by Julie Hall
Shannon plowed forward. “To cut to the chase, Logan has been lured out of the realm, and we believe he’s being held by the enemy.” Shannon held up her hand to cut off anything I might say. Wise woman. “As of this point, we don’t know exactly where he is, which brings up some serious concerns. There are only a few reasons we wouldn’t be able to locate him.”
The blood drained from my face. He’d never come to terms with the last time he’d been held by the enemy. He had both the physical and emotional scars to prove it. I raised a shaky hand to cover my mouth. My heart didn’t just twist painfully this time, it bled.
“Before I continue, Audrey,” Shannon fixed her crystalline blue eye on me, “do you feel anything that might give us an indication of where he may be?”
“Um, I don’t think so.”
“Are you sure? The link between the two of you could be very useful to us right now.”
“What are you talking about?” Kevin broke in. “Why would Audrey be able to tell where he is?”
“Because they’re bonded,” Shannon answered.
“You and Logan are bonded?” Kaitlin’s face was a strange mix of confusion and excitement.
“Yes, it’s kind of a recent thing. Recent and unexpected,” I threw in for good measure before turning my attention back to Shannon. “How do you people know about these things so quickly?”
“Hey, way to go Aud.” Kevin held his hand up for a high-five. The look I gave him withered the smile on his face. “Ah yeah, not the right time, huh?” He dropped his hand to the table with a thud.
Shannon ignored my question. “Sometimes bonded pairs have a sense of where the other is, geographically and emotionally. It doesn’t happen all the time. But I needed to ask. That must not be the case with you two. Perhaps the bond is too new. Or maybe it’s not meant to stick.” That was inserted a little too casually for my taste. Not meant to stick? Something churned inside me. “Moving on—”
“Wait.” I cut her off. “It did happen. At least the geographic location part. Up until about an hour ago I did know where Logan was. It was like I developed an internal compass that pointed toward him at all time. But it disappeared. I’ve had this really uneasy feeling I couldn’t shake ever since.”
She looked sharply at me. “That makes sense. That would have been about the time they left the realm. Not being on the same plane of existence must be blocking your connection.”
“They left?”
Shannon’s frown deepened, and she cast a glance at Kaitlin, who’d started crying again. Did Kaitlin know more than we did, or was this just her reaction to the news?
“Yes, they. We’re not sure, but we believe we have discovered our mole.”
I held my breath without meaning to. Shannon was taking far too long of a time to get this out.
Finally, she said it. “We believe Alrik tricked Logan into leaving the realm under the guise of your family being in jeopardy again.”
Forget holding my breath, my heart stopped beating for several seconds then sped up to recover from the lapse.
Alrik?
Alrik was the traitor? Our fun-loving resident Viking had deceived and betrayed us all? I shook my head without even realizing it.
“I know it’s hard to believe, but the evidence we’ve uncovered can’t be ignored. He got sloppy covering his tracks at the end. We recently found a hunter in the bunker at your family’s home who says Alrik knocked him out and chained him to the metal bed frame before he could ask for more backup, as he planned to do. Further, Alrik sent messages to us that your family was overprotected. Those reports were what caused us to pull hunters back when they should have been left there. We believe he did it so your family would be in a precarious enough situation that you’d cave to Satan’s demands. We also suspect he may have found a way to conceal your location on Earth, which is why we were looking for you all over northern Ohio. We’re not sure when he turned sides, but the more we uncover, the more incriminating the evidence appears.”
Shannon’s succinct explanation made a sick sort of sense, but it also didn’t. This was Alrik we were talking about, for goodness’ sake. The man had a pet polar bear. Or at least he claimed to have one. When I thought of him, the first thing that came to mind was his larger-than-life smile and booming laugh.
A heavy silence hung in the air. It wasn’t just me who’d been struck mute by the news. Kaitlin’s teary-eyed state made sense now.
“How certain are we of the validity of this information?” Romona, always practical, asked.
“Of Alrik’s actions? We’re positive.”
“And you’re saying you think this is all about me? That Alrik is trying to use Logan against me somehow?”
“With your family heavily protected, we think he may have gone after someone else you care about. You’re now bonded to Logan. Who better to use as a bargaining chip?”
“But that’s so new, how would he even know about the bond? Satan isn’t omnipresent.”
“No, he’s not. But who do you think Logan would have told about it?”
The answer was as plain as day. Of course, Logan would have told Alrik. They were best friends.
“Having failed on Earth, it’s possible Alrik acted on his own to devise a plan to capture Logan. Delivering your intended to Satan himself might have granted him a boon he was hoping for.” Shannon spoke exactly what my mind came up with.
“If that’s true, he truly is an idiot,” I said. “Anyone who thinks they are going to get something of value from Satan is a fool.”
“I don’t disagree with you. I’m only relaying what we think might have happened.”
“I’m assuming this means you can’t track Alrik either.”
She shook her head.
“No, this doesn’t make any sense.” I put my hands on my temples. “Why would Alrik do something like this? Why would he work for Satan? There has to be a motive. What is it?”
“We’re not sure.”
“You’re not sure?” I scoffed at her.
Her lips pressed together in a fine line. “All of this is happening very fast. Information is still coming in. We’re going off our best assumptions at the moment. Alrik’s motives are still unclear, but we do know he sabotaged your family’s security, and we do know he left the realm with Logan. Right now there’s no evidence to say Logan had any knowledge of Alrik’s motives, and for that reason we’re treating this like a hostage situation. Should anything come up to indicate Logan did—”
“Wait!” I jumped up from my seat. “Are you telling me you think Logan may be a traitor?”
Shannon remained unaffected by my passionate response. “Logan’s always behaved completely above board, so besides the slightly suspicious timing of your bonding, we have no foundation for misgivings of that nature at this time.”
At this time?
I was struck speechless. How could they think Logan would betray any of us? Alrik was hard enough to believe, but Logan too? No way. Besides, we were bonded now, and . . .
And then it fell together. That was it. Shannon had just hinted at it herself. They thought there was a chance Logan had bonded with me to lure me back to Earth.
“Our bonding,” I whispered to myself.
Old fears and insecurities rushed to the surface. Could that actually be what happened? I’d always doubted Logan’s feelings for me. What if I was right the whole time? Everything had happened so suddenly today. Could it have all been staged?
Push beyond your fears.
It was a small voice inside that spoke to me. A whisper to my heart rather than my mind.
And I listened.
I pushed aside the insecurities that rode me hard. The lies that said there was no way Logan would be interested in me because I simply wasn’t enough. Pretty enough. Smart enough. Strong enough. Brave enough. Good enough.
I turned Logan over in my brain with as unbiased a view as I could manage. He wasn’t perfect by any stretch of the imagination. He was stubborn, pushy
, and bossy, and he had a serious issue with forgiving himself.
But he was also loyal and reliable and brave and kind. He didn’t hold grudges against people. He was selfless to a fault, and under his stoic mask, he was caring beyond belief. It was a combination of the things he wasn’t as much as the things he was that made up my mind.
He wasn’t untruthful, wasn’t selfish, wasn’t self-serving, wasn’t unfaithful. He wasn’t any of the things that would make me doubt him now.
I knew Logan. He wasn’t a betrayer.
I don’t know what look was in my eyes when I finally met Shannon’s gaze, but it must have been powerful. Her features pinched for only a moment, and then she gave me a curt nod before plowing forward with her agenda.
“We’ll let you know once our plan has been put into action. Audrey, we may need you on the ground at some point because of your link with Logan, but we’ll let you know if it comes to that.” She stepped toward the door.
“You mean we won’t be helping with the rescue attempt?” For once it wasn’t me complaining about being left behind. Kaitlin beat me to it.
The angel let out a quiet sigh before turning back around. “Look, due to the emotional nature of this mission, we don’t think it’s wise—”
The door behind Shannon abruptly opened, cutting off her words.
“Sir?” Shannon’s voice was full of reverence.
The familiar man laid a hand on her shoulder. “Plans have changed. I’ll take it from here. These ones are coming with me.”
“Yes. Of course, sir.”
I blinked at Shannon’s quick obedience. I mean, this guy had a habit of showing up in weird places, but I wouldn’t have dreamed he outranked her.
“You’re seeing to this yourself?” It sounded as if she expected him to correct her.
“That’s right. He’s no longer on Earth, so I’ll be heading this mission.”
“Oh, I see.” Shannon turned to us briefly. If I were better at reading the facial expressions of a cyborg, I might have been able to interpret the look on her face before she slipped silently out the door.
I was confused. Again.
“Joe?”
“Hello, Audrey.” The slight smile on his face was both kind and sad. “I’m glad to see you again, but not under these circumstances.”
My friends remained mute, so I continued to ignore their presence. “Logan’s not on Earth? Does that mean he’s back in our realm?”
“I’m afraid that isn’t the case. He’s somewhere far worse. Somewhere hunters can’t venture alone. That’s why I’m going with you.”
“No!” Romona’s sharp exclamation was jarring. “It can’t be! Alrik wouldn’t have taken him there.”
Joe’s eyes broadcasted regret.
“Where exactly is he?” I asked, looking between my grandmother and Joe.
“Hell,” Romona answered for him. Her voice was eerily hollow. “The one place we can’t venture alone is Hell.”
27
It Begins at the End
“Hell! Logan’s in Hell?”
“Yes, Audrey. I’m sorry this has happened.” The sincerity in Joe’s eyes was unmistakable.
“But . . . but how do you even know how to find him?”
“Because I’m the only one who’s been there before . . . and made it back. You’ll need my protection to travel there.”
“This is insane.” I placed my hands on either side of my head and squeezed. Maybe it was me who was finally going insane?
Joe reached forward and removed my hands. He looked deep into my eyes with a hand on my shoulder. “We will bring him back.”
It was a promise I would hold him to.
He turned to the rest of the group. “All right, you all know who I am.” Nods all around. Great, I was missing something . . . again. This was getting old. Was I going to have to play twenty questions this time to figure it out? Jump through some burning hoops. It was so seriously awesome to always be the one who—
“Audrey?” I glanced up. Joe watched me expectedly. Apparently, he’d been talking while I was fuming.
Whoops.
“Yeah, sorry, what?”
“I know you know me as Joe, and you’re welcome to call me that, but you need to know who I really am.”
Thirty minutes later we were gearing up in the locker room, and I was still going over and over the unexpected introduction.
The Son of God.
Joe was the literal Son of God, and he was going to help us get Logan back. I was still digesting Hugo being the Holy Spirit, so finding out Joe was really Jesus just added another log to the burning fire of news I had to process.
I gave myself a mental shake. It didn’t matter. I mean yes, it did matter, because it meant we were about to kick some serious demon butt with the Son of God with us, but more importantly we were going to bring Logan home safely. My focus needed to stay on that one goal. Eventually I’d digest the information about Joe properly, but right now I had a job to do.
Joe gave us a rough layout of his plan and then sent us off to gear up. We were only a small group, because a large contingent of hunters entering Hell would be more likely to be noticed. This was a covert infiltration mission, not a siege. The hope was we could slip in, locate Logan, and leave before being detected.
I was the first to arrive in the transportation room. I leaned against the wall and distracted myself by watching the engineers scurry around to get things ready. There were at least twice the number as usual manning the different desks and equipment. Lights flashed rapidly on the panels as the engineers’ fingers flew over them. The mechanical whirl of the machines was routine, but the hard—and somewhat frantic—looks on the faces of the people around me were not.
An eerie sort of quiet permeated the air. Some of the engineers’ brows were dotted with sweat. Apparently being transported to Hell was a heck of a lot harder than going down to Earth. They had started prepping for our trip before we even knew we were making it.
I looked over my shoulder when the door squeaked open.
“What are you doing here?” It was rude, but it was equally shocking to see Jonathon stride into the transportation room decked out in hunter armor. Shocking. Bizarre. Confusing. Take your pick.
“Ever heard of triage?” he said without sparing me a glance. “I’m your med unit on this mission.”
“But you’re not a hunter.” I stood up straight and faced him.
“I can take care of myself.” With jerky movements he strapped a leather scabbard to his waist and roughly thrust the thin blade of a rapier into it. He looked up and caught my look of incredulousness.
“I used to be a prince, remember? Fencing was part of the job description. I was a champion swordsman.” When my face didn’t change, he sighed. “Just because I don’t know how to glide down a sheet of ice while balancing on planks of wood doesn’t mean I’m not good for other things.”
“If you were so good at this stuff, why weren’t you assigned to be a hunter instead of a healer?” I didn’t say it to be impolite. I genuinely didn’t understand.
He seemed offended anyway. “Despite my obvious set of skills, I was better suited as a healer than a hunter. I’d think you, of all people, would understand that looks can be deceiving.”
I didn’t miss the jab. Jonathon was obviously still upset about how things had gone down between the two of us.
“Why are you doing this?”
“Because they asked me to.” His gaze wouldn’t quite meet my eyes.
“But you don’t even like Logan.”
“Don’t have to like the guy to help find him.” He crossed his arms.
“I think it would certainly help. Not to mention where we’re headed. Can you honestly tell me Logan is someone you’re willing to go to Hell and back for?”
“Funny.”
“It wasn’t meant to be.”
He finally looked me in the eyes. “If we’re talking about literal interpretation, then yes, it looks like he i
s.”
I wasn’t used to this new, snippy Jonathon. It both annoyed and saddened me. My hands fisted and ended up on my hips. “Jonathon, I appreciate your willingness to do this, I truly do, but it doesn’t have to be you.”
“Doesn’t it?” he asked. Before I could respond, he turned on a heel and strode to the opposite side of the room.
I worried my lip. Part of me thought having him along was a colossal mistake, but I couldn’t argue the fact that having a warrior medic with us would be a huge help. There were no guarantees where we were going, and like it or not, there was a solid chance we’d need his skills at some point in this mission. I was once again left in complete confusion as to what God was thinking, but . . . God either knew what He was doing or He didn’t. It was time for me to choose to believe that He did.
Jonathon positioned himself as far away from me as possible and stared at the busy engineers. His face was hard as granite. Regret filled me.
A gentle hand brought me out of my reverie. “Interesting development, isn’t it?” Romona lifted her chin in Jonathon’s direction.
“Yeah.” I pressed two fingers to my temple and rubbed. “I wish I’d done things differently. He’s so bitter now. I was stupid.”
She squeezed my free hand before letting go, not agreeing nor disagreeing with my words. The situation just was what it was.
There was no going back, only moving forward.
A commotion drew my attention to the door where the rest of our rescue crew had appeared. Kaitlin and Kevin were decked out in just as much armor and gear as the rest of us. Joe—I was having trouble thinking of him by any other name—followed. For once he wasn’t in his signature T-shirt and jeans. He looked regal in his own armor.
Movement around the room stopped upon his entry. Joe made a motion with his hand that they should continue what they were doing and then beckoned the hunters to him. Jonathon crossed the room to join us, and we arranged ourselves in a semicircle around our leader.
“You are all acquainted with the plan?” Joe asked.
We nodded. The faces around me were focused and serious.
