Clark Street was like entering another dimension. A few steps back, the city was all light and cars and people. Then you took a turn - and there was a dark, silent strip of asphalt between two lines of houses.
Lifeless.
Devon made the taxi driver stop.
"That's where you get out, Dani," she said. "If you really want to."
"I do... but where on Clark Street should I wait for him? He gave no specific address."
"Sixx?" Devon laughed. "You just get out and wait. Take a little walk if you feel like it. He'll find you. He's good at it."
"No doubt," Dani stepped out of the car. Devon told the driver to wait and followed him out.
"Not a very pleasant place, huh?" she looked about and sighed. "While 'Whisky' was still open, it was much livelier. He used to live here, you know?"
"Nikki?"
"Yep. With Vince and Tommy. Mick refused. He didn't even come over all that often." She sighed again. "Take care, Dani. I'd better go. I have plans for the evening. Only..." she reached into her pocket and handed him a few crumpled bills.
"Devon..."
"It's ten minutes to three. You got ten minutes, Dani. If you change your mind, just turn around this corner and catch a taxi. Back to Franklin Plaza. I'll check you out tomorrow."
"I don't think so."
"Whatever. Just take the fuckin' money."
He took it. When she was already in the car, he called after her:
"Devon!"
"Yes, babe?" she poked her head out of the car window.
"The house... the one that Nikki used to live in - what number is it? I'd take a look..."
Devon gave a smile that was just a tad sad.
"It was pulled down. Back in 1982. Because of rats, they said."
"Rats?"
"Yes. The place was crawling with them, and then they overtook the street. The house was taken down, but rats are still here. Tough luck." Devon sighed wearily. "Have fun, Dani. And see you tomorrow."
The taxi disappeared around the corner. Dani watched its tail lights dissolve in the dark. Then he turned back to face Clark Street in all of its aftermidnight glory.
How come they don't have a single lantern in the whole street? he thought, taking in the surroundings. Houses were just black shades against slightly less black skies. The light from other streets didn't venture going much farther than the spot Dani was standing in now. Ahead of him, everything was dark. That darkness that always preceded pre-dawn twilight. A tricky kind. It didn't seem blind or stuffy. Not pitch-dark. No, it seemed almost transparent. You thought you could distinguish shapes, outlines... almost see them. And then you would run into something right in front of you that was perfectly invisible, hidden by that deceitful three-o'clock gloom.
How do people walk here after dark? Dani wondered. And almost immediately understood that they probably just didn't. Three AM was not late for LA, but all along the street, not a single window was lit.
Well, Dani thought, trying to cheer himself up, he wasn't going to complain. Not he, not about darkness. He liked it. He wasn't going to be spooked by it. Come on, Dani, this is just your dreamscape!
He only wished he could see anything. Just anything.
He took a few steps forward, moving out of the feeble light, letting the darkness close around him. He thought he could see some clearing far ahead. Maybe it was just the other end of Clark street with the same lightpool as this one. Or, maybe, there was a garbage pile there, and some homeless guy was cooking his late supper over a burning trashcan. A rat, for example.
Noise.
Dani froze, all ears. The noise repeated. And then was joined by another one, from yet another side. Rustle. Soft screech. Jingle.
He had company.
Maybe that was why the guys who lived here didn't come out after dark. Maybe this was a slum. Some gang's domain. Dani backed away towards the light, all of a sudden painfully aware of how small he was.
Rustle. Skrraak. Jinnnk.
Dani wished he still had his claw rings on. Not much, but they'd be at least some small weapon. He looked around helplessly. In the movie he played in, "Cradle Of Fear", the Man, his character, would get cornered in such alleys by a few punks and get out of it alone, alive and unscathed, covered in their blood. He wished he knew how to do it now.
He stepped back into the light.
And the noise broke off. As if somebody turned off the sound. But Dani saw movement out of the corner of his eye. There, in the dark. Movement on the very verge of perception.
He reached into the pocket of his pants, feeling the banknotes Devon had given him. Maybe that was what he should do. Just catch a taxi and let this all go. Just a pretty little nightmare to add to his collection.
Yes.
He turned to leave.
"Running, Dani?"
Dani whipped around, for the first time not just glad, but almost happy to hear Nikki's voice.
Nikki emerged from the shade. Stood just between the darkness and the light, looking at Dani. Half-smiling.
"I'm one minute late, and you're already leaving. You're so impatient Dani."
The corner was just a step away. But it was a little late to take this way out.
"I mean, I don't even allow myself to think that something in this quiet little street could scare you."
"Of course not!" Dani forced out a grin. Bad acting job. Nikki could have been standing there the whole time, watching him squirm, anyway. Dani was practically sure he had.
"Sorry for being late, dude. Had some stuff to do. You going?"
"Sure," Dani crossed the pool of light. Walked up to Nikki. Then sighed and admitted, "But it's so dark here, I don't see a thing."
And the next second a wave of soft, silver light washed over the street. Illuminating it. Revealing old brickwork of the houses. Grey pavement with a web of cracks. Even the smirk on Nikki's face.
The moon.
"Just look at it!" Nikki winked. "Especially for you, Dani!"
Dani looked at him. Then at the street that stretched ahead. There was no-one there. Not a single human being. No punks. No gangsters.
"Let's go," Nikki said.
Dani followed him down the street, trying to keep pace with him. Not too easy a task, Nikki's legs were so much longer, and he didn't give a shit if Dani could keep up or not. But Dani tried his best. He didn't want to be too far from him when the moon hid behind the next cloud.
The noise resumed. Rustling, and crackling, and screeching. Dani looked left, then right, then back, and saw no-one.
"You hear that?"
"Yep."
Great. At least this wasn't yet another hallucination. He was going to ask Nikki what it was, when he saw something dart from one porch to another, little feet going thok-thok-thok on the pavement. A shadow. The size of an average cat. Only it didn't look like a cat. Not in the slightest.
"W-what was that?"
"A rat," Nikki answered nonchalantly. "You got a cigarette?"
"No... a rat?!"
"Yeah. A gutter rat. Never seen one?"
"Never seen such a big one!"
"Well, look while you have a chance."
Dani couldn't help looking around with a morbid kind of curiosity. Now that he knew where to look, he saw these shadows everywhere. Dashing to and fro along the street. Peeping out of cracks in the porches. Glittering little eyes watching them out of strips of blackness between houses. Small beads, shining with cold, inhuman intelligence. Emotionless.
Appraising.
They were invaders on Rat Avenue.
"So big... so many!" Dani quickened his pace. "I begin to believe all those stories about packs of rats eating men alive!"
"Don't believe them. These fuckers here are huge, but even they wouldn't dare to attack a grown man. Even as small as you."
Dani choked down this insult. It was no time to pick on Nikki's choice of words. Maybe later.
"Though they could bring down a little kid when they're a pack," Nikki cleared his throat and spit. "I think it happened here a couple of times. That's why guys here keep their doors closed."
Dani shuddered.
"Why don't they exterminate them?"
"They can't. They're too many to go shooting them. Once they tried poison. It had a totally unexpected effect. That's why they're so big here."
Dani didn't ask any more questions.
"And they're fucking cheeky!" Nikki added with a smirk a few seconds later. "Look at this mutha!"
A huge rat ran out onto the middle of the road. No, it didn't run. It strolled. Strolled across the road, stopped in the middle of it, right in front of them. As if it intended to block their way. When it stood up on its hind legs, it turned out to be Nikki's knee height.
"It's not a rat," Dani involuntarily slowed down. "Someone should invent a title for this species. I'm almost sure it knows what we were talking about."
"Maybe it does. These bastards are smart."
The noise stopped again. No screech, no rustle. All rat races adjourned. But Dani saw their eyes. They were still there. Watching. Waiting.
"You sure they wouldn't... attack?"
"Never lived in the gutters, have you, Dani? At times it gives you more education than all the Lovecrafts, Crowleys and LaVeys of this world, baby. Come on. It's a simple overgrown rat."
They approached it. It didn't move, only its whiskers trembled a little. Dani half expected Nikki to give it a kick. And feared it, because he had an irrational but very strong premonition that then all the other rats would go at them. Rats from all over Clark Street. Hundreds of rats. Thousands. They would be buried under slimey grey bodies and gnawed to the bone by sharp little teeth.
But Nikki didn't do it. Instead he did the strangest thing.
He bent down to the rat and harshly told it:
"Out, bitch!"
The rat squealed. Inched back. Dani could swear it was in horror. It dropped back to all fours and rushed to the closest porch.
Nikki straightened up.
"Why did you stop, Dani? Come on!"
Dani obeyed, but couldn't help looking back after a few steps.
The rat had come back out onto the road. It was sitting on its haunches, there, in the middle, and watching them walk away. Silent. Motionless.
This is not a simple rat, Dani thought. No matter what Sixx says.
He turned away and sped up to catch up with Nikki.
He had expected anything. Doors in the wall. A secret corridor in the cellar of one of the houses. Even a gateway to another world, since it was a night of wonders.
But he hadn't expected Nikki to stop over a sewer hatch.
Somehow he just hadn't.
"Dani, maybe you stop staring and help me with it? It would be nice, you know."
"We.. we're going down there?"
Nikki was squatting, so he had to look up at him. Once in a blue moon. But his half-smile was as derisive as ever.
"You're afraid to get your clean British little ass dirty, huh, Dani?"
Dani squatted beside him.
"Just couldn't believe you guys keep such a great book so deep in shit," he said, helping Nikki move the lid. It was heavy. Abnormally heavy. But then, nothing in this street was normal.
"Well, do you smell shit, Dani?"
Oddly enough, Dani didn't. Nor did he smell the usual mossy dampness. The smell coming out of the hatch was that of smoke. Smoke and something else, something sweet, something that made him almost high.
"No."
"See. You're jumping to conclusions. You see the ladder? Great. Then what are you waiting for?"
"Hosts first," Dani protested with a nervous smile.
"Yeah?" Nikki raised his eyebrow. "And you will close the lid?"
Dani knew he couldn't. Damn. He looked down into the hatch. He didn't see much, but the well seemed deep. Real deep. And there was no water sparkling in the moonlight glow as it should be.
Dani sighed and put his foot on the ladder rung.
"Good boy. Don't miss a rung there. It's a long fall from here, and there's no water down at the bottom."
"Thank you... dude," Dani gave him a sarcastic smile. "You made me feel so much better."
Nikki laughed. His laughter echoed, and the echo went bouncing between the walls, back and forth along the narrow street.
"Go faster."
Dani began climbing down, as cautiously a he could, taking a few moments to find each lower rung and make sure his foot is secure on it. The light was a silver circle above his head. Then a dark silhouette shielded the better part of it. Nikki was going down after him, Dani figured. But that meant...
"If you close the lid... hey, there'll be no light!"
Soft laughter.
"Dani, you're slow, you know that?"
"Lay off."
"How suave. What, you're claustrophobic?"
"Nah ."
"Afraid of darkness?"
"I said lay off. Now that I think of it, that's even cool. I won't have to peer at your arse every time I look up."
More laughter.
"What's so wrong with my... arse?"
"It's yours."
Snicker.
"Well, thank your lucky star, Dani. The arse is out of sight."
CLANNNG!
The light disappeared.
Dani stopped for a few moments, fighting off the feeling that he was in the middle of void - the feeling that always hit him when he couldn't see. Then Nikki's impatient voice urged him on:
"Go, Dani! I'm almost stepping on your hands!"
Dani bit down on his lip and continued his descent, gripping onto the rungs even tighter. His palms were beginning to get slick. Oh dear. What a fine way to end your life - falling to your death from the ladder in a sewer pipe!
"If you don't screw your eyes like that, you'll have better balance."
Dani snarled soundlessly. Then had a second thought.
"Hey there!"
"Yeah? Don't stop, baby, don't stop."
"How do you know I'm screwing my eyes?"
Snort.
"I see you are."
"You see?! There's no light in here! Not a single ray!"
"Actually, there is some light," Nikki's breath was light and even, while Dani could hardly hear him past his own raspy exhales. "If you had to spend a night or two here, your eyes would get adjusted as well," another snort. "That is, of you weren't screwing them."
"You're just nonhuman, Nikki," Dani said wearily. "You're some bloody monster. You're my fucking song come to life. You're my payback."
"You're drunk."
"Yes. And tired. And sweating."
"Just keep moving down 'til I tell you to stop. We're almost there."
"Keep moving down. Easy to say. What if the rungs end? I won't even see it!"
"I will. Although," there was that smirk in his voice again, "you'd have to keep moving for many hours, I'm afraid. The well is deep, and the ladder stretches to the very bottom of it."
"What's there, at the bottom?"
"The bottom."
"Thanks, smartass."
"Look, he knows how to pronounce this word normally!"
"Fuck you, Nikki."
"Can't believe you want to."
Dani couldn't help giggling.
"Fuck you again."
"I'll give it a thought. But don't hope too much."
Dani's laughter sounded so weird in there. But he found out that if you listened to your echo, it wasn't so bad. The echo told you that you wasn't in the void. It told you the walls were pretty close, pretty much all around you. It gave you the feeling of reality.
The smoky smell was getting stronger. The sweet smell accompanying it began to seem familiar. Something like aroma candles. Like incenses. But slightly different. Dani liked it.
A few more minutes of silence filled with their breathing echoing on the walls. And then a short command:
"Halt!"
Just when Dani was beginning to get used to it.
There was some noise above him. Some metallic clanging. And then there was a SCREEEE! - and there was light.
It wasn't bright, but Dani couldn't see for a few seconds all the same. Then he began to distinguish the things surrounding him. Concrete walls of the well. Metal frame of the ladder.
A shiny oval doorway a few rungs above his head. Nikki standing in the doorway.
"Get up here. Or are you staying to live there?"
Dani reached the doorway in a second, and Nikki helped him in - practically pulled him in. Then he closed the metal door behind them.
But Dani managed to have a look before he did it. Where they were, the walls were still concrete... but why did it look like a couple of tens of feet lower they turned to solid ancient stone? And though there was enough light now, he still couldn't see the bottom.
But he could feel yet another smell coming up from there. Not smoke. And not shit.
Something worse than shit.
"It's not a sewer pipe," he said, addressing no-one in particular. But Nikki responded.
"No, it's not. Just some disguise."
Dani turned to him.
"What's there at the bottom, Nikki? Seriously?"
Nikki shrugged.
"Nothing pretty. Let's go."
And Dani followed him down the corridor they now were in. Thinking that, maybe, curiosity was a sin. Knowing Nikki had told him the truth. Something that smelt like that just couldn't be pretty.
A few seconds later he spoke up again.
"Okay, Nikki, hands down - I can't see the lamps. Will you now tell me where they are?"
"There are none."
"Aha. You're gonna tell me my eyes have already adjusted. Sixx, that's absurd. Where does this light come from?"
"The walls," Nikki said, running his fingers over the grainy surface. "It's the bedrock that gives it off. Whaddayacallit... phosphorescent."
Dani was going to laugh it off, then had a better look.
That really was the walls.
Shining with soft shimmering light, reddish, but not to the point where it began to irritate your eyes. Quite what one needed after that damn well.
Phosphorescent bedrock.
Under downtown LA.
"Hey, Nikki... I ain't no geologist... But isn't it a bit... shallow for this kind of rock?"
"How the fuck should I know?" Nikki shrugged. "How deep d'ya think we are, anyways?"
A good question.
"Maybe it was engrafted. I wasn't here when this tunnel was made."
They walked in silence for a while.
"Nikki."
"Aye."
"You sure you'll be able to open that lid? When we go back up, I mean?"
Nikki gave a short laugh.
"Dani you are something else! The guy is going to see a book that ninety percent of mortals never will... and what is he thinking of? A fucking sewer hatch lid!"
Dani swallowed this. Fair enough.
"No fear. We'll go up another way."
"There is another way!"
"Of course."
"Without rats? Without sewer hatches?"
Nikki's eyes were sparkling with laughter.
"Yeah, right."
"Then why the hell... WHY THE HELL!!!"
"Easy, Dani. Easy. Mainly because this one's the shortest. And then... I thought a guy like you might like some adventure. The vibe here, you know?"
"A guy like me! What do you know about what kind of guy I am?"
Nikki shrugged again.
"I saw one of your videos."
Now, that's interesting!
"Oh yes?"
"Oh yes. I was at a friend's house yesterday, and he likes that kind of... music."
Dani couldn't get over the feeling that the slight pause was entirely calculated. Yet another mild insult. But he had discovered that if you left such taunts without notice, a normal talk with Sixx wasn't such an impossible thing.
He wasn't going to give him the pleasure of seeing him fume.
"So what did you watch?"
Dani was practically sure Nikki would try to piss him off again. The your-songs-suck-why-would-I bother-remembering-titles type of stuff.
But Nikki simply said:
"He shoved all kinds of shit onto me - censored shit, uncensored shit, live shit, tour bus shit... So I picked the good shit. 'From The Cradle To Enslave' uncensored. He said it was the ugliest thing of all."
Dani smirked.
"So was it?"
"Ugly? Yep. If that's what you wanted with it, you hit the nail right on the head."
"So you didn't like it?"
Nikki smiled.
"Who said I didn't? There are four well-stacked bare-titted chicks in there. It has to be good."
"Thanks."
Some more silence. Dani was slowly regaining his composure. Curiosity and excitement were getting over fear and unease. The place had its charm. And even when Nikki spoke, his soft pensive voice didn't break it.
"But you have such a weird vision of Satan and Hell."
Dani gave him a perplexed glance, and Nikki explained:
"In that video."
"Ah. Why strange?"
"You made him a monster."
"Satan?" Dani shrugged. "But isn't he the Great Beast?"
Nikki didn't respond for a while, and Dani already thought he wasn't going to answer, when he said:
"He's an angel, you know."
"Pardon?.."
"Satan. He is an angel. A fallen angel. He might be terrible... but that shouldn't suggest he's not beautiful."
"Well, that's your vision. You have yours, I have mine. It's not that anyone has seen him, anyway. I mean... who lived to tell?"
Dani meant this to be a joke. But Nikki didn't laugh. He had that little smile on his face, and Dani just didn't know what to make of it."
"You mean, who has ever gone to Hell and made it back?" a strange, really strange smile. "Well, maybe there are some... Your idea of Hell is funny, Dani. Why is your Hell full of cripples? Cripples go to Heaven. They are humble. They are sufferers. Theirs is the Kingdom of God. And Hell..." Nikki finally laughed, and the laugh was even stranger. "Hell is full of beautiful people, Dani. Packed with beautiful people..."
He didn't say anything else, but the ending of the phrase hung in the air, so Dani simply read it aloud:
"Like you and me."
Nikki gave him a funny look.
"More or less."
I just can't hold my tongue tonight, Dani thought. Must be the stress.
The corridor was winding. And its floor had an almost imperceptible but steady slope to it. They still were going down.
"Is it a long way from here?"
"A couple of minutes."
"What is this book, Nikki?"
"A really big one. A really old one. A bit scary. A good deal dangerous. You could figure it all yourself."
"Who wrote it if not Lovecraft? Abdul Al Hazred?"
"It doesn't have his testimony. Lovecraft invented the Mad Arab. This book is just a collection of spells and descriptions. Well, you'll see."
The light began to change, growing stronger, acquiring a new quality. Changing its hue to bluish.
"Who wrote it, Sixx?"
"Dani, you think I'm God? You think I know everything?"
"No. I think you're the Devil. And I think you know more than you tell. I also think you're pulling my leg on this one."
Without any warning, Nikki shoved him into a niche in the rock. Dani gasped, a steel-firm grip on his throat choking him.
"You called me a liar, kid? Is that what you just did?"
"I'm not your kid!" Dani hissed. "I'm nobody's kid! I'm fuckin' thirty! And let me go!"
The grip tightened. Dani's vision blurred. He didn't even have the time to get afraid. He only thought, Oh, that's great... and the thought was turning over and over in his quickly darkening mind.
"I know you're not my kid," Nikki's voice was terribly calm. "I'd never be doing this to my kid. Since you're not... I might squash your throat Dani. And if I leave you here... no-one will ever find you."
He'll toss me into the well, Dani thought airily, feeling his eyes water. He'll just toss me into that well, and whatever's there at the bottom will feed on me.
"What do you think of it, Dani?"
"Then, I guess, I'll see you in hell, mate," Dani croaked, half delirious.
The choking pressure suddenly disappeared. Dani broke into a coughing fit, clawing at his throat.
"You're tougher than you look," Nikki's voice wasn't mad. Wasn't derisive. If anything, it was reassuring. With just a tint of good humor. What a guy. "I like that. I seriously do."
Dani's coughing slowly subsided, and he looked at Nikki. Trying to put as much scorn into his words as he could.
"You think I care?"
"Yeah," Nikki answered with the easiness that made Dani's blood boil. "I think you do. You know what, pal, your make-up is running."
Dani knew it was.
"That's my eyes that are running. Why, I wonder... have I been choked recently?"
"Ah, so much acid... Let me help you."
Dani sighed when Nikki pushed his hair out of his face.
"Look up at me."
Dani did. Nikki's thumb brushed under his eye, probably wiping away an eyeliner-blackened trail.
"At least you've got the decency to clean up the mess you've made, Sixx."
Nikki laughed softly.
"I always do. Responding to your assumptions," his fingers traveled down Dani's cheek. Dani wasn't sure it was yet another black trail that was the reason for that. "I'm not the Devil. And I'm not pulling your chain," Nikki's fingers pushed his chin up, making him throw his head back. "I don't know who wrote this book. It's older than anything I know. Older than modern Christianity or Satanism. Just like this thing you're wearing," Nikki toyed with the pentagram. His left hand. His right one was up at Dani's neck, stroking it. Going over the trace his grip must have left. Dani didn't dare resist. Besides, it felt nice. Really nice.
"My pentagram?"
"Yeah. The five point star. It's peak up, it means defense, its peak down, it means attack, and that's older than any conscious concept of Satan... although not older than Satan himself."
Nikki's palm rubbed against his chest, almost burning him through the fishnet shirt that turned out to be so awfully thin. Next to no cover at all. His nipples hardened, and he knew Nikki could feel it when his palm went over them. His face felt hot, and he guessed he was flushed, and he hoped his make-up didn't let it show...
Nikki stepped back, letting him go.
"Come on," he said. "It's just a corner turn away."
I hate this man, Dani thought with surprising lucidity. I just plain hate him.
He hurried up after Nikki, trying to think of his grandma naked, or about what Sharon would do to him when he came back, or about rats. Rats did the trick, and it was a good thing, because somehow getting to read a book like Necronomicon sporting a boner just didn't seem right.
He was asking himself why he had gotten a boner at all, since there was no girl in this situation, when they approached the room the bluish light came from. And then they entered it, and Dani forgot about this question. He forgot about thinking at all.
This wasn't a room. This was a temple.
High, high ceiling. Impeccably even walls - there were five of them, the room was a pentagon. In each corner, there was a massive pillar. And the walls between pillars were covered in paintings up to the top.
Later Dani tried to remember what was painted there, and couldn't. But he remembered that it had scared him. Scared him, and shocked him, and even disgusted him. And yet it was so beautiful, he couldn't take his eyes of it. So beautiful, it had even hurt him. Made him want to cry.
The pillars were made of a similar rock as the corridor walls, only the light they gave off was a tint of blue and much stronger. It still wasn't enough to illuminate the whole big pentagon, though; but when Dani made himself turn away from the paintings, he could see what else was there in the room.
A lot of stone banks and shelves near the walls - on the shelves, there were candles. Tens, maybe, hundreds of them. An altar at the far end of the room - also stone, something carved in it. Dani couldn't make out what exactly. More candles surrounded the altar, secured in tall chandeliers. And behind the altar there was a dais that looked like a rostrum. There was something upon it. Something dark.
"Holy shit..." Dani drawled in an awestruck whisper.
Sixx, who obviously didn't give a flying fuck if it was a temple or not, laughed aloud.
"Wrong, dude! Nothing of this shit's holy!"
He stretched, yawned and commanded:
"Lights!"
And all the candles lit up at once.
Dani gasped. There was something hypnotic in this sight. Something unreal. As if the night sky had been upset, pulled upside down and left this way. So that the scattering of stars you were used to seeing above your head was all of a sudden down at your knees.
"How did you do that, Nikki?"
The reddish-yellow glow of candles mixed with the cyan shimmering coming from the pillars and cast fancy lightshades around the room.
"Just an old trick. You like it?"
"Yes..."
"Always makes me think of a concert hall during a ballad. You know, when everyone's holding their lighters up."
Dani wasn't listening. He was looking at the front of the altar. Now he could see what was carved there.
A symmetrical cross. Such a big plus sign. Locked in a flawless, ideal circle.
That was the sign he had seen before.
"What is this?" he pointed at it. "What does this mean?"
Nikki clicked his tongue, walking up to him.
"Such a smart kid, and so undereducated. This is the sign of the Black Mass. That's what it is. I figure, you've never been to one."
"No..." Dani stared at it. Stared at the chandeliers. Seven candles in each. "Seven candles because of the seven deadly sins?"
"Maybe. Or, maybe, it just looks good. It's going to get hotter, Dani. Take off your jacket."
Dani looked ever at him and noticed he had gotten rid of his denim one. His arms were a picture hall, as was his chest - as much as Dani could see through a small black vest he had on.
"Where would I put it?"
"Just toss it on the floor."
"Oh no!"
"Hey, it's pretty much clean here."
"You don't understand," Dani looked around in awe. "I... just can't!"
Laughter. Dani felt his presence behind his back.
"Of course you can," large hands slid the jacket off his shoulders and let it fall to the black marble floor. "See, that was easy."
"Where's the book?" Dani asked, shivering, feeling Nikki's breath on his hair.
"There. Behind the altar. Go look at it."
Dani hesitated. He didn't know why. Something set him off. Maybe it was the paintings. Maybe it was the way Nikki turned on the lights. Maybe it was something else.
Nikki took him by the hand. Dry, hot palm.
"Can't believe you're such a chicken, Dani. Let's go."
He led him around the altar to the dais. The dais that really must have been some kind of a rostrum. A pulpit. Because upon it, there lay a book.
The book.
It was large. Over a foot long, almost a foot wide. And thick. It must be really heavy, Dani thought, staring at its cover. Which wasn't black as he had expected it to be. No. It was greyish yellow.
With growing weakness, Dani understood that it really was skin.
"It looks so strong," he whispered. "How come... if it's so old... It must be crumbling from touch..."
"Well, touch it. And satisfy yourself that it isn't."
"Can I?.."
"Dani, you think I made you take such a refreshing journey so that you could look at it from a safe distance? Touch it. Read it. Just try not to read stuff aloud. That's not too safe - especially for a first-timer."
Dani nodded. Reached out a hand tentatively. Touched the cover.
And gasped, pulling his hand back, inching away.
Because he felt the life under his fingers.
Just a moment ago, the book was dead. A thing. An inanimate object. Now, it was alive. It was breathing.
And it pulled at him. Bid him come closer. Bid him touch again.
So he did.
He opened the heavy, gold-incrusted cover. He peered at the pages covered with large symbols, dark dirty brown letters that, he knew, had once been wine red. Letters of a language he didn't know...
... or did he?..
...because if he didn't know it, why could he read it?..
... because he was reading it...
...pages rustling...
...The ones that dwell in the deepest places of the world are called the Crawlers. They are the offspring of the Great Serpent, whom Abyssinians call the Great Worm, and they eat the Earth from the inside and feed on its blood and gore. Hideous is their appearance, their ascent brings cities to ruins. Use the formulae below to summon them up from their dwelling... but hark! they are the world's downfall, and theirs the Earth shall be when Man will long be forgotten and his empires crumble to dust and ashes. Grieve, oh, grieve when those born to crawl learn how to walk...
...rustle...
...Wherever the work of ancient Evil is done, you'll see Rats. Only a fool would neglect or disregard them, for they are an Elder Tribe. They pass wisdom in their line that no human memory shall ever be able to preserve. They feed on Fear. They feed on Despair. They feed on Lies, and Spite, and Lust. But most willingly they feed on Hatred. Befriend them, and they will be your companions until your dying day. Use them to cast plague, and pestilence, and lepra, for that is in their power to do...
...rustle...
... The Elders called her Bathna, Odem, Amorpha and Lamia, but she has always called herself Lilith. Lilith, the infanticide, the proud, the beautiful, the terrible. Made of earth on the first day of creation, the firstborn, the equal of Adam. She is powerful. She will fulfill your every wish. But the one who calls Lilith's name in the formula, will belong to her forever. For ardent is her love, and jealous, and undying, and such as no mortal man can bear for long. She will give you strength, she will bring you fortune, she will return you youth. Lilith, Mother of Daemons, in the dark of the night of sin I invoke thee...
"Shut up!"
Dani twitched as a hand gripped him by the upper arm, so tight that it hurt.
"Let me go!"
"Look at me. LOOK AT ME!!!"
Dani turned his head involuntarily. These impossible eyes caught his stare and didn't let go. Dani sighed.
"I heard you got a wife."
"I... almost do."
"You want your chick to die - you read on."
Dani flinched, terrible understanding cutting through his numbness. The book's pages trembled. Dani thought he heard a far-off whisper. Passionate. Impatient.
"No!"
Nikki turned the page.
"That bitch is jealous," he explained softly. "Once she gets you, she won't leave any of your family alive. And I asked you not to read aloud."
You told me not to read aloud, Dani thought, turning back to the book. Nikki didn't let go of his shoulder, and the book didn't suck him in so deep anymore.
... Some of those who walk the Earth are Mortals. Their lives are short, and they spend them in suffering and self-denial, preparing themselves for the afterlife most of them will never have. Others are Immortals. Theirs is the Eternity, and they live their lives in cycles, watching the Mortals, changing with them.
And there are Mortals who were born to be reborn.
From their very birth, they are denied. Wherever they go, they are not welcome, and whatever they do, they are not praised, and their mother will abandon them in their infancy, and their father will not want to know of them. That is because they were never meant to belong to the world of Mortals they were born into.
Fortunate are those who can tell a future Reborn and accept him as he is. For they do not forget associates as they do not forget foes. And once they are reborn, they are above any power. No-one has power over them, and no-one has the power to stop them. Wild they run, and unheld, and bless and kill at will. For they are the kin of the Master of This World, the kin of Lucifer, the kin of Lilith.
And for all the suffering, privations and torment they have passed, they are given Wings...
Dani closed his eyes. He was feeling a bit dizzy. The book was talking to him, whispering to him, tugging at him, and Nikki's hand on his shoulder was his only anchor in reality.
"I think I've had enough for tonight," he said weakly.
"Good sense of measure," the hand squeezed his shoulder gently. "The first time I read it, I blacked out beside it." Laughter. "Or, maybe, I blacked out because I was on smack."
"Close it," Dani asked him. "I can't..."
Nikki shut the book.
And the whispers were gone.
Dani drew a deep sigh. Screwed his eyes, then opened them wide.
He still was dizzy.
Nikki left his side, walking back to the altar. Dani slowly followed him. His legs were so not to be trusted light now. When he was passing the altar, they almost gave way, and he had hold on to the smooth stone to keep his feet...
...Only it wasn't all that smooth.
Dani felt a little groove under his fingers. Such a narrow groove chiseled in stone. He moved back a bit to look at it. Yes, a groove... and Dani thought he knew what it was for. If only he weren't so dizzy...
It was a spout...
Yes, a spout in the altar...
For blood.
Dani's eyes widened, his finger still tracing the pout. He tore it off the stone. Brought it to his eyes.
Stared at the thin rusty coating that covered its tip.
The spout had been used pretty recently.
The altar...
"Nikki?"
The echo was deafening. The world swayed. What was going on?!
"Ah. I see you found the Boss's leftovers."
"You kill here... you kill people here?"
"But of course."
The room swirled around, bright, eye-cutting visions piercing through his mind. The room full of people... hot, stuffy air... chants...
Salute, o Satana! O Rebellione!
Tall, dark figures, surrounding the altar, on which a pale human body is lying spread-eagle...
O Forca Vendice - della Ragione!
Vikki there, at the pulpit, her hair thrown back, her eyes burning... she's singing... singing... her voice holds the same murderous beauty as the paintings on the walls...
Sacri a te salgano - gli incensie i voti...
Vic in the corner, the pillar's shimmering light turning his blonde hair to silver... fast, disturbing beat coming from the big drum before him... His lips are drawn back in a sneer, sweat beading all over his skin, his wet hair in his face, his arms flying up and down almost too fast for a human eye to catch the movement...
Hai vinto il Geove - Dei sacerdoti!
A knife, wielded in a hand lifted above the altar, flashes with reflected light... it goes down... down... down...
Dani screamed, clutching his head.
"Take it easier, Dani. You just got something to write another song about."
Where was he? Dani couldn't see him, and his voice seemed to be coming from everywhere. He looked around desperately, and his eyes stopped on the chandelier candles, thick, and running, and so sickeningly white... cadaver white...
"These candles..."
"Didn't I say this kid was smart? Yes, Dani, that's what you think. That's human fat. The part even I don't like...but people have their traditions. It's not for me to break them."
There he was, right at his back. Dani relaxed a bit...
And tensed again, as Nikki's fingers pushed his hair away from his neck, and Nikki's lips landed a kiss there.
"Hey!" he tried to break away, but his limbs weren't fully co-operating. A little laugh right at his ear. An arm around his waist, a hand on his stomach, pressing his back against the heated flesh.
"Hey yourself."
"What are you doing, Nikki?" Dani whispered, still trying to squirm out of his hold, realizing with horror, that there was no chance for him to do it. "Do you even know what you're doing?!"
"Sure. I'm taking advantage of the state you are in... which, I'm afraid, isn't all that fit for fighting."
"No..."
"Yes..."
"What is it? What is happening to me?.."
"You are drugged."
"How?.."
"That human fat there... stinks like shit when melting. They add tons of aroma stuff to these candles. Too bad some of it has really weird side effects... But you know, folks here generally don't mind."
"No..." Dani clenched his teeth. "Not the candles... you're breathing it, too..."
More laughter, and these hands pulling his shirt up were just too hot.
"Dani, after all the shit I have put through my system... I'm immune to it. What I'm not immune to..." a hand squirmed under his shirt, and Dani's legs turned to water, and he had to lean back on Nikki in order not to fall. Had to put his head on Nikki's shoulder. "What I'm not immune to is sudden desires."
A thumb going over the waistband of his pants. Dani wheezed.
"No... No. Nikki. No..."
A sigh.
"Or not that sudden."
Nikki turned him around, one arm still on his waist, the other one over his shoulders, his palm between Dani's shoulder blades. Dani set his palms against that tattooed chest, trying to push away and failing miserably.
"Don't look away. Don't you dare look away."
"Don't shout!" Dani moaned. The echo hurt his ears, made his head ache. He looked up, as Nikki wanted him to, just to stop Nikki from raising his voice again.
Yellow, red and violet shadows danced over Nikki's face, painting his skin different colors and tinctures... but not his eyes. His eyes were the same steel, merciless, cold, deep, enchanting blue.
"I always get what I want. One way or the other. I want you, Dani. And fuck, I'll have you. If you want it the hard way, let it be so. I like playing it rough," he grasped a handful of Dani's hair, rudely, carelessly, Dani's eyes narrowing from pain. "You can keep resisting, too. That'll be a fine little game. I will hurt you. Hurt you a lot. But if that's what you choose, I'm fine with it."
Dani didn't doubt he was fine with it. His hand began throbbing again, the pain woken up by tension in his muscles. He couldn't do anything. He was drowning, drowning in these cold, cold eyes...
But, maybe, they weren't so cold?
"Or we could do it differently. We could do it together. We could make it a pleasure for us both. You could let me in. Could let me be your... friend," he let go of Dani's hair, ran his hand down his back, tracing his spine with his index finger, making Dani gasp. "Well... your special friend."
Dani strained, trying his best to push Nikki away, but the only result of it was that the punctures on his hand that had almost closed, opened up and began bleeding again.
"Why are you doing this to me?!"
"Because I want it," a pause. The look in these eyes getting warmer by the second. "Because you want it."
Now these eyes were almost bedroom blue. And when Nikki's fingers tangled in his hair, and Nikki's palm cupped his arse - your ass, Dani, here in LA that's an ass... - and when his fast stiffening cock pushed through his leathers right against Nikki's thigh, - then there was no more denying he wanted it.
Dani's hands crawled up and threaded behind Nikki's neck.
Nikki's smile, his good smile, it was so awesome.
"Great, Dani. Perfect."
He leaned in, and Dani put his face up, closed his eyes and opened his lips for him.
The kiss was hard. Aggressive. Greedy. Dani gasped, sucking Nikki's tongue in together with the air, and then they couldn't part from each other, and Dani liked it, he loved it, even though he knew his lips would be all swollen, and bruised, and parched after this, even though Nikki's mouth was bitter from whisky and bad tobacco, even though he was almost out of breath.
Even though he was so dizzy.
He wanted it. He so wanted it.
Nikki broke the kiss and bit Dani's lower lip. Dani cried out softly. Nikki chuckled and nibbled his way down to Dani's throat, where nibbles turned to sharp bites, making Dani cry out again. His body trembled, left at the mercy of Nikki's hands - tireless hands. Hot. Hot. Hot. Nikki was a force, an unstoppable insane force taking over his body, his mind, his soul. Yes. Hell yes.
He never knew there was so much bliss in surrender.
Nikki began walking them towards the altar. A weak wave of repulsion rose inside Dani and died away at once. No more fooling himself. He knew he would take Nikki in anywhere. On the altar, on the pulpit, on the floor. On Necronomicon itself, if Nikki wanted him there.
The sign on the altar shone with golden light that was turning to fiery red fast. Dani wasn't sure, but he thought the paintings on the walls started moving. Living their own life.
Fuck that.
Nikki grabbed his hips, lifted him off the ground and seated him on the altar. The stone was surprisingly warm.
"Hands up."
Dani obeyed, let him pull his fishnet off him. Buried his face in Nikki's jet-black mane, muffling his moan as Nikki's teeth found his nipples.
Threw his head back, tugging on Nikki's wiry hair, moaning aloud, again and again.
Nikki looked up. Pushed him on the chest.
"Down."
Dani fell back onto the altar, his arms spread wide. His skin had gotten so hypersensitive that he could feel every finest grain of stone pressing against it. His eyes stared into the ceiling, and it had paintings on it too, and these paintings were also moving.
"This stuff in the candles... is it hallucinogenic?"
That's his voice? So low, and choked, and raspy...
"No. I know why you're asking. You're not hallucinating, kid," a hand traveled down his stomach right to the buckle of his pants and undid it. "The temple has come to life. It feels a sacrifice is about to be made." Laughter. Soft laughter, sending Dani into shivers. "You, Dani. You're my little offering."
Yes, Nikki. Yes, I am. Take me. Take me, and be merciful.
His pants were being slid off him. Dani arched his back. Because he wanted to make it easier for Nikki to slide them off; and because callused fingertips running over his thighs and buttocks made him arch anyway.
There. He was as naked as in his first seconds on Earth. And still hot. Hot, panting, shivering, waiting.
"That's it, Dani."
And that was it. He was thrown open, intruded, invaded, filled. He screamed, his eyes wide, his fingers clawing at the stone. It hurt, it hurt, it hurt, hurt, hurt!.. and oh, how precious the pain was.
"No looking away, Dani."
"No," Dani echoed brokenly. "No looking away."
He locked his gaze onto these eyes, cyan now, plunging into him as deep as that burning hardness between his legs. His legs that were wound around Nikki's waist, his calves crossed upon his buttocks, pressing Nikki closer, urging him to go deeper. Nikki's hands gripped his hips, kneading the pliable flesh, steadying him against the hammering thrusts.
The delight of destruction. The delight of being destroyed.
Dani screamed again, and bucked into pain/pleasure, not able to see anything but the blue, that silken blue, that crystal clear blue. He thrashed on the stone plate, yelling for more, as the thrusts went faster, and the rush of sensations began to build up to the breaking point for him.
"Mine," a low, guttural snarl. "Here. Now. Mine."
"Yours," Dani groaned. "More!"
And there was more, and yet more, and a long, shameless yell tore out of Dani as the pleasure wave hit him, twisting his body, blurring his mind, blowing him away. An unbearably bright flash of light flooded the room - or did it explode before his eyes only? And there was a growl, wild, raucous, deafening, and he felt a hot splash inside him, and he fell onto the stone, exhausted, hollow, aching. And happy.
His eyes were closed. He felt a light jerk and guessed that Nikki pulled out of him. His lower half was all raw and burning. He knew he was bleeding. And he didn't care. He smirked, thinking of the spout on the altar. Thinking that it was in use again.
He didn't hear Nikki's steps, but he felt him move over to his side. His breath getting closer. A light kiss on the lips. Chuckle.
"You got lipstick all over your chin."
"I'll live with that."
Laughter.
"Awesome, Dani. Brilliant."
"Just what I think."
A finger tracing lazy patterns on his stomach. Dani gave a sated smile.
"Not ticklish, are you?" snicker. "By the way, you might want to know... I got in touch with Tommy. He'll pick you up at 2 PM at Franklin Plaza."
"Fine. And how late is it now?"
"You mean how early?" a half-smile in that voice, but it was okay, because everything was okay now. Every little thing.
"Alright, how early."
"My guess it it's a little after five. You think you can walk?"
Fucker.
"Not yet. Are we in a hurry? Is some high priest on his way here to kick your ass for desecrating the place?"
"Dani, you're out of you mind? Ah, yeah. Well, that's understandable," what a cocky, piggish, conceited fucker. "You can't desecrate this place. It's a temple of sin, for fuck's sake. No, we're not in a hurry. Take your time. I'll take a break as well. To unwind, you know. I rather like this place."
"Oh you do." Maybe he was serious. Maybe a guy like Nikki could feel cozy in a place like this. Dani could believe in anything right now.
"Yeah. That's one of the few... very few places where I can just unwind and be myself."
"Yourself." Dani sighed. "And who are you, Nikki?"
"You asked me before."
"I never got any decent answer."
"You got the only answer there is."
Dani's eyes were still closed, but he felt the light sinking. He felt the space before his eyes darken, like people feel it when you shield their closed eyes with a hand. Felt it even through his eyelids. Something threw a shadow over his face.
"I'm me."
A slight change in Nikki's tone made Dani open his eyes.
"OH!" he gasped. "OHHH!"
And he sat up in a jerk, and his jaw dropped, and he froze, staring at Nikki, wide-eyed.
Staring at small lightnings slithering over that body, running over the tattoos that now seemed emerald, ruby and sapphire inlays in the tan wood of his skin. Staring at the blue flame gushing out of these eyes. Staring at the ageless face shining with frightening, inhuman beauty.
At big, black, leathery wings unraveling behind Nikki's back. Huge wings. Layer after layer of membranous tissue smoothed out and stretched with a flopping sound, and the wings still kept spreading. They hid half the world from sight.
"By the way," only his voice stayed the same - the careless easiness in it made such a wild contrast with what he had turned into.. no, Dani corrected himself, unable to take his eyes off him, with what he had always been. "Big Boss says your requests will be granted." A smile flashed, and Dani saw fangs, real fangs, nothing like his funny little dental job. Fangs that were meant for tearing raw flesh. Maybe, human flesh. "He's amused. He says you're the only one who prayed for his family before he prayed for fame and money. You're such a nice guy, Dani, you made Satan's heart throb."
And staring at him, unable to move or make a sound, dumbstruck, Dani slowly realized that Nikki, indeed, was the most special friend he could have ever gotten.