from the ground, heading north.

Dominique waits another five minutes before coming out from hiding. She is terrified and angry and suddenly all alone.

Just stay calm and think. She picks up Jacob’s sword, carrying the heavy weapon in both hands.

The shackled women cry out to her in animal-like grunts, motioning to their chains.

One of the females, a brown-skinned transhuman with claw-mark scars striping her breasts and back, opens her mouth, showing Dominique that she has no tongue.

Dominique points to the north. ‘Do you know where they took my son?’

The female nods, pointing inland. Looming in the distance is an ominous mountain, its craggy summit backlit by the subterranean world’s fiery scarlet roof.

‘If I free you, will you take me there?’

The abused female nods.

Dominique examines the steel shackle around her neck.

A moderate chop with the sword’s ultratech edge and the chain is broken.

It takes Dominique another ten minutes to free the remaining prisoners.

40

There are two colors in the subterranean world, both appearing in varying shades.