To Hell And Back (The Lily Harper #3)

by H. P. Mallory

  I heard the elevator doors in Alaire’s lobby open with a swoosh as Tallis carried me inside. Alaire stood on my left and Bill on my right. Alaire pushed the button for the sixth floor and the elevator doors closed as it lurched up.

  “I am willing to make you a deal, bladesmith,” Alaire started, offering Tallis a cold and calculated smile.

  But Tallis wouldn’t look at him. Instead, he faced forward, his countenance growing more rigid. “The time fur agreements atween oos is over,” he answered in a monotone.

  “Oh, I don’t think so,” Alaire rebutted with a gentle chuckle.

  “Ah’m nae interested in makin’ deals wif the likes o’ ye,” Tallis responded, glaring at Alaire with an angry look.

  “Well, unfortunately for you,” Alaire continued in his pompous tone, “you don’t have a leg to stand on. I am the one in the position of power here, Black, because I’m the one with the antidote to the demon’s bite.”

  “Whit are ye gettin’ at, Alaire?” Tallis inquired, turning to face Alaire with the full impact of his hateful gaze.

  “That’s better,” Alaire said with an impish smile. It was clear that Alaire relished being in a position of power. He enjoyed playing the puppet master to those around him. And knowing Tallis as well as I did, he could never be anyone’s puppet. But now that Alaire had the rare position of advantage over Tallis, he intended to take full benefit from it. “If I agree to save Ms. Harper’s life, you will agree to honor our original contract again.”

  Tallis immediately shook his head and his fierce eyes burned in his face. “Nae, Ah would sooner see ’er dead.”

  At his words, a shiver raced through me.

  “Would you?” Alaire asked with another acerbic laugh.

  “Well, I would sooner see her alive!” Bill snapped at Tallis. Frowning, he faced Alaire, although both men ignored him. “What are you talking about? Agreement?” he prattled on.

  “I wonder what decision Ms. Harper would have you make on her behalf, Black? Would she choose to live or die?” Alaire asked. Eyeing me with mock sympathy, he added, “Perhaps we may never know,” and shook his head with a sigh. “Such a shame, really.”

  “What the hell’s he talking about, anyway?” Bill asked Tallis as he threw his hands on his hips. “What contract?”

  “It was a simple agreement that existed between the bladesmith and me,” Alaire began. The elevator dinged open and he stepped into the hallway, turning around again to hold the elevator door for the rest of us. His eyes fell on mine and he studied me for a few moments, as if trying to ascertain how much time I had left.

  “What was the agreement?” Bill persisted as he followed Tallis into the hallway.

  “Black was to bring Ms. Harper to me for a proper introduction,” Alaire began, leading the way down the darkly lit hallway while Tallis and Bill followed.

  “He did that!” Bill argued with Alaire, who started to shake his head. “Dude, I was there!” Bill insisted. “Nips lost her freakin’ mind an’ pulled her sword on you, remember?”

  “Yes, yes, I remember it well,” Alaire said, sounding irritated.

  When Alaire reached the single door at the end of the hallway, he unlocked it and opened it wide for Tallis and Bill to enter. Tallis carried me inside, and I recognized Alaire’s office immediately. I remembered the large, black desk that dominated the room, as well as the charcoal walls. Two black couches sat in front of Alaire’s desk and beyond them was a large pool table. It, too, was painted and upholstered black.

  “So, what’s the big deal then?” Bill continued, throwing his hands into the air. “Conan kept his side of the deal, so that means you gotta give Lily the anti-venom.”

  “A mere introduction was not the extent of our agreement,” Alaire clarified before turning to face Tallis. “Put her on the desk,” he instructed. He went to the far end of the room and unlocked a file cabinet with the same key he’d used to enter the room. Tallis laid me on top of the black lacquered desk and studied me for a moment or two, his face a blank canvas, as usual.

  From my vantage point atop the desk, I saw three crystal chandeliers that hung in a row above the pool table. On the wall just below them were paintings of 1940s-style pinup girls. I was immediately reminded of the first time I’d visited this room, when I’d pulled my sword on Alaire. Knowing what I did about the Keeper of the Underground now, I half wished I’d run him through when I’d had the chance.

  “Dude, you gotta give Lily the anti-venom,” Bill anxiously repeated, his eyes pleading.

  “I do not have to do anything,” Alaire replied, sounding offended as he approached us again, a syringe in his hand.

  “We dinnae hae time fer idle conversation,” Tallis started.

  “A good observation, Black,” Alaire agreed. Gripping my arm, he held the needle just above it, pausing as he studied me. “Because your bladesmith is less than willing to negotiate a compromise regarding our expired agreement, I must have first your word that if I save your life, you will consent to owing me a favor,” Alaire stipulated as he eyed me narrowly.

  “What kind of favor?” Bill asked, shaking his head as though he didn’t like where the conversation was going. In truth, I didn’t like it any more than Bill, but I hated the idea of one hundred years in Shade even more …

  “Never mind the nature of the favor,” Alaire barked back at Bill before his eyes found mine again.

  “Ah willnae allow Lily tae be indebted tae ye,” Tallis stated as he stepped in between Alaire and me. His eyes remained on the syringe Alaire still held in his hand.

  “I don’t recall including you in this conversation, Black,” Alaire responded, sounding pissed off. Tallis took another step toward him, which served as a warning all its own. Alaire stood up straight, his posture going rigid as he hid the syringe behind his back. “Perhaps I should inform you, Black, that there is but one anti-venom prepared at this moment. Therefore, if I feel the need to destroy this one, our dear Ms. Harper’s chances for survival will also be destroyed with it.”

  Tallis immediately stepped away from Alaire as the smaller man smiled in earnest. In response, Tallis glared at him and his chest rose and fell with his increased breathing.

  “That’s better,” Alaire purred as he approached me again. “My dear, you have perhaps a few minutes left of your life. After that, the Hanuush demon who bit you will return for its dinner.”

  “Yes, she’ll owe you a favor!” Bill said, his voice sounding panicked. “Just give her the freakin’ anti-venom already! She’ll agree to whatever you want!”

  “Unfortunately, you cannot answer for her,” Alaire informed Bill before turning to face Tallis. “I need a legally sound agreement between us. The two of you will serve as witnesses, and nothing more.” Alaire brought his attention to me again and I glimpsed the iciness in his soul through the hollowness of his eyes. “Now, if you should agree to granting me this favor, Ms. Harper, all you need to do is simply blink twice. If you do not agree, blink once.”

  Of course, it wasn’t a good idea to be indebted to Alaire for anything, but I wasn’t ready to throw in the towel and accept death. I wasn’t prepared to live for the next hundred years in Shade. And as my eyes settled on Tallis, I knew with a calm assuredness that I wasn’t ready to never see him again.

  I blinked once. Then I blinked twice.

  “Very good,” Alaire observed with a genuine smile. He picked up my arm and rotated it so my wrist was facing him. Just as he was about to stick me with the syringe, Tallis gripped his hand.

  “Yer life depends oan hers,” Tallis ground out, his eyes furious. “If she dies, ye die.”

  “Then I had better get to it,” Alaire replied, his calm expression reflecting his lack of concern about Tallis’s threat. He yanked his hand out of Tallis’s grasp and faced me again. With a quick smile, he thrust the needle into my wrist. I didn’t feel a thing. Alaire pushed down on the plunger until all of the red liquid inside spurted into me. Once emptied, Alaire pulled the needle
out of my wrist and smiled smugly.

  “Now what?” Bill demanded.

  “Now we wait,” Alaire answered as he walked back across the room and threw the syringe into the trash receptacle.

  As far as I could tell, I didn’t feel any different. My entire body remained numb and I was still exceedingly exhausted.

  “So, Conan,” Bill started as he nailed Tallis with an expression of curiosity mixed with suspicion. “What was Alaire talking about with that contract stuff? About you agreeing to bring Lily here to meet him or some shit?”

  “Ah, that’s right!” Alaire called out from the opposite side of the room while clapping his hands together jubilantly. “We never did finish our conversation on that topic, did we?”

  “No, we didn’t,” Bill said, his eyes on Tallis. But Tallis didn’t respond. He kept his gaze glued on me and acted as though he hadn’t even heard Bill. He lifted my wrist and ran the pad of his thumb over my veins, apparently searching for my pulse.

  “Shall I inform them of the terms of our agreement, or would you care to do the honors, Black?” Alaire asked. His tone made it very clear how much he enjoyed tormenting Tallis. But Tallis didn’t so much as turn his head to acknowledge Alaire. Instead, he continued tending to me, watching me with hawkish eyes.

  All of a sudden I felt something—pins and needles in the bottoms of my feet as well as my fingers. Little by little, the feeling began to spread to the tops of my feet, traveling up my ankles to my calves, and up my fingers into my hands and wrists. I tried to wiggle my feet and my hands, but to no avail.

  “Very well,” Alaire continued. “I assume your silence means that you would like me to fill them in on the details.” He cleared his throat and faced Bill. “When I requested an introduction to your lovely Ms. Harper, the bladesmith obliged. You see, we had previously agreed that he would bring Ms. Harper to me and … leave her in my charge.”

  I wasn’t sure if the feeling of shock that suddenly burst inside of me was due to Alaire’s announcement that Tallis had consented to leave me with him, or if it was a mere byproduct of the anti-venom as it started to work. I wasn’t allowed much time to ponder the subject, though, because Bill was already demanding the answers that I, myself, physically couldn’t.

  “What does that even mean?” he inquired, shaking his head with a scowl on his face. His furious gaze alternated from Alaire to Tallis and back to Alaire again. “Why the hell would you want Conan to leave Lily with you?”

  “For reasons of my own,” Alaire growled. His eyes warned Bill not to pry into his affairs.

  Bill frowned at Alaire and faced Tallis, revealing ire in his features. “Is that true?”

  It was the same question I ached to ask Tallis, myself, but was still unable to speak. Tallis didn’t take his eyes from mine and I could feel the weight of his stare. Even before he could answer the question, I saw the truth in his midnight blue eyes. It made me sick to my stomach.

  “Perhaps you didn’t hear the angel’s question,” Alaire continued, his voice taking on a humorous tone, as if he were thrilled to be leaking Tallis’s secret. “Is everything I’ve just said true, Black? Have I stated the terms to our agreement accurately? Is there anything more you’d like to add?”

  But Tallis refused to answer. He wouldn’t even look at Alaire or Bill. He and I just stared at each other in silence.

  “Well?” Bill prodded.

  “Aye,” Tallis finally admitted with a defeated tone. As soon as the word left his mouth, he broke eye contact with me and his gaze fell to the floor.

  “What?” Bill asked, completely dumbfounded. He shook his head as though he couldn’t believe what he was hearing. I could barely believe it myself. I never would have guessed, in a million years, that Tallis’s treachery could run so deep.

  As soon as Tallis admitted that everything Alaire said was true, I felt as if someone reached inside my chest and pulled my heart out, before crushing it right there in front of me.

  Tallis turned to face Bill. “’Tis all true.”

  “What the fuck?” Bill railed, his voice shaking. It looked like he was mere seconds from crying. “You were going to just turn Lily over to the devil? Just like that?”

  “No, he wasn’t going to just turn her over to me,” Alaire mocked Bill with a frown. “And as I’ve already clarified to our dear Ms. Harper, I am hardly the devil.” He walked over to a black lacquered cabinet against the wall and retrieved a crystal tumbler. Then he reached inside the cabinet and produced a bottle of brandy. He held the bottle up to Bill and Tallis, offering them a drink, but neither noticed. With a shrug, he started pouring himself a glass. “The bladesmith does nothing without personal gain,” Alaire continued. He brought the glass to his mouth and studied Tallis with a contented smile. “In return for bringing Ms. Harper to me, I was to grant him absolution, and free him from the torment he endured from the demon lodged inside him.” He took a sip of the brandy before placing the glass back on his desk. “All of this was with the endorsement of Afterlife Enterprises, of course.”

  “But?” Bill interjected, taking turns at spearing Tallis and Alaire with his furious expression.

  “But, as you may recall, the bladesmith did not keep his end of the bargain,” Alaire continued as I remembered the moment as if it were yesterday. Bill, Tallis and I had been standing in Alaire’s office and when Bill and I started to leave, I found Tallis in a heated, private discussion with Alaire. Although I hadn’t been able to discern Tallis’s words, Alaire had been loud with his responses.

  “I’m afraid the answer was no, Bladesmith,” he’d said with a shrug. “I did try to argue for you, but alas, Afterlife Enterprises is the ultimate decision-maker on these sorts of things, aren’t they? Of course, there has been new … activity that has quite changed the scope of our original agreement,” Alaire had explained, his eyes firmly planted on me. “Perhaps I can pull a few strings if you can manage to pull some of your own.”

  But Tallis had shook his head immediately, letting it be known that he wouldn’t help Alaire.

  “You were going to trade me for salvation?” I suddenly blurted out. My voice was laced with torment, the kind that comes from a broken heart.

  It seemed like forever before Tallis turned around to face me. When he did, his eyes hung heavy and it appeared to take every ounce of his willpower just to hold my gaze. “Aye,” he answered in a voice that was rough, a voice that sounded as if he were choking on it.

  “The souls of those whom anger overcame.”

  – Dante’s Inferno

  FOURTEEN

  As the seconds ticked by, I could feel my vitality returning. Now I was able to inhale fully, whereas before, my breath came in short, quick gasps. The former sensation of pins and needles in my appendages slowly gave way to a slight burning sensation and then, a heavy pressure. Shortly afterwards, the pressure blanched and my skin felt extremely tender. The numbness that previously incapacitated my entire body faded, and pretty soon, I felt the cold hardness of Alaire’s desk underneath me. When I attempted to wiggle my toes and my fingers, they quickly responded.

  “You’re a real piece of shit, you know that?” Bill seethed. He glared at Tallis, his eyes spitting fire. “Lily trusted you! And I trusted you!”

  “Ah’m sorry,” Tallis said in a small voice. It seemed to sap all of his strength just to look the much smaller man in the eyes.

  Bill shook his head, throwing his hands on his hips. “You’re lucky I’m not a violent dude, ’cause if I was, I’d come over there an’ show ya zactly what I think o’ you!”

  Tallis didn’t respond but simply stood there, allowing Bill to abuse him. For myself, I didn’t know what to think. I was still astonished by Alaire’s account of what had happened; and hearing Tallis’s admission of the truth had my head spinning. That, and a bad case of exhaustion had taken hold of my entire body and refused to let go.

  Bill turned to face me, anger still contorting his features. Once his eyes met mine, though, a sad
smile took hold of his lips. “Guess the joke was on us, Lils.”

  I didn’t know what to say. I was still so stupefied over everything that had occurred in the last half hour that it seemed like my brain had abandoned me, refusing to allow me any more thoughts.

  “Forgive me; I must apologize, but I had to reveal the truth regarding the bladesmith’s true nature,” Alaire told me. If he were doing his best to act disappointed, I knew him well enough by now to see he was secretly gloating over his victory.

  “Ye would dae well tae keep yer mouth shoot,” Tallis spat out at him, the resentment in his eyes almost palpable. His hands fisted at his sides and I could see him breathing in short spurts.

  “Do not blame me for lifting the curtain up on your web of lies,” Alaire responded.

  “You have no right to say anything,” I fumed at Alaire, finally finding my voice again. Rolling over, I pushed myself up on my elbows, and then my hands, panting with the exertion. Tallis and Bill immediately approached me, with worried countenances, but I waved them away, and focused fully on Alaire. The self-impressed smile plastered on his face made me ill. “Your agenda in all of this is plainly clear,” I sputtered before taking a big breath and exhaling it. “You got exactly what you wanted.”

  Alaire chuckled, but didn’t argue with any of my accusations. Calmly, he took another sip of his brandy and his eyebrows arched higher. “How nice to see our lovely Ms. Harper responding so well to the anti-venom.”

  I pushed all the way up from Alaire’s desk until I was in a sitting position and no longer leaning on my hands. Feeling dizzy momentarily, I closed my eyes before the light-headedness passed. When I reopened them, I found Tallis and Bill both facing me. They looked anxious as if they were merely seconds away from assisting me.

  “I’m fine,” I grumbled, refusing to allow anyone in my personal space. What I needed most of all was some fresh air. Not that I would find any in the Underground City … I took a few shallow breaths and waited for the fogginess to clear from my mind. Then I extended my hand and bent my fingers out in front of me, happy to see the color of my skin quickly returning to normal. I rotated my body on the desk and allowed my legs to drop off the edge while Tallis and Bill stood by. Both looked like they intended to scoop me up should the occasion arise.