What had Maggie said? “An abductor has wants and needs, same as anybody, and he’s convinced he’s doing something noble, something that makes him a hero in his own mind.” So maybe Eryx wasn’t going for noble, but he believed he was truth, God was useless, and Lucifer was only a roadblock. He was like every other terrorist, determined to make others believe as he believed. The difference was, he was born of Hell, and his soul was without light. He didn’t blow people up to prove his point; he collected souls.
She’d be damned before she’d help him.
THREE
SHE CRINGED WHEN HE BENT TO PICK HER UP. WAS HE GOING to take her somewhere on this plane and rape her? He’d said she had to be immortal to have his children, and she was still alive. Was he going to kill her?
Shaking with fear, she heard him say to Smelly, “Take a lock of her hair to prove that you had her, then cut the binding around her ankles.”
Seconds later, she felt blood rush to her feet, her skin prickling at the sudden warmth.
“I’m taking her to Erinýes. You understand what you’re to do when you land in London and are taken into custody?”
“I say we had instructions from Red Out to drop her over the Atlantic.”
“That’s right. They’ll eventually execute the Texas group leaders, and you, of course, so this is good-bye.”
Before Smelly could respond, before she could process that her fake death would be world news within a few hours and her father’s heart would break all over again, everything went dark, and she felt weightless again. In other circumstances, like if he were an angel or some other benefactor of the paranormal, she’d think it was incredible to travel through the ether from one place to another. As it was, in the seconds the trip lasted, all she could think about was how she was going to escape. And that Eryx smelled like a burned matchstick.
When she could see again, he set her on her feet and stepped back. “I hadn’t planned to keep you alive, so it’ll be a while before a room can be prepared for you.”
Just as she suspected, he’d been lying about letting her return home, regardless of whether or not her father pledged his soul.
Looking around at the stone walls and flagstone floor, at the massive bed with crimson velvet hangings, at the candles in sconces, the Renaissance paintings in gilt frames, and a fireplace so huge the whole graduating class at Oates could fit inside, she thought of Dracula’s castle, which must be nearby, since Eryx had said he lived in the Carpathians.
She knew, without asking, that they were in his room.
“You should know, there’s no possible way to escape. Outside, the grounds are under twenty-four-hour surveillance, and I have dogs. If you were to get past the edge of my land, your every move would be tracked by the GPS you’ll have implanted. Once you become immortal and marked, we won’t need the tracker because I’ll have the ability to find you anywhere in the world. So I suggest you accept your fate and not exert yourself trying to escape.”
She pretty much ignored him, already looking for ways to fight her way out. There was a collection of sabers and swords on one wall, but she shied away from those. She’d probably wind up falling on one. Glancing at the canopy railing around his bed, and the velvet ropes holding back the bed draperies, she wondered if she could tie him up while he slept.
“Here’s Alissa, who’ll show you to a bathroom where you can freshen up.”
A petite young woman with long dark hair, dressed in a black sweater dress and killer shoes came to stand beside Eryx and glare at Jordan. “Isn’t she the daughter of the American president?” she asked, with more animosity than curiosity.
“Yes. She’s also Anabo, and I expect you to take good care of her. See that she has food and clean clothes, take her to Loren for a tracker, then bring her back to me.”
Alissa looked up at him with a pout on her face. “If she’s Anabo, she’s never going to be what you want, Eryx. She’ll never do for you what I do.”
Eryx frowned at her. “And you’ll never do for me what she can do. Retract your claws, Alissa, and do as you’re told.”
Wrapping her fingers around Jordan’s arm, she pulled her toward the door, and Jordan took one last look at the bed, at the velvet ropes, promising herself she’d find a way. Then they were in a wide stone corridor, lined with oil lanterns. Was there no electricity in this castle?
Jerking her arm free of Alissa’s bruising fingers, she said, “It’s not like I can run away. Back off.”
Alissa practically hissed at her, but she continued walking, taking so many turns, Jordan soon became hopelessly lost. They climbed a winding set of narrow stone steps inside a tower, then walked down another long corridor, one wall lined with thin stained-glass windows, slits really, that cast red light along the opposite wall. They were in Romania, seven or eight hours ahead of D.C. It was midmorning here.
Toward the end of a long hall, where there were no more windows, where the gloom was oppressive, Alissa stopped at a rough wooden door that was straight out of a pirate movie, with heavy iron hinges and a serious iron handle and lock. She looked at Jordan with eyes full of hate. “I’ll wait here for you to finish.”
Deciding against telling Alissa that her jealousy was a total waste because Jordan planned to escape as soon as possible, she opened the door and saw exactly nothing. “Is there a light?”
Alissa reached around the doorframe and flipped a switch, bathing the room in the dim light from an incandescent bulb, hanging from a plaster ceiling. As soon as the light came on, ginormous roaches scurried under the claw-foot tub, behind the ancient-looking toilet, beneath the rotting wood of the cabinet below the sink.
Her heart nearly beat her to death. Irrational, maybe, but her fear of cockroaches bordered on phobia. “Eryx told you to take good care of me, Alissa. He’s going to be way pissed that you brought me here.”
“You need to learn how it’s going to be. No one takes my place. Understand?” Alissa pushed her inside and closed the door. Jordan heard the key turn in the lock, followed by Alissa’s laughter.
Horror kept her rooted to the spot. But not for long. The stillness faked them out, and while she stood there, the cockroaches began to emerge, despite the light. She unclenched her hands and leaped for the vanity, scrambling to get on top of it. Standing, she looked over into the tub and cringed. There were a zillion of them in there. Carefully leaning over, she turned the spigot on the bathtub pipes and watched rusty water run into the dirt lining the tub.
The roaches didn’t drown.
Of course they didn’t.
They swam.
Breathing hard, adrenaline pumping fast and furious, she watched in horror as more bugs poured out of the drain. She’d had nightmares about roaches that hadn’t been this terrifying.
“Alissa! Open the door! Let me out of here, now! Hello? Alissa!”
A loud thump sounded against the door, then the key squeaked and the door opened quickly. Expecting to see Alissa, she caught her breath when she saw someone else standing there, looking across at her with an odd expression on his handsome face. He looked a little like Eryx. Actually, he looked a lot like Eryx. Young, with the same coal-black hair—except this guy’s was long, past his very wide shoulders—and the same sharp cheekbones, but his face wasn’t quite as beautiful. The most striking difference was his eyes—black as midnight, just like Eryx’s, but these eyes weren’t lifeless. This had to be one of his brothers. One of the Mephisto.
He was dressed completely opposite from Eryx and his Armani suit. This guy wore a black T beneath a black leather trench coat that ended just where his black biker boots poked from beneath black leathers. Mr. Monochrome.
He was staring at her, his gaze mesmerizing. “Why are you standing on the sink?” he asked, his voice deep, with more than a little bit of British.
“I’m scared to death of the roaches.”
His gaze moved down to the floor, and she could swear he smiled. “You’re a captive of unimaginable evil, but you’re los
ing it over bugs?”
“It’s not funny. I’m having a heart attack, I’m so freaked out. And more are coming out of the drain.” She hated that her voice quavered a little at the end.
“They won’t hurt you,” he said, moving into the bathroom to stand just in front of her.
“I know, but it doesn’t matter. If one gets on me … if it touches me …”
He reached out and lifted her from the sink, dropping her just to his waist. “Wrap your legs around me.”
She did, and wound her arms around his neck, clinging to him while she silently thanked God for sending help. He was warm, and she instantly felt better. Closing her eyes as he turned and walked out of the bathroom, she inhaled the clean, fresh scent of him. He smelled like evergreens. Like the forest. “Thank you,” she whispered.
He made no reply but kept walking, and she kept her arms around his neck, not knowing where he was taking her, not really caring. “What happened to Alissa?”
“She’s unconscious and won’t wake up for several hours. The rest of the castle is also unconscious, so getting out of here should be without drama.”
“You’re one of the Mephisto.”
“Yes. I’m Kyros.”
“The one they call Key.”
“Eryx told you about me?”
“He told me a lot of things.”
“Tell me later and I’ll let you know what’s true and what are lies.”
“Why did you come for me?”
“Because you’re Anabo. It’s my duty to protect the Anabo.”
“How do you know? Eryx thinks he got one over on you.”
“My brother saw you at Christmas. As for Eryx, if he was aware that we know you’re Anabo, he’d have had everyone in the castle on full alert, to keep us from rescuing you. Since he has no clue, I was able to sneak in and take everyone out of commission.”
“How did your brother know I’m Anabo?”
“You have a glow, an aura around you.”
Just when she’d thought this situation couldn’t get any weirder. “Why didn’t Eryx see it? He didn’t figure it out until one of his minions made me take off my sweater and he saw my birthmark.”
“Only the Mephisto and others who help us can see the Anabo glow.” He continued walking, but she sensed an urgency in him, as if he wanted to run. “Why … what was the reason he made you take off your sweater?”
She swallowed and clung a little harder to him. “They were going to drop me in the ocean. He wanted an article of clothing as proof that they’d had me on the plane.”
His arms tightened so much, her breath left in a little whoosh. “But he saw the mark and called it off?”
“Right.” She was so glad to be rescued, elated to be leaving this house of horrors. “Are you taking me back to Washington?”
“I’m taking you to Colorado, where my brothers and I live.”
Had she just traded one nightmare for another? “But I want to go home. My dad … this has to be killing him.”
Key said nothing.
“Why aren’t you taking me back to my father?”
“It’s complicated.”
“Give me the short answer.”
“Did Eryx mention why he let you live?”
“He wants me to give him a son.”
He whispered a curse. “Now he knows what you are, there’s nowhere on Earth you’ll be safe from him except our mountain. He can’t go there.”
Panic rose up. “I’ll have to stay with the Mephisto on a mountain the rest of my life?”
“Unless you want the rest of your life to last less than twenty-four hours, or unless you …” He didn’t finish.
“What? Unless what?”
“You give up Anabo. If you do, you’ll be like everyone else and of no interest to Eryx.”
There was a way out! She could go home, to Dad, to her life. “How do I give up Anabo?”
“Through Lucifer.” They were close to the end of the long hallway, but he slowed his pace. “It’s not something to be done lightly, Jordan. You need to know everything there is to know before you make a decision like that.”
“Okay.” No contest. She would lose Anabo as soon as possible.
Moments later, he stopped. “This staircase is too narrow to carry you down. Are you okay to walk?”
“I’m fine.” She slowly unfolded her legs from around his hips and slid down the front of him, looking up into his face when her feet touched the floor. He was way tall. The top of her head barely reached his shoulder. He was looking at her like he was in awe or something, and she wasn’t sure if it was flattering or just kind of strange.
He nodded toward the stairs. “We need to go now.”
“Can’t you transport us away from here? Or is that unique to Eryx?”
“I can, but not from this castle or from his land. He keeps everything under lockdown. We have to make it to the fence line before I can take us to Colorado, and that’s a mile-and-a-half hike across the side of a mountain.”
Turning, she started down the winding stone staircase, feeling as if the cold, damp walls were closing in on her. At the bottom, he held a finger to his lips, then reached for her hand and took off in the opposite direction of what she thought was the front of the castle. But she was all turned around, and he appeared to know where he was going, so she hurried along with him and didn’t say a word.
Eventually, they came to a large, oak door, which he pulled open with little effort, waving her through. When she was outside, she dragged the cold morning air into her lungs, feeling almost euphoric to be out of there. Looking up, she realized this was a side of the castle, not the front. “Eryx said he has dogs.”
“I’ve already taken care of the dogs. The only one awake is Eryx. Unfortunately, he’s also the only one who really matters. We have to run, Jordan. Are you up for it?”
She nodded, sucked in a deep breath, and whispered, “Let’s go.”
What followed was the most grueling physical experience of her life. She played volleyball at school and wasn’t half bad. When she was younger, she’d taken gymnastics. She always thought she was in pretty good physical shape, but running with Key across the side of a mountain, on frozen ground, patchy with ice and snow, made it clear just how much of a lightweight she was. Her lungs screamed in agony, her feet were frozen, and she knew her boots were rubbing killer blisters on both heels. Still, he kept on, and she suspected this wasn’t difficult for him at all. If anything, he seemed to be pacing himself so she could keep up.
He proved it when he slowed slightly, snaked out an arm, and hauled her up and onto his back. “Almost there,” he said as he ran, not breathless at all. “We’ll be gone in less than five, but just in case something goes wrong, will you promise me one thing?”
“Maybe. What is it?”
“Do whatever it takes to stay alive. Don’t despair, and don’t think you’ve been abandoned. I’ll keep coming back until I can take you away from here. But you have to stay alive. Promise?”
“Do you promise to come back?”
“I promise.”
“It’s all beside the point anyway. There’s the fence, just ahead.” She could see wrought-iron spikes rising up from the forest floor. On the other side was freedom.
She felt Key’s body tense at the same time she saw the figure appear in front of the fence. “You knew he’d be here,” she whispered against his ear as he slowed to a walk.
“I can mentally search for him and know exactly where he is. I could feel him moving through the castle. Unfortunately, he also knows where I am, and he’s as smart as his soul is dark.”
Seeing those eyes again made her nauseous. “Please don’t let him take me back.” Panicking, she clung tighter to Key’s neck, her legs in a viselike grip around his waist.
They were close now, so close she saw with perfect clarity when Eryx raised his arm, aimed a gun at them and fired one, two, three, four shots. Key’s body jerked as each bullet met flesh, but incredibly, he
remained standing. “Run, Jordan,” he said roughly, lowering his arms from where they were hooked around her legs. “Run and hide.”
She slid from his back, then turned and fled, flinching when she heard more shots. She glanced over her shoulder and saw Key fall to his knees, his body twitching as each bullet hit him.
Running faster, she dodged around branches, leaped over rocks, slipped and fell, scrambled back to her feet, and took off again.
It made no difference. She rounded a huge boulder, and there was Eryx, staring at her from those dead eyes. She skidded to a stop, gasping for breath, silently shouting for God to help her, to make this go away.
She expected Eryx to force her back to the castle.
Instead, he pulled a different gun from his pocket, raised his arm, and fired. The force of the shot knocked her backward, and as she fell, as her heart stopped, she looked up at the sky between boughs of evergreen and saw a raven swooping toward her.
FOUR
“I’M DEAD, AREN’T I?”
“For the moment. You can go back, but only if it’s what you want.”
“I don’t feel dead.” Looking down, she saw no blood, no bullet wound through her heart. She felt so strange. Instead of fear and horror, she actually felt … relieved.
“Death brings release of human anguish, Jordan. Everyone fears death, but for obvious reasons, it’s lost after you die. There’ll be no more physical pain, unless you decide to become immortal. Living forever in the realm of physical reality leaves you impervious to death, but as vulnerable to pain as humanity.”
She was enchanted by the woman on the rock. In the half-light of predawn, they were perched on an enormous boulder, suspended above a snow-lined rushing stream. “Where are we?”
The Mephisto Kiss (The Redemption Of Kyros) Page 5
