Hell's Belle

by Marie Castle

  Reminiscent of the sphere I’d used to banish Sarkoph, it spiraled inward, ever tightening Nicodemus’s noose. Energized by a sudden well of hope, my magic surged forward. Together, we pushed Nicodemus out.

  And the gate was mine.

  I opened my eyes in time to see Nicodemus spin to stare at me. His gasped “Hell-spawn!” was lost in the chaos, but I read it clearly on his lips. Jacq’s glowing sword arced toward his distracted head, and I formed a picture in my mind. Red skies. Blue grass. Hordes of roaming raptors. Then I opened the gate, setting the destination.

  It was time for all good little demon children to go home.

  A loud whistle pierced the night just as Jacq’s sword removed Nicodemus’s head from his shoulders. Getting distracted at the wrong moment would do that to a man. With no beating heart to pump, there was no gruesome blood spray—which, if you asked me, was a bit anticlimactic. The body fell a few feet away, the severed head rolling until it fell off the stage.

  All eyes turned to me, and I lowered my fingers from my lips. No longer under their masters’ control, the raptors ran amok, hungry but too weak and scared to attack. Like a passel of extras from an over-budget B movie, I could practically see them spinning in circles, muttering, “What’s my motivation? What’s my motivation?” Well, since you asked…

  “One-way ticket to the Illtrath plane, right here.” I jerked my thumb toward the rippling black surface. Like a mirror, it only reflected the chaos around us. But I knew that another world waited on the other side. I’d seen its wild primitive beauty for a millisecond while connecting both gates. At my words, Serena sent the mental command I’d given her, and a multitude of raptors spun as one, heading straight for me.

  I scrambled out of the way, only realizing after I’d hustled aside that now the raptors’ path separated me from Jacq. The hug I so desperately wanted would have to wait until all our beastie guests had cleared out.

  Or not.

  With a flash of silver and a lightning quick jump between two raptors, Jacq stood before me. I panicked. What if this thing between us had only been some adrenaline-induced coma that we’d awaken from now that everything was over?

  Then Jacq’s warm body was against mine, pressing me into the brick, shielding me from the raptors that passed us by, oblivious to anything but their doorway home. Her hand went around my neck, cushioning my head. Familiar magic zinged, easing the aching throb and bubbling nausea which were surfacing now that the endorphins were gone.

  I opened my mouth, but Jacq placed her forehead against my own. Her words, whispered inches from my lips, silenced me. “I’m not going to tell you the things you want to hear.”

  I shut my mouth. My aunt would’ve chided that the way my eyebrows were drawn together would give me wrinkles, but that was the least of my concerns. I wasn’t sure if I should object and say I didn’t need words…or ask, why not? So I said nothing. “I’m not going to say the words,” Jacq continued, “because, eventually, you would doubt them, and I can’t bear the thought of that.”

  My closed eyes misted, but I opened them to gaze into the stormy depths of eyes that looked into me with such determination. Despite the moisture left to freely flow down my cheeks, I couldn’t look away. I would have nodded to acknowledge the truth of what Jacq said, but she still held my head, sending healing power into my system. Her grip was gentle, but I couldn’t bring myself to pull away…to lose that connection.

  “I’ve said before that I don’t understand this,” I rasped, “and that scares me. But I meant what I said, I’m not running. It’s just…” I closed my eyes, desperate to express what I felt. It seemed too soon to speak of love. And perhaps it was a sign of irrational jealousy, but Jacq was hundreds of years older than me. I couldn’t help thinking that in all those centuries at least one other woman had whispered in her ear, “I love you.” I wanted what was growing between us unclouded by memories of past loves lost, and maybe a tiny part of me wanted to keep something of myself safe. I couldn’t help thinking that someday she’d walk away…whether she wanted to or not.

  I tried again. “I never really thought I’d find someone who looks at me like you do. At least, not in this lifetime.” I opened my eyes. Jacq’s glow had dimmed, but the look in those two orbs had not. “Part of me fears that I’ll get used to that.” I sucked in a lungful of air before taking the plunge. “And part of me hopes for it with every breath.” I flooded our mental connection with the truest essence of what I felt for her.

  Jacq gasped, her body thrumming with heat as my emotions hit her. Sure, there was lust and the unrelenting attraction we had for each other. But more, there was my amazement at how gentle she was, my joy at seeing the little considerate things she had done, my respect for the times (even before we’d met) that she’d consistently acted to protect others, going so far as leaving a powerful post with the Council to work with human law enforcement. And above it all was my love, shining bright. Which was how she made me feel: radiant, as if someone saw me, even the secrets I’d yet to share. I felt both cherished and desired simply for being me, for being Cate.

  That was the most exhilarating, most frightening thing I’d ever felt.

  “Cate.” This time it was Jacq’s turn to close her eyes.

  “Yes, Detective Slone?” I put my arms around her, doing a fair imitation of her single eyebrow arch. Her eyes opened, lips twitching into that familiar, heart-stopping half-grin. I couldn’t help but echo her smile.

  But Jacq’s voice was all seriousness as she said, “I may have misled you.”

  My heart dropped, my arms sliding away. Her hands stopped my retreat.

  “I want much more than the one date you promised me.”

  Jacq yelped as I elbowed her in the ribs, but I was smiling as I limped down the stairs. She followed close behind. I might’ve bruised a hip when Nicodemus had sacked me, but my heart was whole and overflowing. Still, as I stepped into the stage’s shadows, that didn’t stop me from ribbing her one last time. “We’ll have to see about that.”

  As we moved off the stage, I glimpsed, between the moving raptors, a vampire, silhouetted in the moon’s glow, lay a tarp over the third boy. My good humor quickly faded. Jacq gave me an inquiring look. I shook my head. There was blood on my hands. Maybe not literally, though if I dared to look closely enough, there was probably plenty of that, too. It’s not as if I hadn’t killed before, but never had the blood been so innocent, the brief life so undeserving of an end.

  I had killed a boy…a man really. Some might argue that he was dead either way, but I didn’t see it like that. I’d made the decision to sacrifice one, possibly three, to save millions. I’d crossed a line and would have to live with the consequences. Most of me wanted to be with Jacq. To burrow into her heat and forget what I’d done. But there was a small part that wanted to be alone, to digest this. The raptors pouring through the parking lot’s middle made the decision easy.

  My limp slowed me. Jacq offered to carry me through the raptors to our friends, but I waved her away. Jacq wanted me by her side to speed my healing with magic she didn’t have to spare. I pointed out that the others needed her, and I could stay on this side and do what I did best: Issue orders.

  Jacq turned to go. I grabbed her shirt and pulled her back, saying sternly, “Before you do anything, see Fera’s healers about that slash on your thigh.” It looked shallow but inside I still burned with fury that Nicodemus had wounded her. It hurt that I couldn’t be her healer, but until I closed the gate such magic was beyond me.

  “As my lady commands.” Eyes flashing silver with desire, Jacq laughed but quickly turned serious. “And what of your injuries, cher?”

  There was another warm zing as she sent more magic to my aching head. “I’ll join you once I close the gate. Until then it must be my main focus.” I didn’t need to say how disastrous it could be if I let the connection slip. I smoothed her shirt before reluctantly letting it go.

  Concern in her eyes, Jacq caressed my cheek. �
��I’ll come for you the moment the gate is closed.” She zipped away.

  Worries momentarily forgotten, the heat of her touch burning in my chest, I watched the creatures that now separated me from my love. The raptors were a temporary inconvenience, but I couldn’t begrudge them their path home. They’d been beaten and starved on this plane. It was little wonder that they were in such a hurry to leave. As I watched, the sea of fighters parted, making paths for the raptors that flooded in from all directions. Blue reptiles leapt onto the stage, rushing to the open darkmirror. At first I wondered how so many could be here. Then I remembered. Like the hounds, certain lower-level creatures could be called from their homes without a darkmirror. In truth, anything or anyone could be called, if the wielder had enough power. But gates linked the paths between worlds for a reason. Without at least one, the chance of being lost to the void was great. Knowing Nicky-boy, he wouldn’t have cared if some raptors had been lost so long as he could call enough to meet his needs.

  I leaned against my truck door. With Jacq’s care, my bleeding had stopped, but now that I had a moment, my body made me very aware that my stomach was upside-down and a polka band was doing their all-time favorites between my ears. Translation: I had a concussion.

  I closed my eyes, doing nothing but breathing in and out, willing the nausea to go away. Once the pain lessened, I opened my eyes and began counting heads as best I could in the moonlight. I realized one thing right away. There was nothing and no one that needed my immediate attention, which was good. At the moment I couldn’t do anything more magically strenuous than pull a hankie from my sleeve.

  Nicodemus had supplied the power for opening the gate, but it took a great deal of concentration to keep it open and linked to the other side. I could walk and talk—and probably even chew gum—but part of me was still there, keeping things together. Between my roving mind and my tired body, it was all I could do to remain standing.

  So, despite my disregard for the Council, I found it fortuitous that the three magic-wielders Fera had brought were capable healers as well as fighters. Even from a distance, I could feel the healing energy they wove around Becca, Brit and our other injured fighters. Or rather, the fighters who would submit to magical assistance. More than one Were was doggedly limping as they dragged the downed raptors toward the stage.

  Like I’d known they would, the Council had given orders that no evidence be left behind. That meant the raptors had to go. And for a change, their purposes aligned with my own. Maybe it was my demon-half, but I didn’t want to be responsible, if indirectly, for the raptors’ deaths, which was the only outcome if they stayed. On the other side, they would regenerate, coming back to life. Here, they would be burned in the name of damage-control—a permanent death even for demons.

  Someone, likely my ever perceptive Jacq, had pointed out that throwing the raptors into the gate was the easiest and less attention-grabbing option. (Creating a bonfire of roasting demons was not a good idea when fire crews were already close by and on alert.) Serena and Grey had ordered their people to retrieve every single raptor and toss them through. Still, from the way the Weres and Vamps were carelessly tugging the beasts along, it looked like the big kahunas had left out a few details, like the fact that those overgrown reptiles weren’t dead. They’d be waking up soon, ravenous, and in a piss-poor mood. And if I was the wolf unloading one of the raptors Mynx had loaded on my truck, I wouldn’t place my hand in its mouth for leverage.

  I stopped the Were and gave him a quick, descriptive lecture about the regenerative powers of demon creatures and their love for small fleshy pieces of meat that protruded from their prey’s body. I, of course, was referring to fingers and toes. But when I was done, the much paler Were hauled his burden off with a greater sense of caution. Now what to do with our sorcerers?

  Artus was by far the most pressing issue. Nicodemus’s body would wait, or rather Roskov’s corpse could. Although it would need to be fully incinerated. A prickle of unease lingered at the back of my brain, but it slipped away every time I tried to form it into a solid thought.

  Mynx and Fera still had Artus circled. Blue and black sparks flew as he tested his prison. The illusion of a whole and hearty Wellsy was gone. Although I knew Wellsy’s soul was as well, the body only a grotesque shadow of the man I’d once thought of as a pseudo-uncle, a small part of me continued to see bits of him in that decayed corrupted form. And it was that part that needed to stay and watch whatever destructive thing we’d have to do to Wellsy’s body to remove Artus’s spirit. It wouldn’t be pretty, but I owed my family’s old friend that much. In truth, I owed him much more but had nothing more to give.

  All but one of Nicodemus’s vampires had been killed. The last one Serena had taken prisoner. The raptors, including those previously guarding the two remaining boys, had completely abandoned their masters, fleeing into the gate. The fight was over but there was still much to do. Starting with closing the darkmirror.

  I limped up the stairs and watched as the grunting Weres and Vamps tossed the last raptors through. Once they were finished, I headed for the gate. Jacq moved toward me from the parking lot, looking none too happy as she eyed my continued limp and the blood drying on the neck of my shirt. I simply shrugged, wincing at the movement. Wiped out, I couldn’t even strengthen our mental connection enough to send her reassurance. Besides being physically and magically empty, I was still holding the gate, making it hard to focus when part of me was watching the raptors descending home through the darkmirror.

  Out of the corner of my eye I saw Grey walking the last two boys forward, toward the stage’s base where his tigers had gathered. The black-magic still shrouding both boys must have repelled the Weres, because none would touch them. Grey gestured for me to examine them, and I mouthed, “Three minutes.” I was exhausted. The gate needed to be shut down before it tried to take something I wasn’t willing to give. If Brit wasn’t stable by now, keeping it open wouldn’t change that.

  The stage was empty of all but me and a headless body, so I shouldn’t have gotten a bad feeling when the last boy continued past Grey. He looked dazed. I frowned. Something was off. I’d been too busy thinking about reconnecting to Jacq and worrying about my friends to notice that the cold place in the pit of my stomach hadn’t vanished with the battle’s end.

  The boy climbed the stairs woodenly and stepped past me. At the same time, a last group of raptors darted out of the shadows, moved across the asphalt, and rammed a surprised Mynx and Fera into their circle, breaking it, before rushing onto the unsteady stage and into the darkmirror. Artus leapt onto the stage, running toward the gate. I should have been watching him, but I was staring in dread at the black mist forming around Roskov’s corpse. The same corpse between me and Jacq, who’d rushed onto the wooden platform’s other end. And the very same corpse that our last, zoned-out college student was heading for.

  Coming to my senses, I lunged for the boy, narrowly missing his collar and stumbling right into Artus’s arms. The mist came toward me.

  “Not the guardian,” Artus barked. “We need her alive.” The mist switched course, climbing up the boy. The young man’s pale face contorted in pain. His locked jaw bulged. The darkness that could only be Nicodemus wouldn’t even allow his prize the relief of screaming. Jacq stepped toward us, and my mind shouted, NO! Nicodemus would take her, because with me as a hostage, she would be too noble to resist. She halted, uncertain. Her expression was heartbreaking.

  I stumbled, my feet dragging as Artus’s clawed hands towed me and the boy, whose legs no longer seemed to work, toward the gate. As I was forced into the darkmirror’s rippling blackness, I looked at Jacq helplessly. Then my body dissolved, traveling on the path between worlds, heading toward Illtrath and blue fields overflowing with hungry raptors. I wasn’t sure if the resounding scream in my head was hers or mine.

  * * *

  I landed on my face, as usual. What was new was the location. I’d landed on a nice, soft and very warm body. A body
that I was intimately familiar with…or nearly so. One whose strong arms held me so tightly that I couldn’t have moved if I’d wanted to, though I definitely didn’t want to. I couldn’t see anything, as my nose was resting between said body’s breasts, but I was pretty sure that—while we weren’t in Kansas—neither was this Illtrath. I’d never been so happy to hear the distant sound of a blaring car alarm.

  “What happened?” Jacq’s soft words rumbled under my ear. My head rose and fell with the rhythm of her breath.

  “We…I…” Voice hoarse, I lifted up, looking at her worried face before allowing my body to sink again into her warmth. I was aware of the others watching from the parking lot, but I didn’t move away, enjoying the moment alone with Jacq. “How long was I gone?”

  “Seconds. I was about to follow when you were tossed out like a sack of potatoes.” At my frown, she kissed my head, adding, “A very beautiful sack of potatoes.”

  I looked up, seeing that one-dimpled, half-smile, and tried to smile back, but her comment about my not-so-graceful landing wasn’t my concern. My memories were scattered, pieces missing, but it felt like I’d been gone much longer. I’d never heard of a gate being rerouted mid-jump. Yet, I was certain that I’d never made it to the other side.

  “I think…” I cleared my throat and rolled to the side, keeping my hand in hers as I stared at the now silent gate. “I think maybe the mirror did something, or maybe it was the void. There was something there earlier…” I didn’t understand what had happened to Brittan, but I was certain that, if I allowed my blood to sink into the smooth, ebony stone and connected again to the darkmirror, I’d remember. I’d understand. But I was too weak and more than a little frightened by the possibility of what I might find. “I just have this feeling that Nicodemus and his brother won’t be back. Something happened as we passed through.”

  I take exception to the ill-treatment of my daughters. I clutched my head as the memory of that cold, bodiless voice struck like lightning. I got to my feet, leaning against the now solid blackness, trying to breathe evenly as the pain receded. For some odd reason, I found the cool surface comforting.