Hell's Bells

by K. B. Draper

  “Nava.”

  “Nava? Like neva turn your back on a …” I glanced at Apoc who was looking up at me curiously. “… znatch or they’ll shank your azelea?”

  She chuckled. “I’m not sure what that means, but just Na-va. And if that was your funny way of asking, no, I am no longer enslaved by the darkness. I have you to thank for that.”

  “Okay, cool. You’re welcome, but, um, do you mind explaining how or where … Actually, you know what, just explain all of,” I swirled a finger at her, “this for me?”

  “I believe you know the beginning?” Nava asked.

  “Lucifer killed your husband or soon to be husband, then tricked you into checking in to Hotel Hell. Then somehow made you the Spider Queen, lots of bad stuff in between, you got down and dirty with Michael and made a baby.” I thumbed it toward Apoc who was back to playing, putting little light balls inside of his toy trucks and sending them flying around the room like little metal fireflies. “And then more bad stuff.”

  She was nodding. “That is the polite version, yes.”

  “How did we get here? Or there? Wherever there is.”

  “I was still alive and human when Lucifer took me into Hell. He offered me a way to forget my sorrow, my pain. I unknowingly agreed, not understanding he did that by stealing my capacity to love or feel all together. The blackness you saw him take from me, the essence of the Spider Queen, coated my soul. I had nothing. Was nothing. But when he stripped it from me, I became human again. Back to … well, I was alive again. And me, or at least mostly. I still have the memories; I still know what I did while ...” Her voice cracked.

  “It did,” I corrected her.

  She gave me a sad smile. “It did.”

  “Where are you now?”

  “I’m in the in between. Waiting, I guess. I’m not a part of either plane, Heaven or Hell.”

  “The in between?”

  “Yes. Or that’s what I’m calling it. It doesn’t feel good or bad; it just is. I’ve been able to stay here, at least for the time being. I haven’t wanted or tried to move on.”

  “Why?” She glanced at Apoc and smiled. I’d seen that kind of smile before—on my mom, on my father, on my grandparents, my sister, Ashlyn, a dude in Winnipeg staring at a Whopper. I’m more of a Whataburger kind of girl, but I got it; it was pure love. “How did you find him?”

  “I didn’t. He found me. When I woke up, he was there. And I was here.”

  I glanced at little dude. “So what, he can …”

  “Best I can tell he can open the veils between planes.”

  I watched Apoc as he clapped and new spheres of light appeared. He moved them. Manipulated them. Made them dance. “And now what? He just opens up the veil where you are and you two visit?”

  “Sometimes he’s there and we chat. Other times he and his dog come here.”

  I was going to argue the “his dog” thing, but focused on the bigger picture. Plus, I had a feeling she might be right. “They go there?”

  “Yes.”

  I looked at Boy Wonder, and piece after piece started to fall into place. “That’s how he jumps from one place to another. Enters here, pops out somewhere else.”

  Nava nodded. “I would assume that would be true.”

  I had a few more questions, and Nava did what she could to answer them. Long story short, Nava believed Apoc was the only one, besides God, that could open veils without recourse whereas, angels and demons had to draw from the balance to enter or exit their assigned homeroom. Apoc apparently could go about as he pleased, which of course would make him a serious risk or serious weapon, depending on whether you’re a glass half evil or glass half good kind of a person.

  I gave myself a minute to take in all this new info. And I also had to try to stick my hand in the veil. Because duh. It was tingly. And a plan started to come together. “These lights.” I snagged one of Apoc’s flying cars as it passed. “Do you know what they are or where they came from?” I poked a finger in through the small window and into another sphere of light. Same tingly sensation.

  “I don’t know exactly, but as best I can tell they are little pieces of essence that he takes from one plane to create another,” Nava said.

  Curiouser and curiouser. Apoc and I played with his lights as he, his mother, and I chatted. I watched as he brought new lights into play: reds and golds, green and blues. He brought Hadleigh’s unicorn back by opening a—I guess we’ll go with veil—and it pranced around the room. “Different planes,” I muttered.

  “What?” Nava asked.

  “Nothing.” Or maybe everything. I switched my focus from Apoc’s Vegas-worthy light show to Nava, and what I found there was a mother and the love she had for her child. And Apoc was her child. The Spider Queen might have been holding Nava’s reins at the time that she and Michael, um, brought things together, but it was Nava’s heart, her kind and loving heart, that existed in this child. “One more question.”

  “Okay.”

  “So about my boy, Michael?” The blush that hit her cheeks gave me all the answer I needed.

  I called Michael back to Apoc’s room. I’ll be honest, the first few minutes of the reconnect was a bit finger on trigger, but once I got through the Spider Queen versus Nava convo, things moved rather quickly to awkward eighth-grade dance—both sitting there staring at each other, but neither willing to actually make the first move.

  Apparently the Spider Queen had used Nava’s true form, which was next-level smokin’ BTW. Also shaving off the black and icky parts of her personality, tapping into Nava’s true emotional grid, and mimicking it as well when first seducing Michael. So, technically, this Nava was very much the version Michael had fallen for. I know it’s a little trippy. But hey, look around. We also have a unicorn frolicking about and little bits of other planes’ essence flying around in little Tonka trucks so not the weirdest.

  I helped them with filling their dance card. I’m matchmakery like that. “Alright it’s obvious that, despite everything, you two do things to each others’ naughty bits and you make pretty babies, so how about we handle the big flaming douche … duck ball of bad, and then you can have a few dozen therapy sessions and get about getting back on each other.” Ex-angels and ex-demon queens are adorable when they blush, FYI.

  Yeah, they’d have some issues to work through, but I felt good about the way things were headed. At minimum, I was confident Apoc now had two parents who would fiercely protect him. And speaking of protecting … I had some of that to do myself so I gave the matchmaking a reprieve and changed the conversation to the veils, planes, and “Beam me up, Scotty” skills of our Boy Wonder. Eventually, I asked Michael to walk me out and we left Apoc playing with his mother on the floor with his light ’em up toys. My own new light ’em up toy was tucked into my boot.

  Chapter 19

  Norm came front and center, adding some extra rocket fuel to my tank when I got Ashlyn’s text. I’d been gone just over an hour and things were starting to move fast.

  When I ran up a few minute later, Danny, Ashlyn, and Grand were all locked and loaded. Danny waved me over to the picnic table, my own Sarah Connor gear laid out and ready to be strapped on. Two across-the-chest belts loaded with ammo, normal waist belt with a new Glock 40 and second holster to accompany Barbra. I shall call him Barry, Barry Manilow. Extra clips. Hall and Oates, my long blades, as always got strapped to my back. My new curved blades, Mary Kate and Ashley BTW, were strapped to my thigh, and last but very not least, two grenades (squeee!) hooked to my front. I looked down at myself. “Hmm, something is missing?”

  “No,” Danny said, without a question mark.

  “No, what?” I asked.

  “No Jimi. I’ll hold on to him for you,” Danny said.

  “But—”

  “I think we can both agree it’s the best option.”

  I ran through a couple of possible me-plus-bazooka scenarios. I sighed. “You’re right.”

  “And here,” Ashlyn handed me a smal
l black earpiece. “Mia is with the van. She’s parked in a lot on the backside of the vacant service station just off Main.”

  “Next to Go Taco,” I said.

  “Yes.” Then before I could ask, “And yes, we can have tacos when all this is done.”

  “I’m kind of feeling chimichangas.”

  “Or chimichangas.” At a raised eyebrow from me, she corrected, “Tacos and chimichangas.”

  “That’s my girl.”

  I adjusted the earpiece as Ashlyn continued. “She’ll have eyes on us.”

  “And ears,” Mia said.

  “And ears,” Ashlyn repeated.

  “So no freaky talk,” Mia said.

  They gave me the quick lowdown of their plans, including that Rex had sent one of the angels to guard Mia and three more to act as runners for when we needed more supplies. As for the rest of the gang, I could see for myself that they were surrounding the lake, their wings and golden glowy swords out and at the ready. The only two still a no-show were Sammy and Ariel. I had to believe they would be here. I just hoped it was in time, which I was pretty sure was in T-minus one and counting. We moved to the edge of the water and saw a small ripple in the middle as if someone had tossed an invisible rock into it. “I think it’s go time,” I said loudly enough to draw everyone’s attention. And then the world went silent like it knew shit was about to get real. I glanced at Ashlyn. “I love you.”

  “Promise me you won’t do anything stupid.”

  “I was looking for something a little more pre-epic battle romance.”

  “Fine. I love you too. Now promise me you won’t do anything stupid,” she corrected.

  I winked. “Define stupid,” I said around the grenade pin clutched in my teeth.

  I held the grenade until I saw the ripple. It might have been a little close for some people, but I was not some people. I was the Hoyo Abi.

  The explosion created a spray of water one would expect if a grenade landed in the middle of a lake. What was a tad unexpected was the fact that it kept spewing, and spewing. This went on long enough for my attention span to start tapping its Timex. WTF? I glanced down the row of peeps and got back a plethora of shoulder shrugs. Except for Ashlyn, whose look was less confused than “only you could break a lake.”

  I shrugged. “I thought it was a good idea at the time.”

  “I’m fairly sure thought didn’t have much to do with it.”

  “I thought it would be fun,” I countered.

  Ashlyn may have had more to say about the situation, but a single reverberating clang sounded from nowhere, yet everywhere.

  “Cover your ears!” Rex yelled from down the line.

  I was a little slow on the uptake, so the next ting made it into my ears, traveled through my chest, past my ding-a-ling-a-ling, down my legs, and then yanked on my toenails. “What the shit?” I yelled back.

  “They’re how Lucifer calls his army to battle,” Rex shouted.

  “He uses bells?” I was going to make a comment, a snarky one, one questioning the size of his penis, but another clang lit off, even louder this time.

  “Hell’s bells,” Rex shouted, when the reverberation subsided slightly.

  “Well, they fucking suck,” I yelled. Heads nodded.

  And they got suckier. The percussion of chimes got closer together and louder with each clang. The water trembled and waves formed, crashing over the lake’s shorelines. Glass exploded from the lake houses and nearby vehicles. With one last ear-bleeding sound the world went silent again.

  “You okay?” Danny asked.

  I stood, having been brought down to a knee. “I’m good.” I shook my head. “But damn.”

  A giant sucking sound, not to be confused by the recent sucky sound, drew our attention back to the center of the lake. “What the heck?” It looked as if someone, two guesses on who, had just pulled its drain plug.

  “Guys,” Mia said in our ears. “The lake is disappearing.”

  “Can you get eyes on it?” I asked.

  “Yeah, two seconds.” The drone flew overhead. “Holy crap!”

  I flinched at Mia’s megaphone tone. “Ouchie ears. Ouchie ears,” I replied.

  “Sorry,” she whispered. “Whatever is coming, it’s big, and I’m guessing really not friendly.”

  A tentacle the size of one of those inflatable waving-arm men that flip and bend with the wind outside of a used car dealership came out of the center of the swirling vortex. And just like that I added tentacles to my “hate ’em” list, right behind coconut. A second tentacle appeared, followed by numbers three, four, five and six. And two more to make eight, which I didn’t appreciate.

  “Please be a kraken. Please be a kraken,” Mia muttered. I cleared my throat. “Sorry. Please be an easily defeatable kraken,” Mia revised.

  “Better.” The 23andMe report on what came out of the hell hole would have shown something close to 28 percent kraken, 34 percent tarantula, 17 percent scorpion, and 21 percent pissed off. It used two of its eight hairy tentacles to dig into the lake bottom and to creepy-creature walk in our direction.

  We took a step back. “Anyone have any grand ideas?”

  “Watch its tail,” Rex said from down the line. Its bulbous head split open to reveal, we’ll go again with plethora of, pointed shark teeth. “And probably its teeth,” he added.

  “Good plan,” I agreed.

  We (okay me) didn’t wait for the creature to reach solid ground. I looked at Danny with a pretty please on my face. Danny glanced at me, then at the giant mutant sea creature, then back at me.

  “Dude, if there was ever a time for me to use a bazooka, it’s totally now.”

  Danny did another shuffle.

  I did a gimme gimme with my hands.

  “I’m with her on this one,” Ashlyn said, taking another step back as the creature flicked its tail.

  Danny swung Jimi off his back, lifted the strap from over his head, and held him out in my direction. “Do you know how to use him?”

  “Psht.” I shouldered Jimi, aimed him at the belly of the beast, and fired. I turned to Danny with a narrow-eyed glare. He was holding out the shell with a smug smile. “Seriously? Now? Now is when you want to teach me a lesson about jumping the gun?”

  “No time like the present,” Danny said, already moving to load the shell.

  “If we get taken out in the first round by a giant wet scorpionpus … kraktaranpion …? I’m going to—”

  “You’re good to go,” Danny said over my threat.

  The creature screamed, and what was left of the nearby windows shattered. I took that opportunity to shut him up. The explosion hit the tarakrakion’s mudflap in the back of its throat. It paused.

  “Again,” I yelled at Danny.

  He loaded another shell. “Ready!”

  This time I went for a tentacle. The krakscorptula lifted said tentacle, but Jimi put a dinner plate-size hole in the second and third one. They flipped and flopped until they detached completely. #Gagme.

  “Give me another one,” I ordered as it used its remaining six legs and stinger to pull itself along the ground.

  “Last one, so make it count,” Danny said.

  “Head, shoulders, knees and toes, knees and—” A tentacle whipped out, snatched Jimi, and tossed him over all eight of Kraktastic’s (#namewinner) shoulders. I opened my mouth to have a convo about how it’s not nice to take weapons from a demon hunter, when a second tentacle wrapped around my ankle and jerked me off my feet. My head slammed into the ground during liftoff, so I wasn’t sure if the stars I saw were real or the Looney Tunes version. Or both. I got flung around a good bit, since it decided to use me as a human fly swatter for the angels that were in the air now, their blades and bows swinging and piercing the creature at every given opening. Luckily for them and me, Kraktastic’s aim wasn’t all that good, I brushed wings a few times, but no solid hits.

  Danny, Grand and Ashlyn were on ground attack, trying to get at it anyway they could between st
rikes from its (I didn’t need a skull-and-crossbones sticker) poisonous tail. In a short lull, I was finally able to release Barbra from my hip and unload a baker’s dozen bullets into its side. It made me feel a smidge better, which lasted all the way up until it swung me at the nearby trees. I curled just enough to not take a trunk to the back, but ended up getting bumper car-ed through a literal forest of branches, taking a good-size limb to the side of my face. Once through, it held me up like a prized fish at the end of a line. I took the time to flip it off with one hand and to check to make sure my ear was still attached with the other. Barbra and my fingertips came back slick with blood, but there didn’t appear to be any lost or dangling body parts, so a win.

  A loud buzzing started behind me and I would’ve hung my head if Kraktastic didn’t already have me ankles over ass. I settled for a dramatic sigh instead. I really, really, really didn’t want to deal with more locusts.

  Luckily, it was Mia’s drone. It buzzed past my head as Mia’s voice came through my surprisingly still intact earpiece. “Hold on. Dropping off a special package for this fucknut.”

  The angels continued to encircle the beast, attacking from multiple directions, Danny, Grand, and Ashlyn had its scorpion tail pinned to the ground, temporarily distracting it enough for me to reholster Barbra, replacing her with one of the curved blades. I think it was Mary Kate, but they look so much alike.

  “T-minus three and counting,” Mia said, as the drone reversed past me again. I swung my body up to hook Mary Kate into the tentacle holding my ankle and pulled it back, just as Mia yelled “One!”

  There was a muffled explosion from the belly of the beast just as Mary Kate slid through the tentacle holding me. I free-fell nearly two stories. My ass, back, head, and boots met the ground, forcing all the air in my lungs out in a rush.

  “AJ!” Ashlyn screamed as she pivoted and began to run in my direction. “It’s coming down!”

  It was 100 percent Norm who rolled me onto my side, as the biggest part of the imploded beast collapsed alongside me.