“What is going on—” Mrs. Paulson began, only to stop dead at the sight of me.
“Dyate,” she whispered.
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
MY GRIN MUST’VE looked savage, because I felt every inch the fearsome creature she thought I was as I came toward her. The innkeeper looked like the same salt-and-ginger-haired old lady I’d first met. She even still had on an apron, as if I’d interrupted her while she was baking dessert, but out of the two of us, she was the real monster.
This bitch had delivered my sister to demons. She’d also sent Detective Kroger after me, and for all I knew, might’ve been the person who’d messed with the brakes on my parents’ car. I wanted her dead so badly, it burned. But first...
I dropped my sack when I was a few feet away. She still didn’t move, following protocol on how to avoid being mauled by a Hound, but her gaze flicked to the sack in surprise. Guess she hadn’t noticed it before, what with not expecting a hulking demon lizard to show up in her dining room. Then I pulled out the note I’d written earlier, shoving it in front of her.
Take me to the gateway.
Her face puckered into a frown as she stared at it. I knew she could read what I’d written; my note to Costa had proven that. My hope was that she’d think I was a stray who’d gotten separated from its handler, but that had a note telling whichever minion that found me to send me back home. As for the sack, well, dogs carried stuff sometimes. Maybe I should’ve held the sack in my teeth to look more Hound-like.
When her frown cleared and she looked at me with palpable hatred, I knew my plan had backfired.
“Davidian,” she hissed, yanking something out of her apron.
I lunged to the left when I caught sight of a barrel. Her first shot missed me by inches and her second one went over my head as I ducked. Then I charged, steamrolling into her, fueled by hatred and strength from a legacy I still didn’t understand. She went down, the back of her head smacking against the tile floor. But she still didn’t let go of the gun.
I yanked its barrel to the side just in time, sending the shot she fired into the wall instead of my stomach. Despite her aged appearance, she had a grip like a bear. Teeth like one, too. She tore into my shoulder, making me yelp with pained surprise. I couldn’t get the gun free, yet I didn’t dare let go of it to pull her mouth off me.
As if Adrian were whispering instructions into my ear, I suddenly knew what he would do. So I did it.
I threw myself forward, my momentum causing Mrs. Paulson’s head to smack against the tile again. Her scream reverberated against my aching shoulder, yet she didn’t let go of the gun or stop biting me. I flung forward several more times, ignoring how it drove her teeth deeper into my flesh. Finally, her grip on the gun loosened and I was able to yank it away. My shoulder throbbed—I’d need a tetanus shot now, dammit!—but my grip didn’t waver when I pointed the gun in her face.
“Where’s the gateway?” I snapped, forgetting for a second that she couldn’t understand me.
Mrs. Paulson spat at me, landing a disgusting glop on my cheek. I wiped it off with my other hand before grabbing the note that had fluttered to the floor near us.
“Where?” I said, shaking it at her.
She responded with a torrent of Demonish, some of which I recognized as more curse words. My jaw clenched. Adrian was on his way, and I didn’t know whose side he was on, so I had to be gone before he arrived. That meant I couldn’t waste any more time asking Mrs. Paulson nicely.
I lowered the gun and shot her in the arm. At this range, it blew a large chunk off, coating me in an instant spatter of red. She howled, her agonized writhing almost dislodging me, but I held on and shoved the note in front of her again.
“Where?” I yelled, putting the barrel to her leg next.
She didn’t need to understand my words to translate the threat. “In my office!” she gasped. “Please, no more!”
She deserved more. So, so much more, but I didn’t have the time or the stomach to give it to her. I hauled her up, planting the barrel of the gun into her side. She sagged, leaning against me so heavily, she almost toppled us over.
“Show me,” I said, jerking my head at the hallway.
Once again, she got the gist and began staggering down the hallway. From the quiet around us, we were now alone in the inn. Guess if a massive demon lizard hadn’t been enough to scare the guests off, hearing several gunshots had done the trick.
“Here,” she said, leaning against the doorway to an office.
I couldn’t see through to the dark realm here, but then again, I hadn’t with any of the other gateways, either. Still, I wasn’t going to take her word for it. I jabbed her harder in the side with the gun and shook the note for emphasis.
“Where?” I said, shoving her into the room.
Blood had turned her graying hair crimson, and more dripped from what was left of her upper arm, but she still managed to catch herself instead of falling. Again I was reminded that minions might look human, but they weren’t, so while Mrs. Paulson was acting weak and defeated, the bitch still had lots of fight left in her.
“There,” she said, pointing at the corner. Then she braced herself against her desk, as if she didn’t have the strength to hold herself up on her own.
Sure she didn’t. I kept the gun aimed at her as I went inside. The corner had a bookshelf on one side and an oil painting on the other. Certainly nothing that screamed “Demon door!” but when had any of them been helpfully marked? I stretched out my hand toward the center of the corner—and gasped when the blood coating it suddenly pulsed with an almost painful energy.
Adrian was right. It did feel like an electric shock, but only for the parts of me that Mrs. Paulson had bled on. That’s why I’d done the most awful, unforgivable thing to him before I left him tied up and alone in that room.
I’d bled him.
Adrian told me I needed minion, demon or Judian blood to cross through a gateway. I hadn’t been sure if Mrs. Paulson would be here tonight, so I’d taken precautions to ensure that I could get through the gateway anyway, and by precautions, I mean about two beer bottles’ worth of Adrian’s blood.
Maybe now, I wouldn’t need it. The last thing I wanted to do was paint my skin with the proof of my awful deed. I could barely look at the bottles without feeling guilty enough to cry, so hopefully Mrs. Paulson had bled on me enough to—
An ominous click had me throwing myself to the side, and not a moment too soon. White hot pain grazed my arm, but my otherworldly speed had saved my life. While I’d let thoughts of Adrian distract me, Mrs. Paulson had gotten another gun from somewhere.
I fired back, not even getting a chance to really aim because I was too busy running out of the room. Just as quickly, I ran back in, cursing myself the whole time. Don’t leave a minion alone with a demon realm gateway, dumb ass!
Mrs. Paulson was on the floor, one hand stretched toward the gateway as if she were trying to claw her way inside. She wouldn’t be going anywhere, though. A single smoking hole dotted her forehead and the back of her head was gone. Then the rest of her disappeared as her body disintegrated into ashes.
I didn’t have time to marvel at my shot, celebrate this small revenge for Jasmine, or be worried about how little it bothered me to kill someone. Again. Instead, I went back to the dining room to grab my sack and rub more of Mrs. Paulson’s blood on me. Then, bracing myself, I went back to her office and ran straight for the corner.
Every other time I’d entered a realm, I’d tumbled out of the gateway into a barren landscape of frozen darkness. This time, I landed in a decrepit version of the same bed-and-breakfast, with lights glowing from the nearby hallway.
Mrs. Paulson’s office looked a lot different on this side. It didn’t have a stick of furniture and the only decorations on the walls were holes. Aside from some ratty-looking bl
ankets, it was also empty. When I crept out into the hallway, however, I found out that the rest of the B and B wasn’t.
“Hound!” a brown-haired guy who looked about my age yelled. Then he froze, giving me a chance to take in his ragged clothes, unkempt hair and wiry build. If I’d seen him in the real world, I’d have expected him to be holding up a sign asking for money. For a human in a demon realm, he looked great. His clothes were dirty and torn, but they were real clothes. Not disgusting human hides, and though he was lean, he didn’t look half-starved.
Was the Bennington realm slightly less appalling than the other ones? The thought gave me hope that my sister was still alive. I wished I could ask the guy about Jasmine, but all he’d hear were hisses, and I’d left my notepad back on the other side.
Adrian had told me that Jasmine wouldn’t be in the B and B, yet I checked it anyway. All the people stood like statues in whatever posture they’d been in when they heard the “Hound” warning, making them look like exhibits in a wax museum. They were in their teens or twenties and looked as disheveled as the first guy I’d seen. Still, no one looked abused, and the kitchen had real food in it. From the makeshift beds in almost every room, these people seemed to live here, yet I hadn’t come across a minion yet.
I also didn’t see Jasmine, but she’d been here. One of the girls had on a sweater that I recognized as hers. Again, I ached to ask, but I didn’t have time to find a way to communicate, not to mention that minions could show up here any minute.
So could Adrian. I let that thought spur me as I left the B and B, dropping my sack by a nearby tree stump so I could grab it on my way back. Then I ran toward the lights in the distance. The temperatures made my teeth chatter, but being here filled me with a desperate sort of hope.
Soon, I’d know for myself if Jasmine was really still alive. If she was, I’d keep up my search for the weapon, even if I’d be doing it without Adrian. Zach would help me, if only because he didn’t want the demons to get it. After I found the slingshot, I’d use it to free Jasmine. Then we’d hide out from the demons and I’d help her get over her captivity while helping myself get over my feelings for Adrian.
Bleakness threaded through me. Guess I should focus on one impossible task at a time.
Growling sounds made me skid to a stop midway up the hill. Lots of trees remained in this realm, standing like tall, petrified monuments to the world they’d been snatched from. That made it hard to see, even with my abilities working at full capacity. Had to be Hounds patrolling the woods.
Those odd snarls came nearer, echoing in ways that almost sounded like they were coming from above. I looked around, expecting a demon lizard to pounce out from behind a tree, but none did. Since I wasn’t supposed to act afraid, I continued back up the hill, though going at a walk instead of a run.
Crashing noises above were my only warning. Then I had to run to avoid being flattened by a pile of frozen tree branches. Even at top speed, I still got struck, but I forgot about the pain when I saw what had caused them to come down around me.
Gray, leathery wings snapped back from their protective circle, revealing a creature that had to be nine feet tall. It crouched in almost apelike style, with its straight, massive arms resting between its bent legs. Shoulder and chest muscles bulged as it raised its head, showing red, glowing eyes and a face that was wider than a Hound’s, but no less animalistic.
If Hounds looked like what would happen if a werewolf mated with a Komodo dragon, then this thing looked like the love child of a Komodo-werewolf-pterodactyl threesome. Worse, the way it stared at me said that moving or standing still made no difference. It could see me either way.
Gargoyle ran through my mind with a morbid sort of fascination. The Bennington realm had a gargoyle.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
I DID THE only thing I could think of when confronted by a much-larger creature who thought I was a dog-lizard: I rolled on my back and showed it my belly, hoping the “Don’t kill me, I’m friendly!” gesture was as universal among animals here as it was in my realm.
The gargoyle cocked its head, staring at me as if I was the strangest thing it had ever seen. It didn’t start tearing into me with those knifelike claws or teeth, though, so I considered my move a win. Cautiously, I rolled over, twitching so much from nervousness that my Archon-glamoured tail probably looked like it was wagging. I wasn’t just in over my head with this situation—I was a thousand feet underwater.
The gargoyle chuffed at me. That’s the closest way I could describe it, but at least it didn’t start speaking Demonish. Hey, gargoyles could talk in cartoons; how the hell did I know if they could talk in real life, too?
“Hiya,” I said back, hoping what it heard was a similar-sounding chuff.
It chuffed again, beating its wings for emphasis. Clearly I was supposed to do something. Damned if I knew what.
“Uh, follow you?” I guessed, taking a hesitant step back up the hill.
It rose with an explosion of air from those powerful wings, which I took as a yes. Then I had to scramble to avoid another shower of frozen branches as it blasted through the tops of the trees. Triumph and terror mingled inside me. I’d met a real-life gargoyle and survived. Now there was a Facebook update for a later time, not that anyone would believe me. Besides, what if gargoyles weren’t the only unexpected creatures in this realm?
For the space of a few heartbeats, I wasn’t sure what to do. Run toward the demon town over the hill? Or go back to the gateway inside the B and B? Adrian hadn’t been kidding when he said the demons in this realm would beef up their security. No wonder there hadn’t been any minions at the B and B. They didn’t need them to keep the humans in line. Not when death flew from above.
And prowled along the ground, I realized as familiar hissing noises heralded the approach of three Hounds.
“You’re late,” I told them dryly, letting the beasts smear me with disgusting, slimy licks as they said their versions of hello. Between meeting a gargoyle and getting a Hound tongue-bath, I’d have nightmares forever from this realm alone.
Decision made, I followed the Hounds back up the hill. Since I was already scarred for life, I wasn’t leaving until I’d seen for myself that Jasmine was still alive.
When we reached the top of the hill and I caught my first look at the city, I paused. Beautiful, I thought grudgingly.
A lot more time had passed since this section of the realm had been swallowed. Most of the forest had been cut down, leaving smooth, flat ground. Frozen rivers snaked through the valley in zigzags, ice reflecting the lights from the castle. The effect made the castle look like it sat on silver necklaces, and the significance of its blue stone walls wasn’t lost on me.
Silver and sapphire, the same color as Adrian’s eyes. I was staring at his former home, and it was barbarically magnificent.
I felt like I was leaving pieces of my heart behind as I followed the Hounds down the hill to the huge castle. Of course Adrian must have been playing me. No one raised by demons would have the fortitude to give all this up. People not raised by demons would struggle with saying no to all the power, money and supernatural bling that was Adrian’s for the taking.
Like his castle. It could double as an icy version of Hogwarts with its massive size. Add in stone gates with elaborate frozen carvings glittering along their tops like cake frosting, and it was breathtaking. The minions who guarded it had shadow markings in their skin, showing they belonged to Demetrius, but their silvery breastplates all had an elaborately scripted A stenciled into the metal. So did the frescos in the outer courtyards, as if I needed more proof that I was in Adrian’s former realm.
And all of this would be his again, if only he turned me over to the demons like everyone expected him to.
One of the Hounds nudged me, almost knocking me over. Okay, so I’d stopped running to stare at Adrian’s onc
e and future kingdom. It had all the extravagance of the other realms, but with one notable difference. Where were the slaves? I hadn’t passed any ramshackle villages on the way, and most of the people milling around the courtyards were minions. Had—?
Something at the top of one of the towers caught my eye. This tower was lit up more than the others—that I’d noticed from the top of the hill—and it also had more open spaces, allowing for easier viewing inside.
That’s why I could see the girl in the cage. Amber light surrounded her, coating her hair and body in varying shades of gold. The cage hung by a thick chain from the tower’s roof, and the girl was sitting in it, her back resting against a corner. She wasn’t wearing much more than I was, making me wonder how she hadn’t frozen to death, until the humming noises coming from the tower clicked with the golden lights bathing her.
She was surrounded by portable heating devices. When she glanced down at the Hounds, who’d started to bay in annoyance because I’d stopped moving again, I glimpsed her face. Even though she was more than forty feet above me, my heart started to pound while my soul felt like it sucked in a breath.
Jasmine. My sister was alive and in that cage!
An avalanche of emotions rolled over me, making my eyes blur with a surge of tears. All these weeks, I’d been risking my life to save her, but an ugly, hidden part of me had thought she was already dead. Everyone else I cared for had been snatched away from me, so why should she be any different? That’s why, for the space of several stunned seconds, I couldn’t stop staring at Jasmine. That hopeless, jaded part of me was convinced that if I blinked or looked away, she’d disappear.
She didn’t, despite my finally being brave enough to close my eyes. When I opened them and saw that she was still there, a noise tore from my throat that was part sob, part laugh. She was alive! Really, truly alive, and unhurt, from what I could see of her. If I hadn’t been surrounded by minions who’d kill me the second they realized who I was, I might have giggled from the maelstrom of relief that flooded me, joining all the other feelings that seemed to compete with each other for maximum intensity.
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