by Layna Snow
Sophie stared up at the sight before her. Both beautiful and foreboding.
Pale trunks of trees mingled with green stems of gigantic towering plants.
It drew her in. So lush after the desolate caves she had been in. So alive in this dark and twisted place. Even just breathing in the sweetest perfumed air around her made her feel calmer and more at ease.
Sophie took a step forward. Needing to be closer, only to remember where she was.
This was Hell, and it could be dangerous.
“Thisss isss what we call Magnisss Ssssilva. Great Foressst. It connectsss the tunnelsss.” Sophie was so focused on the beauty before her, she’d forgotten about the Demon. Stupid!
Her curiosity was eating her up. How did it work? They were underground, how could plants survive?
“Can you explain?”
The creature looked towards the forest and then nodded, after a slight hesitation. “The Oculusss givesss light. The ssspring givesss water. Temperature and animalsss effect the air, sstormssss form, up. Then it rainsss, giving water. Treess give air.”
His stunted speech was difficult to follow but she thought it was fascinating. How did the storms look? Did they cover the oculus thing? And where did the light come from? And how did the trees get their roots into the stone floor?
Sophie looked up, but winced at the brightness. Light rained down like water, filtering through the leaves to get to the hard floor below. She couldn’t see the oculus, but the heat and dampness that blanketed her told her that the Demon was right. It felt like a storm was coming.
“Come, mussst go forward. Cannot go back.”
Even as Sophie nodded, she turned around to see the tunnel they had just come from. It made no sense that she wanted to glimpse the tunnel one last time. But when she looked, all she could see was the grey stone walls of the dome.
How did it disappear?
She reached out, pressing her soft fingers to the rough rock, but she found it solid. There was no opening, no hallway. It was as if it hadn’t been there at all.
And it might not have.
“Come!” the thing yelled, making Sophie jump.
She took a deep breath and turned around.
This thing could kill her, or leave her here. She didn’t know what lurked in the trees, or waited for its next meal.
“Yes. Thank you.”
The Demon made a noise that sounded like a grunt, and then walked to a pathway that she hadn’t seen in the forest. There was something white crumbled on the ground, which she guessed was to keep the plants at bay.
It crunched under her feet, fragile but sharp.
Taking a step into the darkness was difficult. She didn’t know her way through the thick foliage, and it seemed to swallow her whole as she followed the Demon.
The path was winding. Darting between huge tree trunks and tiny flowers.
Sophie couldn’t help but look around. Enjoying the fragrant air.
Even though she had grown up surrounded by forests, Sophie was never a nature lover. But this place was different.
Long thin fronds poked up from the ground. Delicate pink leaves grew out from the fern’s stem. They seemed to shake and shimmy as she moved past them. As if reacting to her nearness.
But ferns weren’t aware. Right?
It was difficult to keep up with the Demon. He obviously knew the way, and walked quickly, ignoring the small buzzing insects that seemed to swarm around them.
They circled Sophie, buzzing next to her ear.
Sophie smacked one away. The last thing she needed was a venomous bug bite in Hell!
“Owie!” A squeal answered, causing her to gasp. What was that?
Soph shooed another insect, and heard the noise again.
Oh darn! Don’t tell me that even the insects are sentient!
But as she looked closer at one that flew directly in front of her, instead of focusing on the Demon who guided her, she noticed that they weren’t bugs at all. They were little teddy bear-like things, with wings and purple eyes. She never liked bugs before, but these were adorable.
She never thought that things in Hell could be cute.
Sophie wasn’t looking where she was going, too focused on the sweet bugs that zipped around her face. So focused that she tripped over something in her path.
Before she could catch herself, a vine wrapped around her arm, tugging her against a tree.
It was so unexpected. So surreal, that for a moment she had no idea what happened.
It was so quick, her brain scrambled by the movement. And then something wrapped around her torso, so tight that it cut off her air.
Every exhale the vine tightened more, squeezing her until she was sure she was about to die. It didn’t help that she was panicking.
Oh eff! I’m going to die! I’m going to be squeezed by a man-eating tree, and the little bears are going to eat my skin. And the guys won’t know what happened. And my parents will always wonder!
She felt wetness on her face and realized she was crying again. Her eyes stung, they ached and they blurred. She wanted to live! She didn’t come this far to never see her parents again! To miss seeing her sister come back!
“Ssstultusss puella.” She heard, along with other random mutterings. At least she thought it was random.
It was too hard to think. To remember. The air around her drugging her. Taking away her worry. Taking away everything but the need to sleep.
Yes, that’s nice.
She didn’t need to breathe. Not now. Not as she was being lifted up high, and squeezed by this tree.
Then she was falling.
Something grabbed her arm as she hit the ground, tight. So tight.
Pulling her forward. Sophie tried to resist.
“Get up!” The voice called again, the one that was muttering. The one that drew out the ‘S’ in his words.
Sophie took a deep breath, filling her empty bruised lungs. And she opened her eyes, blinking against the tears still blurring her vision.
At first he just looked like a black blob, but then she started to see the blue on his skin, and the orange eyes. And a really sharp knife that was probably used to cut her down.
Sophie let out a relieved breath. She wish that she remembered his name in order to thank him, but she had no idea. So she just signed “Thank you.” Over and over again.
The Demon snorted, which sounded weird coming from his little nose, and shook his head. “Nexssst time, ssstay on bone path.”
And then he pulled her up. It took a moment for Sophie to get her feet under her. Although the forest was beautiful, she just found out how deadly it was. And she didn’t want to get that lesson again. Soph was going to follow his advice and stay on the weird crunchy pathway.
“Now come, getting dark.”
You don’t have to tell me twice! She couldn’t imagine what weird things came out at night. After another breath, she followed the Demon as he set off again.
She didn’t look around, didn’t look at the source of random scurrying sounds. No, this time she would follow him exactly.
Sophie noticed that there were other paths that met the one they were on, smaller ones that wound into the thick trees. They never strayed from the path they were on, just continued as it twisted and turned. It seemed they walked for too long—the cavern couldn’t have been that big—but eventually they made it to the other end, and to a large opening in the wall.
This opening wasn’t like the one that led to the Devil’s room. This one was larger, and had a Doric arch set in.
It was actually very pretty, the white columns made of some kind of marble, with flecks of jewels inside. It looked like an opening to a new world, a darker world.
The tunnel was shadowed, with little pools of light every few feet. It looked spooky and Sophie wasn’t sure that she really wanted to go in there.
However, she had to follow the Demon, she really had no choice.
She put her life in his hands and he had saved her.
That had to be enough for now. So Soph trudged along after him, keeping his silhouette in her sight as he passed from blackness back to fuzzy filtered light and back again.
The only noise was their footsteps on the stone floor and their breathing, which sounded a little fast to her ears. Or was that just hers? Everything else seemed to stop as soon as they stepped through the arch. The teddy-bugs didn’t even follow them.
On and on this tunnel went, in a completely straight line. It was almost worse than the serpentine path through the woods. At least then there was something to see, and she felt like she was moving forward. Now, she could have been walking the same yard over and over. Light, dark, light dark, light, dark. It seemed like it went on forever and with the Demon remaining silent, her mind just went over the past few hours.
The hallucination, that maybe wasn’t. Obviously, she wasn’t abducted by aliens, but she was taken by beings that looked like aliens. They did carry her, whether the light was real or not. They had placed her on a hard surface. Had her mind just made up those facts because of how the beings looked? Did this happen often to folks all around the world. Is this how alien mythology came around? Because of those greyish Demons?
And then her talk with the Devil. It was as horrifying as it was enlightening. He gave out more information than he got. Why would he bother to do that? Why would he trust her to find and look out for his daughter?
When the Demon stopped she almost ran into him, but managed to avoid touching him again. She really had no idea what his powers were.
“Thisss isss where we wait.” He said, and moved forward in order to show her a small cave. It was circular, and had four different tunnels branching off from it. Some were more shadowed than others, but overall she couldn’t really tell where they went. There were no signs, or anything to identify them.
In the middle of the room was a statue. It was of a female Demon of some kind, its arms stretched up holding what resembled a candle. Fire in oranges and yellows draped over her body like fine cloth, covering up most of her nakedness and concealing her whole lower body. The only thing showing was one large breast. Horns rose up from her head, curving into sharp points. Her whole body was white, shiny, and sculpted beautifully. It reminded her of an ancient Greek statue.
And it seemed sort of real. Was the statue breathing? She could almost see the chest move.
Soph shook her head, sure that it was just the extra drugs in her system that made her see things.
“Malesss will be here sssoon. Not many malesss in my ssspeciessss. We fight for them.” The Demon said, jerking her attention back to…it. She had no idea what to identify it as. She thought it was male, but maybe not.
“You are female?”
Okay, so not the most tasteful way to ask, but she couldn’t think of anything that would sound better.
“Of coursssse. You thought otherwissse?”
Sophie shook her head. She’d hate to insult this thing.
“Good. Othersss are looking for you. Othersss want you. Othersss pay for your delivery.”
The warning seemed ominous.
No one care about her before. No one wanted her around, meddling in their business.
Now she had men who were searching for her, and the Devil needed something from her.
Who else would care? Who else would bother?
“Who?”
But the Demon just shook her head. “You’ll ssssee. Your men come. I leave.”
Sophie wanted to call her back, wanted her to stay there until Thane and Adrian got there. She didn’t want to be alone in the tunnels.
But the Demon was already gone, and Sophie couldn’t yell.
She couldn’t call out. She just had to wait there until someone came for her. And she hoped it was someone friendly, not the ‘others’ that the Demon warned about.
18
Sasha hated the sterile environment of the hospital wing of the mansion. She hated how it smelled and how chilled it was. She hated the uncomfortable beds and how people had to wear those ugly hospital gowns.
And she hated that Connor had to stay there.
Sure, he had been hurt but he was fixed now. She made sure of that.
There weren’t any complications in the turning, though she was sure that he had been in a ton of pain, if his screaming was any indication.
Marco had belatedly told her that if the person was injured, the change hurt more. Had to fix the damage.
And Connor needed a blood transfer because he wasn’t up to eating. He wasn’t up to anything, actually. He was still unconscious.
Which was normal according to Marco.
But now it was just her in the room with Connor, sitting in the uncomfortable chair beside him and studying his impressive face.
Now, he’d always look this young, or this old as she always teased him. He was no spring chicken, in his late 30’s.
He wasn’t even classically handsome. His face was too long, his nose a little too big, and his skin not as tanned as was culturally appropriate. He certainly didn’t measure up physically to that guy that she’d done in that alley. But he was nice, smart, and a good man.
She knew that he had worked for some special branch of military. He had gone on secret missions, one of which had brought him to Axel’s attention. They worked together to break up a freak show that used supernatural creatures in it, and turned Humans into things when their ‘animals’ died.
It was then that he decided to join them. He couldn’t do any good working for a government that didn’t acknowledge a danger to their country. He brought a part of his team with him and became an important part of the Hunters.
They’d be lost without him and so she felt that her decision was right, even if he hated her, even if he hated himself. She would fight for him, and so would the rest of the Hunters.
At his groan, she looked up, focusing on his face again. This time, instead of peaceful in sleep it was pitched with pain.
“Oh sweetie, are you hurting?” she cooed, and smiled when he groaned again.
“Fine, fine. I’ll get the doctor, then.” She told him, so he’d know where she was when he opened his eyes. She didn’t want him to wake up alone. She didn’t want him to worry, to hurt and to find out what happened without her there.
Sasha stood up, her long blond hair flowing down her back. She stretched, holding her arms up above her head and rolled her shoulders. She dressed modestly today, just a cut off t-shirt with a plunging neckline and a pair of uber tight jeans. Nothing scandalous.
She didn’t want to distract the doctors while they worked.
Sasha smiled as she left the room and waved to the doctor close by.
“Hey, Claudius. Your patient is waking, and he seems grumpy. Is there any way that we could not call the new boss? Just give Connor a little time to relax before he gets grilled?”
The tiny, grey-haired pudgy man laughed, the sound like a snicker, but shook his head. “Nah, it’s my job. I have to, unfortunately. Who else would employ a medically trained Troll? Everyone wants hot doctors now thanks to those popular shows! I’d never get a new job!”
She knew he was probably right, but couldn’t help but giggle. “You’re handsome! People just don’t know what they’re missing! Besides, Gage wouldn’t fire you without Axel’s say-so. He probably can’t even make a decision. He didn’t want this gig, it was just thrust at him when Boss-man left.”
Besides, Sasha had been avoiding Gage. She didn’t want to talk about that night! Not yet! Not until she was sure that Connor was going to make it.
They had to get their story straight.
Claudius nodded, scratching his rough, bald head. “I don’t know about that, girly! He’s got a temper on him. I’d watch what you say. Now, let’s see to Mr. Vampire, why don’t we.”
But he didn’t follow her as she started down the hall, instead he jumped up on his chair and picked up the phone. Shit! She didn’t want to talk to Gage right now! They didn’t need to talk about what went w
rong. They needed to get Connor used to his new life. And everyone knew that the Berserker wasn’t tactful.
She knew her opinion didn’t matter, though. It wasn’t her choice. And she couldn’t just poison him to get him out of the way, because you don’t poison friends.
Yeah, that was sarcasm.
Her mom would take away her drinking horn if she heard her! Her mom always said “You can poison anyone you want to, just not when you’re mating, then you have to do all the work!.” Oh, how she missed her mommy!
Gage must have been close because by the time she sat in her chair beside Connor’s bed, he was storming into the room with Claudius. And the Troll looked a little sheepish.
Oh great, did the little rat tell Gage what she said?
But the tall hairy, muscular man didn’t start in on her, so the look must not have had anything to do with her.
“Axel is gone for two months and we have already almost lost someone.” He said, coming to stand in the room, though he kept his distance as if afraid that he’d catch what Connor had.
“We’ve almost lost people before,” she pointed out, but his glare showed her that he didn’t care for her opinion. And just to make matters worse, because she loved messing with him, she said “Watch out, Berserker, you don’t want to go crazy on us. We might lose more.”
This time Claudius looked appalled, and instead of commenting, the little fraidy-cat changed the subject. “Let me see the patient, he looks like he’s in pain.”
“He is,” Connor wheezed, keeping both eyes closed. And although his voice was scratchy and full of discomfort, she thought it was probably the sweetest sound she’d ever heard.
“Oh, baby! You sure know how to make my day, doncha?” she whispered, stroking his hand with hers.
“Gah, don’t touch me, Valkyrie, I might catch something. Who knows what you have.” He joked back, and she couldn’t help but laugh. It was so nice to hear him joking, to hear him talking. She wanted to jump on the bed and hug him, but she was sure that the doctor would not approve.
“Well, I don’t know what I can give him for the pain. He might just have to deal with it. Maybe a little extra blood will help. As for you, Sasha. Do you need more testing? I thought you just had some, but hmmm, I’ll have to check my files.”
