Going Deep

by L. J. Vickery

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  “No,” Lenore screamed, as Holly looked on, open-mouthed. But the nine remaining orange things had turned to Dagon. It was obvious he would be next, and there was no time to mourn the fallen god.

  “Leave me,” Dagon yelled to the women. “Sssave yourselvesss!” he snarled. “Head for the portal. The glowiesss will help you make it the ressst of the way.”

  “Not a chance,” Holly wailed. “I won’t lose you. I won’t!” She started forward through the glowies, slashing at anything orange with the determination of a woman in love. She expected to see Lenore right by her side, but was shocked that the platinum blonde goddess moved off to the side, climbing a rock of her own.

  Had she lost her mind? Did she think Dagon wasn’t worth saving? Holly shook her head. Those were crazy thoughts. “Lenore,” she shrieked.

  Lenore held up one finger for Holly to wait, and stretched to her full height of five-foot-two, perched atop a rock. She opened her mouth, and out came the most haunting sound Holly had ever heard. Holly immediately felt all the tension drain out of her body.

  Given the numbing effect the melody had on her and Dagon—he’d transitioned out of his serpent form in a huge hurry—Lenore’s song made inroads farther and faster with the two forms of demons. Weapons fell from deadened hands, and beings—both orange and opaque-blue—aimlessly weaved in place.

  If Lenore continued much longer, the orange guys would be down for the count, but the glowies would also be rendered useless. Did Dagon still have enough strength to jettison all the bad guys into the pit before his body slowed down?

  Slaggat. Minrella. Dagon’s voice sounded weak to her. All of you. Flood your brains and mine with background noise, just as you did when the wraiths tried to enter my head.

  Holly wasn’t immediately sure what that meant, but a few seconds later, the collective stirred. Although Holly and the evil demons seemed to move deeper into a trance, Dagon and his glowing friends perked up—fast.

  Keep talking. Dagon roared.

  Apparently, the collective never had to be told anything twice, and whatever they were doing must have continued, because Lenore’s voice no longer sedated him or the glowies, and when Dagon gave the next order, the collective moved as one.

  Bring the demons to me, and I will throw them into the pit.

  Lavarette and her helpers easily did as Dagon had bid, and between them, they quickly rid the room of its orange curse.

  Lenore let the last notes die out, and Holly became free of the trance. Tears spilled from the goddess’s eyes. A wrenching sob bubbled up inside Holly, threatening to escape. “Enlil,” she cried to no one in particular.

  Holly couldn’t believe it. As the effects of Lenore’s voice wore off, she relived those final moments before Enlil had jumped. She shivered, thinking of his bovine face. All the gods had proven themselves to be extremely brave, but to smile while jumping into a flaming pit in hell…

  Dagon looked less distraught than the ladies as he moved to Holly’s side. He smoothed the curls back from her face and ran his thumb across the worry lines between her brows. The touch of his hand warmed her through. She wrapped her arms around him and held on as tightly as she could. If she had her wish, she would melt into Dagon. But for now she smelled him, kissed him, and nipped at his skin to drag his unique flavor into her mouth.

  “It will be all right, little one,” her god crooned, crushing her up against him. It was good enough for now. His comfort was a palpable thing, and it worked its way into Holly’s pores, making her feel inexplicably that everything might just be okay.

  “But your friend—”

  “Whose life energy still resonates,” Dagon assured her, and with obvious reluctance, put her aside. He moved confidently to the edge of the pit. “Enlil,” he called down. “Enlil! Can you hear me?”

  There was no answer, which brought puzzlement to Dagon’s face, but he lowered himself onto his stomach to peer intently down into the smoke and flames. Lenore and Holly joined him, not quite understanding what they were looking for.

  Then Holly saw the fallen god. “There!” She pointed and wiggled her finger. “Right there.” As the smoke billowed this way and that, Enlil’s inert form became briefly exposed. He lay face down, spread-eagled on a ledge approximately fifty yards below.

  “Why isn’t he moving?” Lenore asked. Holly wondered the same thing. She’d become accustomed to the fast-healing ways of the gods, and wasn’t up on the nuances of them being knocked out.

  “Sometimes it takes a while for a god to wake, depending on the severity of his injuries,” Dagon told them. “Right now, all I’m sure of is that Enlil is alive, and that’s good enough for me.” He pushed up on his arms, and the ladies followed. “Now the question is, how are we going to get him out?”

  Up to this point, the glowies had remained quiet, but Minrella spoke at Dagon’s query. “Often we have found ourselves in the same predicament when one of our rambunctious youngsters suddenly pitches headlong into an unanticipated cavity.” She nodded her head toward the pit. “You have seen the way we sleep…”

  “Gods! Yes, I have.” Dagon’s face lit up. “I understand. You can create a ladder down the wall for me to reach him.” He yanked Holly to her feet, picked her up and swung her around, planting a quick kiss on her astonished mouth. “Have I told you that I absolutely love my new life?”

  Holly wasn’t sure what new life he meant, but Lenore gave her opinion while Dagon went to confer with the glowies. “The reserved Dagon I knew never let go in such an effusive manner. I do believe that his new life refers to you and his little friends. If I’m not mistaken, our bad guy’s heart has grown three sizes in the past few days.”

  Holly bemused, took it all in.

  Knowing what Dagon had told her about his past, she guessed there hadn’t been many times in his life when things went his way, or if they had, his head hadn’t been in a place where he could recognize or enjoy them. Well, if she had anything to do with it, all that negative shit would be a thing of the past. “What do glowies sleeping have to do with anything?” she questioned.

  The being Holly had heard called Craggar, who had been working the perimeter of the room helping to get all his people back on their feet, stalled her question for one of his own. “I’d like to know what is this glowie thing I’ve been hearing about since we met up with you.”

  Holly had no answers so she looked to her gorgeous serpent-god.

  He looked sheepish. “I’m sorry, Craggar. It’s rude of me, but since I had no clue what your collective was called when I first met you, I gave you a name.” Dagon paused. “My reasoning was simple. Down below in the subdued light, you all had a blue luminescence about you, and I started thinking of you as ‘glowies.’ But now, come to think of it, I still don’t know what you actually call yourselves.”

  The one called Orearga laughed, looking toward whom Holly assumed was her husband. “Come on, Craggar. I think it’s kind of cute. It makes you sound like you could be my little plaything. Ooh, baby. My hot, manly…glowie.” The opaque female batted her long eyelashes.

  Holly heard an all-encompassing twitter of laughter, totally female, and everyone cracked up.

  “Shit. It sounds like we’re not the only species where the ladies have dirty minds,” Lenore choked out.

  And mine should tell me just how smutty she can get, Dagon teased.

  “Hey.” Now Holly smiled for a different reason. “I can hear you again.”

  “Of course you can,” he said. “And as soon as we’re mated, distance between us will no longer be an issue.” He moved toward her and kissed the end of her nose. Not quite what Holly wanted, but there were other concerns right now. “That’s all well and fine, but I wish I could hear the glowies head talk.” Holly still felt left out. “It would help with things like this rescue of Enlil.” She could see that things proceeded, but had no clue as to what the beings were doing since she hadn’t been tapped into their network.
r />   “Look deep into my eyes and open your mind.” Dagon was going to remedy the situation. Holly smiled. “Do you remember the last time we connected? You could see and hear all the gods. I’ll make that happen again with the glowies.”

  Holly took Dagon’s hands and gave a small shiver as just that small amount of contact had her tingling for more of his touch. “I’m all yours,” she said, gruffly, meaning every word.

  She felt Dagon trying hard to ignore the underlying currents, as he understood her meaning. If they kept this up, they’d never rescue Enlil.

  He worked quickly and connected her to the vast group, whose name they still didn’t know. Slaggat, just what are you called, anyway? Dagon wasn’t about to let that oversight continue.

  We’re known as the Lonelies, Slaggat informed him. We think it has to do with our isolation from everything, but even Magmanna has no stories to explain the origin of our name.

  I like glowies better. Minrella elbowed Orearga. Glowies is hot. Lonelies always made us sound pathetic.

  Now’s not the time to argue about it. Slaggat had been sorting through a group of beings who had stepped up to volunteer, and had narrowed the candidates down to sixty. Now is the time to help rescue Dagon’s friend. He quickly explained the plan. We will form a ladder and Dagon will descend. Once he has his friend, he will carry him back up to safety.

  We’ve never held weight like this before. Holly heard one of the volunteers worry. Dagon, at six-foot-four and covered in muscle, had to run at least 220 pounds, if not more. The largest glowie couldn’t weigh more than 150. On Dagon’s way back up, carrying Enlil’s dead weight, the glowies would be expected to withstand an even greater load. It would be an enormous risk.

  We can find another way, perhaps devise a rope. Lenore put in her two cents.

  It will be fine, Slaggat nodded assuredly. He and Lavarette had their heads together, carefully picking through the remaining sixty, trying to separate skills from egos. Many of the volunteers are males who have competed in contests of strength, Slaggat told them. They are eager to vie for the attention that this new situation will garner from the females of the group.

  Holly dropped back to her stomach and monitored Enlil’s lack of movement while the glowies sorted things out. She remained worried, but Dagon seemed sure that their plan would work.

  When the first glowie crawled into the pit, cleaved to the wall, and folded himself in half, Holly moved back and stood up, incredulous. She couldn’t keep her shock from being translated into words. What the fuck?

  She heard and felt the whole room fill with laughter.

  I’m with you, Holly. Lenore had also never seen anything so bizarre…and she’d grown up with witches.

  They both watched the second glowie climb down onto the first, then shimmy into place three feet farther into the pit, creating another “step.” The process was repeated again and again, and with patience, the glowie “stairs” fixed themselves in place.

  When the fifty-eighth glowie arrived at the bottom―the drop had been a little more than the 150 feet Dagon had estimated―the collective ambassador, the one who made up the bottom rung, checked on the condition of the prone god.

  Living and breathing. The glowie assured. Looks to have mashed both legs on an outcropping of rock, and his mid-section is bleeding profusely. I don’t want to risk moving him before he’s ready to come up. I’ll get into position and Dagon can come down.

  Holly’s dark god shed everything that might add extra weight to the glowies burden. He carried no weapons, wore no boots, and even stripped off his shirt and pants, leaving his sweat-gleaming torso bare except for what would have been, under different circumstances, a comical pair of boxers featuring the scowling face of Dick Cheney across the front.

  Even with the stressful conditions and the odd underwear, Holly salivated. Dagon’s body practically glowed, toned and muscular, but with a predatory cast. His narrow hips gave way to the most sinfully sculpted legs Holly had ever seen. To think, if things worked out, she’d run her hands over every luscious inch of that body.

  Lenore wasn’t making any bones about appreciating the eye candy either―in an artistic, head tilting kind of way―and the goddess was a married woman as well as a very distant relative. It just went to show. Good was good.

  Dagon lowered himself to the first shelf. How are we doing? he asked as he gave his weight fully to the volunteer.

  No problem. The glowie in question seemed to be holding up well.

  Dagon continued, scaling down the wall as quickly as possible so as not to rest his weight on any one being for a great length of time.

  He seemed comfortable. Really comfortable. Do you guys know that you give off the most wonderful, soothing vibe? He almost sounded…stoned. When I touch you, it’s like I cease to worry.

  Minrella answered. We’ve never noticed it amongst ourselves. It must be something we do to others.

  Now Holly was curious. Let me try. When she got a nod from her nearest glowie neighbor, she laid her hand on his opaque form, and went instantly limp with contentment. Wow. He’s right. You guys should hire out. This has got to be better than any drug on the market.

  Lenore, not to miss the phenomenon, gave Minrella a hug. She rolled her eyes at Holly. I’m not feeling it, she groused.

  Holly shrugged. Could be something to do with Lenore’s own calming ability. Maybe the two cancelled each other out. She, however, positioned herself between two glowie children and held their hands. Geeze. What a feeling. If she offered to babysit, would she have to pay them? Holly experienced no angst as she peered down the hole and watched her man progress.

  Dagon kept up a running commentary as he neared the bottom. There had been only one misstep. The glowies were used to the intense heat, having lived nearer to the Earth’s core, but Dagon was slick with sweat and came close to losing his footing ten feet above Enlil. Luckily, he caught himself. Even though the ten-foot plunge wouldn’t have hurt him badly, he couldn’t risk being incapacitated in any way. He had to bring Enlil topside.

  Once at the bottom, he hopped off onto the ledge and assessed the situation. He sent word up. Shit, as well as his legs being shattered, a sharp outcropping has punched its way into Enlil’s upper abdomen. That’s why he’s bleeding and not awake. Regeneration of the wound won’t start until he’s no longer impaled.

  Dagon shuddered. Not an easy thing from which to recover. Dagon’s god-like strength would come in handy now, getting Enlil to safety.

  The smoke cleared, and Dagon—as gently as possible—lifted Enlil straight up off the rock and competently turned him onto his back. Sure enough, his legs were most definitely broken in multiple places. But now that he was off his skewer, things might start to heal, albeit slowly.

  Enlil groaned, fighting his way out of his miasma. “Wher…wha…”

  “Stay still, Enlil,” Dagon warned. “You have some bad wounds from your fall, but aiming for this ledge was brilliant, and saved your life.”

  “Everybody…good?”

  “We’re all safe.” Dagon wrapped the remnants of Enlil’s shirt around the wind god’s bleeding wound. “Lenore used her incredible voice to sing all the demons to sleep, and we tossed them in after you.” He looked over the edge.

  “I guess none of them…as smart as me,” Enlil grunted, attempting to make a joke. Then he turned his eyes upward, clearly confused. “What am I seeing?” his words slurred together.

  “Our glowie buddies,” Dagon told him, while tearing a strip from the god’s pants and fastening it tightly around his makeshift bandages. “They cling to the rock walls like mushrooms.” He pulled a knot tight. “So here’s the plan. I’m going to hoist you over my shoulder and climb up using them as our ladder. Your job is to refrain from doing anything more active than breathing.”

  “…try not to break into a song and dance.” Enlil grimaced as Dagon ducked beneath his armpit and lifted. It clearly went against all Enlil’s instincts to remain limp, but he had to know
that his and Dagon’s life depended on it.

  Progress was slow. Dagon’s long pauses and Enlil’s added weight seemed to cause an enormous strain on the glowies. For every one who looked to have the fortitude to handle it, three more were tested to the limit.

  Dagon was halfway up when he reached for a handhold and the glowie beneath his feet broke free of the wall and fell. Holly screamed, but Dagon scrambled to keep hold of the next shelf up while the wail of the hapless, glowie victim―plunging into the abyss―rang in everyone’s ears.

  Dagon regained his anchor but panted hard with the strain, as did the glowie he grasped.

  Can you stay anchored? Dagon calmly questioned the glowie who hung between him and death.

  I’m good. He got answered in the same vein, and Dagon marveled at the glowie’s tense resolve.

  A slew of additional voices chimed into his head. Stay there. We’re coming up from below.

  Almost instantly Dagon became aware of bodies scrambling upward, and he let out a pent up breath as a pair of new bodies became solid beneath his feet.

  Relax for a moment. Dagon heard. There are now two of us for you to stand on. The rest of are going on ahead to triple up for strength.

  The light little bodies scrambled by, and above Dagon’s head, two bodies wedged to the left and right of each original ladder rung, adding tremendous support. Right. Why hadn’t they thought of that to begin with? The death of the one glowie had been one too many.

  I’m sorry we lost one of your people, Dagon lamented.

  He knew what he volunteered for, Lavarette sounded sad, but pragmatic. All in all, thanks to you and your friends, we’ve done well avoiding casualties today. Now let’s finish this up.

  A resounding “yes” echoed through Dagon’s head as he tightened his hold on Enlil and finished the climb. When he crested the lip of the pit, he was pretty damned happy to turn his burden over to hands at the top. Holly moved close as he flopped onto his belly and heaved a sigh of relief, but then he felt her hands on his back, caressing.