Nights of Babylon

@bob: thank u so very much for your review. i'm happy that you like the characters as i develope them with lots of care.

Disclaimer: Not mine

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Chapter 21 - The point of no return

The entrance to the tomb yawned at the assembled warriors with its teethless pitch black mouth, threatening to swallow all

those for good who dared to descend to its dark womb. Despite the warm rays of the sun on his skin Hephaistion felt very cold

at the mere sight of the abandoned graveyard. Trembling slightly he clutched the hilt of his sword but the familiar feeling

of the smooth leather and the cool metall against his skin didn't comfort him.

Meanwhile Alexander held a speech to raise the spirits of his soldiers, his words too well known to Alexis who now heard them

a third time. The king had used the very same words to convince him of his plan. It hadn't worked then and it didn't work

now.

"When we stood at Gaugamela there were 250.00 men against us 40.000", Alexander shouted, the sun turning his blond hair into

a golden aura, illuminating his head like a blessing of gods. "There were many on our side who doubted, many who told me to

turn and run. However, I didn't. I trusted in the srength of Macedonian men and you trusted in me, your king. And today again

we need to trust each other. There are those who call my plan lunacy. There are those who want to hide. They do not trust in

me and you as they didn't at Gaugamela. But they were wrong then and they will be wrong this time."

The king's speech was greeted by the cheers of his soldiers and Alexis watched how the softness vanished from Hephaistion's

face, a determined gleam settled in his gaze and his very being was driven by a most time hidden strength and power that

impressed and fascinated the golden-eyed incubus.

Next to him Serena was more impressed by the big number of young men in short tunics, showing their strong thighs with

prettily tanned skin. The heavy smell of their testosterone made her dizzy. With her eyes half closed and the silly little

smile playing around her rosy lips the crimson-haired succubus looked heavily drugged, her wings hanging limp from her back.

"All these guys are so yummy", she said with a deep sigh more to herself than to anyone else. "And soon many of them will be

dead." Alexis squeezed her hand softly as an answer before he led Alexander and his soldiers down to the catacombes.

Hephaistion took a deep breath to slow down his thundering heartbeat, then he entered the tomb following Alexander and the

demon siblings, although he couldn't fight of the uneasy feeling that it might become his own grave.

The air in the tomb smelled musty and dusty of long dead bodies. It was cool in there, the chill causing goosepumps to creep

over Hephaistion's skin, while he tried to regain his sight after the sudden change from bright sunlight to dusky darkness.

Behind him Cleitus lit a torch and the red flames pushed the blackness back to the corners, shadows now sneaking across the

stone wall and the dusty floor as if their presence had awakened and angered the ghosts of the dead.

Down they went a long stair, all in single file as the stairway was too narrow to walk next to each other, a long worm of men

winding itself down to the womb of the earth. In the lurid silence the shuffle of feet, the clinking of the armors and

weapons and the breathing of the men suddenly sounded unbearably loud. Hephaistion shivered as he only now realized that

there would be no chance to take the demon brute by surprise. With their extremely good hearing the young warrior feared the

winged predators must have noticed them by now.

At the end of the staircase the narrow tunnel widened into a vast hall. There were niches across the wall littered with human

bones and skulls, all dusty. Still the air was so heavy with the stench of rotten flesh that it made Alexis and Serena awfully

sick and overlaid all other smells. Four tunnels led away from the hall, but only one of them was open to Alexander's small

army, the others were blocked by heavy rocks. At the entrance to the one open passage the source of the terrrible stench was

nailed against the wall with an old rusty sword. Its outstretched arm pointed down the dark tunnel like a signpost.

"What is this?", Alexander asked disgusted, staring at the tiny misshapen body the size of a child. Under the swarms of flies

he could make out that the thing had a hunch and enormously big pointy ears sticking out its skull. It was for sure one

of the ugliest things Alexander had ever seen.

"It's... it's a pup", Serena said in horror, her amber eyes wide with fear. Instinctly she laid her hand on her belly.

"One of your little ones?", Hephaistion asked in shock. He didn't want to believe that these beasts were evil enough to kill

their own brute, on the other hand he was relieved that the winged monsters did so as he didn't feel he could slay children -

not even demon ones. Serena nodded, timidly pressing against her sibling.

"One less", Alexander simply said. His face had frozen to a mask of determination. "Let's go and find the rest of these

beasts."

"This is so obviously a trap I can't believe you're still willing to walk this way", Alexis growled, holding Serena close. He

wasn't pleased at all with the king's remark about the dead pup. The sight of the poor little thing was horrible. This was

clearly Ellestias' doing.

"I never thought this would ever happen", Cleitus sighed, "but I agree with the demon."

"I won't be stopped", Alexander hissed. "It may be a trap, but we can handle it as we have handled Darius' superior force at

Gaugamela. I need your trust in me, your confidence!" He turned to Alexis. "Take the lead."

The raven-haired incubus shook his head, a serious expression on his beautiful face. "This means embracing death."

The king's head turned bright red of anger at the demon's refusal. "You dare to disobey?", he thundered.

Alexis stayed unimpressed, but shoved his sister to stand behind him. "This is suicide, Alexander. And I'm not willing to take

part in your madness."

For a moment the blond man looked as if he would attack the incubus so Hephaistion hastily stepped between the two, but then

the king's temper settled, although he had some effort to fight his urge to hit the bloody incubus. "Fine", he said. "I don't

need you. Your kindred have kindly left hints for me where to find and fight them. Regard yourself as my enemy from now on,

coward, as you are not willing to stand at my side. I will allow you to get away this time but don't ever cross my way

again." With these words he turned, grabbed the torch from Cleitus hand and marched down the tunnel towards the direction the

pup's corpse pointed at. The soldiers followed without hesitation.

Only Hephaistion stayed back. His saphire eyes were full of sadness and disappointment. He felt empty as if he had lost a

part of himself very special and important to him. "You leave me?", he asked accusingly watching how the golden-eyed

predator's delicate features shaded with pain and sorrow. "I thought you loved me."

"I do", Alexis answered, his low velvety voice trembling. A haze of tears shaded the golden orbs of his eyes. He looked so

torn Hephaistion nearly felt sorry for him as he couldn't deny the incubus had a hard decision to make. Still he couldn't

forgive him that Alexis didn't decide for him.

Despite he tried hard not to cry Hephaistion felt tears welling in his eyes. "You don't act as if you do."

"This is madness, Hephaistion, and you know it." Alexis would have asked the young warrior to stay but he knew it was

useless. Hephaistion would follow Alexander to the darkest depths of Hades if necessary. And that was exactly where he was

going.

"I didn't expect you to be such a coward", Hephaistion hissed, cursing himself for his trembling tone.

"This is not about cowardice." The incubus gaze settled on Serena who had put her hand to her belly again. She looked small

and frightened like a little girl. How could he not protect her?

"You love her more than me?", the brunette asked angrily, now crying. He knew this was a mean thing to ask as Serena was

Alexis' sister and lover, still he felt too neglected by the raven-haired beauty to stay reasonable or even fair. He was

terribly afraid and longed for the strong demon's protection, but was denied what he yearned for most.

"I love her differently", Alexis whispered hardly audibly, his voice shattered. To leave Hephaistion behind broke his heart,

tormenting memories rising to the surface. Akani's death had been his fault and Hephaistion's would be as well. However, if

he went with the brunette, Serena would either follow or be left behind. Both options would mean her death.

"Then you've lost me as I don't leave the one I love when he needs me most." His knees felt wobbly when Hephaistion walked

down the tunnel to an unknown destination, not looking back.

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It was dark and the stench was overwhelming. Ellestias had littered their way with corpses of pups and the missing priests,

used as signposts, making sure they didn't take a wrong turn which was a good thing as they would have been lost within no

time in this maze of tunnels. The ripcages of the dead humans were forced open and their intestines had turned into a black

stinking sticky liquid.

Hephaistion had already vomited until his stomach was empty and the bitter taste of bile filled his mouth. He felt miserable

and heartbroken, staying close behind Alexander to seek comfort but the king's attention was fixed on his purpose to

eliminate the demonical brute. So amongst all his friends and close to his beloved Hephaistion felt lonlier than he had ever

felt before. Now he wished he had parted from Alexis with a kiss instead of harsh words. But it was too late.

Their way led them further down and it got so cold that Hephaistion pulled his cloak around him to keep warm. Having lost his

feeling of time Hephaistion felt as if they'd been walking for hours. He began to become dull and the fear faded away leaving

a tired exhaustion behind. He wondered if the demons just led them in circles and made sure that they never found out

again.

Hephaistion yawned. He had to try hard not to fall asleep while walking. Then a sharp cry of agony from behind startled him

and the sudden rush of adrenaline, rushing through his body, left him wide awake. The long row of soldiers turned round,

confusion gripped the men and startled cries followed the first scream.

"What has happened?", Alexander yelled, while Cleitus and Nearchus tried to calm the men down.

"Seems as if one of the men was dragged from the group", Ptolemy informed him. Hephaistion had seldom seen him so frightened.

"Suddenly one of the beasts leapt from a crossing tunnel and was gone as fast as it appeared."

"Shouldn't we follow the beast?", Cassander asked timidly. He looked very pale in the flare of the torch.

Alexander shook his head. "I doubt we can help him anymore and we would be lost in the labyrinth." Before he could continue

another shriek echoed through the passage and another man was lost without a chance to defend himself. "Damn it", the king

cursed. "Move on. We cannot stay here."

They hurried on, accompanied by more screams when soldiers got snatched from the group. Despite the high alert the winged

predators could ambush them. Fear was back at its highest peak.

"Come out, you bloody cowards!", Alexander barked and earned himself a cacophony of evil laughter thundering through the

darkness.

"Don't think they're about to fulfill your request", Cassander mumbled.

Alexander cursed loudly. "That bloody demon lover of yours could have warned us", he hissed at Hephaistion.

"Alexis? Well, I do recall he did warn you", Hephaistion snapped. He couldn't believe Alexander blamed him for the failure of

his mission. "As far as I can remember he used words like 'lunacy', 'madness' and 'suicide' while commenting your plan!"

"Did he? Then why didn't you stay by this coward's side?" Alexander shouted at the top of his voice.

"Out of duty and love, my king", Hephaistion answered sadly.

"Why don't we return to the palace?", Cassander asked.

"And admit that this degenerated brute of a demon was right?", Alexander growled. "Never!" With this words he stormed down

the tunnel and the men followed behind him like a snake's body winds behind its head.

There had to be an end to these tunnels and this would be the place of the final confrontation. The demons couldn't win by

snatching single men from their row. Alexander should be proved right after the next bend. Suddenly the passage got wider and

Cleitus and Cassander could fall into step next to him, then the tunnel ended and they entered a hall even vaster than the

one they had started from. It was illuminated by several torches and had more entrances on several floors than Alexander

could count. All doorways on the ground floor were closed with iron bars. Not all of the soldiers had filled in the hall

when the gate through which they had come in shut, seperating Alexander's troop.

"A trap", Cleitus hissed, drawing his sword ready to fight against anybody who dared to attack him. "These bastards have

divided our strength into halves."

"We'll try to find another way in", Nearchus yelled from outside after some useless effort to break the gate open. He shooed

his men away back to the darkness of the tunnel.

"This place looks like an arena", Hephaistion said nervously after a careful look around, fumbling the hilt of his sword.

"Maybe because that's exactly what it is", a cold female voice answered from above. Ellestias appeared in one of the doorways

high above their heads, a ghostly pale shape cloaked by her silvery hair.

"What are you up to, witch?", Alexander growled angrily. "Come down and fight."

"Maybe later", the pale succubus answered with an evil grin. "Right now, I'd rather invite you to join me up here. You have a

better view from up here and I'm sure you don't want to miss the sight of your men dying." At a wave of her hand the gates in

the ground walls of the hall opened and out of each strolled a big and very hungry looking lion.

At the same time five of

the winged demons dived down and caught Alexander, Hephaistion, Cassander, Cleitus and Ptolemy. Despite all their struggling

the generals and the king were lifted up and dropped high above the scene - every man on a different platfrom.

There were no stairs leading down from the platforms and it was far too high to jump. The doorways behind them were blocked

with rocks and so the five friends had to watch helplessly how the Macedonian soldiers found themselves face to face with the

velvety pawed predators. The beasts were nearly starved and didn't hesitate to attack the humans.

Soon the screams of dying men and beasts echoed through the hall and those soldiers who survived the predators' attack were

slayed by the winged demons. And within a short time fifty men were slaughtered.

Hephaistion cried for the dead men and because of his helplessness, every tear a vivid sign of his anger and desperation.

Alexander cried too. He cursed his stupid stubborness and the guilt tore at his soul.

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Cliffhanger! *evil grin*