On his belly, Gabriel crept back to the small stand of wood.
The moon was only a sliver when it came up. Belinda’s time was running out. She was alive and he was thankful, but on the night of new moon, all of that would change.
The demons had kept their distance from her. Other than the one who made a paltry attempt to subdue her with a branding iron, none of them touched her. Only two out of hundreds had even approached her. He found it strange that they had allowed her to kill two of their cell without retribution.
She was strong. They weren’t starving her. What was going on inside that evil place and what did Belinda have to do with any of it?
* * * *
Belinda closed her eyes once the demon locked her back inside her cell. The entire scene in the courtyard replayed in her mind. She did this over and over again, and each time, she saw Gabriel’s face. She must have lost her mind. No one could blame her for going insane. The entire situation was madness. His handsome visage had been dirt covered, but he had been there, in the rocks. Was that even possible? What could he have been doing there? Maybe her imagination had shown her what she most wanted to see. But if that were the case, why would his face have been dirty? If she were to fantasize about Gabriel, he would be clean and healthy. The man she had seen had been covered in filth with wild eyes.
No, she was sure she had really seen him somewhere in the stone walls.
He had watched her try to save those women. He has seen her fail. New tears ran down her cheeks.
She dried her face on her tattered skirts.
The master had set up the scene with the abused women to prove to her that she was no better than the demons she destroyed. He wanted her to admit she loved the hunt and the kill. Part of her would have to acknowledge she felt more alive with a weapon in her hands. She couldn’t change who she was. If the demons had not invaded her world, if they had not captured her, she would be a sweet girl who waited for Gabriel to come home. They would have set a wedding date and sometime next spring they would be married at Saint Paul’s in the grandest fashion.
What she had become, in response to her environment, was a necessity. She was born to embrace the responsibility and no demon, no matter how great and terrible, would make her feel bad about that. She had let the master get inside her head. She had become vulnerable. No more.
Gabriel was there. Hopefully others were near as well. She had to stay sharp and react when the opportunity arose. She couldn’t lose her head again.
She tossed and turned on the hard stone floor. When she woke, she had to shake off the images of those two helpless women on the wall. Her anger and determination renewed.
The door to her cell opened.
“What is it, Trebox?”
“The master wishes to see you again, hunter.”
She got up stiffly and brushed the dust from her skirts. As she preceded the demon up the steps, she asked. “You said that your place is dying. Why?”
“Time destroys all things.”
“How much time?’
They reached the landing and a dozen other demons met them. “You cannot understand such matters, hunter. You think from sunrise to sunset and all places do not function in this way.”
“Will your home die in my lifetime?”
His shoulders lifted in an almost human shrug. “That would be a blink of an eye. Nothing happens in this way. Only your kind sees things in such terms.”
“If things do not happen from sunrise to sunset, how do you measure time?”
“Time is irrelevant. Here we wait for your darkness, but this will be altered in the coming of the master.”
“How?”
He showed his pointed teeth in some semblance of a smile but did not answer her question.
They arrived at the ballroom doors, and they opened immediately. Belinda wanted more information from the demon, but she wasted no time as she walked directly into the place where the master hovered in the gateway. The doors closed swiftly behind her. The dark swirls that indicated the master’s presence loomed before her, and the hole in the floor had doubled in size since she had last been in the room.
She was not sure if it had been one day or two. She didn’t know how long she slept on the hard stones. Time had lost meaning in her underground cell, and she was forced to think about what the trebox had said.
“What do you call the place where you are now?” Belinda asked immediately.
“I do not call it. It is my realm, my world.”
“In your realm, who do you serve?”
The noise that blasted the inside of her head, sounded as if it was a laugh. “You are smarter than I gave you credit for, hunter. I answer to the high lord, a force so terrible that your puny head would explode if he spoke to you.”
She’d had to hold her head against the noise of his laughter. “If he is so great, then why is your world dying?”
“All things die, hunter.”
“Why do you come to my world?”
“It can be made suitable. We can survive there. There are other places as well and other masters who have been sent to create new realms.”
Belinda sat down on the floor. Other worlds? What was he talking about? What worlds? The idea that humanity was not alone in the universe went against everything she knew. Focus. “How long do you have?”
“Time is a human creation. I cannot put it into those terms.”
She sat staring in wonder at the shadow of a being who did not think in terms of time. If there was no time, then what? She didn’t know, and it hardly mattered. She stood up and faced the master. “You are waiting for the new moon. That is a measure of time, is it not?”
The swirls darkened. “I need the darkness and ease of a moonless night. It is unfortunate but necessary for my coming. Once I have crossed over, the need for time will begin to separate.”
Her mind reeled. What could that mean? “When?”
“Soon.”
She wished she knew how long she’d been in the manor. It had been many days. That much she was sure of. The new moon would be soon, but how soon, she didn’t know. “I will die when you arrive?”
“You will ease my way, and cease to exist.”
“I do not understand you when you talk that way.”
“Because you are small.”
“Then why are you so interested in me? Why not let me rot in the hole you had dug for me until the time when you make me go away?”
His voice softened even more. “I do find you intriguing, hunter. It is a shame I shall never see you in the flesh. I think I would enjoy you.”
A chill ran up her spine. She stared into the swirling clouds until her stomach wretched up the last meal the demons had fed her. “That is what I think of you touching me, demon. I am for another.”
She had a fleeting thought of how her mother would have reacted to what she’d just done. Shrugging it off, she straightened and walked to the door.
“My touch would set you aflame, hunter. I could show you pleasure you have not even imagined.”
She turned back and the black swirling smoke parted. Within the pocket of pure black, a man stood suspended. His arms were outstretched as if welcoming her back to him. His hair was pure black and his skin light and flawless. The master’s eyes were black as well, though they were not the dead eyes of the other demons. Life thrived within him. He was beautiful. Naked, his muscles flexed impressively across his broad chest. His abdomen showed a series of taut bulges and his legs rippled with equal strength. His cock stood out from his body hard and large. He was terrible and magnificent.
Belinda narrowed her eyes. “Open the damned door.”
As the door opened, the master’s laugh faded back into his own realm.
Chapter 16
“I did not think you would arrive in time. The new moon is tonight.” Gabriel scolded, but he was elated to see Belinda’s friends.
He was even happier to find they
had brought a small army with them. Brice and several people from the school in Inverness as well as several hunters he had never seen before. He was introduced to a brunette named Caroline and a stocky man called Marius as well as several others whose names he couldn’t remember.
They had all made their way into the small stand of trees led by Tubbs. The footman had smiled brightly at finding the earl alive and waiting for them. The footman’s livery was covered in dirt and torn in several places. Dark rings marred the underside of his eyes, likely having not slept in days of hard travel.
Gabriel had not seen Belinda again. It had been three days since the incident in the yard and he craved another glimpse of his wife. Had her rash behavior gotten her killed? Had she been punished? What was happening inside the manor?
Every day demons brought in more human prisoners and tortured them in the yard until the helpless victims died.
Each day, Gabriel had crawled to the top of the barricade and watched unable to help anyone or learn much of anything. The new moon was nearly upon them. He had been watching the decline of the orb in the sky each night. He’d have gone into Fatum as soon as the sun set regardless of whether or not he had help. He’d not gone the barricade that morning, but waited in the trees to rest and hope for assistance.
Reece dug pistols and knives out of a pack. “We got here as soon as we could. Thor was adamant that we leave sooner, but until the footman reached us, we had no idea how to find you. Once we had a direction we sent out word and left immediately.”
Lillian touched his arm and handed him some food. It was only dried meat, but he ate it readily. His stomach had protested the last bunch of berries he’d forced down.
“Have you any indication that Belinda is really in there?” Lillian’s eyes surveyed the hellish place.
He relayed what he had seen three days before. “They send out demons to hunt each morning, and meat is brought back and cooked on the fires. I assume it is for her. The demons do not cook their own food. They are keeping her alive for something and I’m sure whatever it is, it will culminate tonight.”
They all looked at him with wide eyes as he described Belinda’s attack on the demons and her subsequent recapture.
Reece was the first to speak. “Have you discovered a way inside?”
“There is only one route through the stones, a kind of tunnel. Other than that, the only way is over the embankment.”
“We will have to make some new entrances.” Reece smiled.
“Do we have the means to do that?” Gabriel asked.
Reece pointed toward Thor’s carriage.
The driver limped over. “Full of gunpowder. Five barrels of the stuff. Thought I might get blown to kingdom come before I even got here.”
Gabriel’s gut twisted. “You may wish you had, before this is over, my friend.”
Reece watched the fortress. “No guards?”
“They do not see the need. I have been here for days and no one has approached the area. I saw only one animal. A rabbit and it was moving away as fast as it could. Whatever they are planning, neither man nor beast will venture close.
“That courtyard is full of demons. All different types, many I do not recognize.”
Reece put his hands on his hips. “We can sort all of that out later. For now, we wait until dark and go and get your wife back to you.”
Gabriel’s chest ached. His boots were covered in mud. He hadn’t had a decent meal in days. Emotion clogged his throat. “I would greatly appreciate that.”
Lillian touched his arm again. “We will get her out, my lord. Not to worry.”
He attempted a grin for Belinda’s friend. “I think it is time you called me, Gabriel, if you would, Lillian.”
She nodded and gave him a weak smile in return.
Jamie, from the London office, arrived at Gabriel’s side with a bucket of water. “I thought you might like to wash. You look as if you been drug through the mud a few times.”
“Thank you, Jamie.” Gabriel took a knee next to the bucket.
Jamie walked away toward Thor’s carriage.
Thor remained by his side while he scrubbed the caked-on dirt off of his face and arms. “How’s the leg?”
“It’ll heal,” the driver said.
“Have you ever seen anything like that barricade before?”
Thor’s face drew down inn a deep frown. “Nothing that high out of rocks. I think they mined them from the earth.”
“Yes. Strange there’s no hole anywhere.”
“Must have dug down under the manor itself or brought all that in from somewhere else.”
Gabriel thought of the work involved in mining that much rock. “This is not going to be easy, Thor.”
“No, sir.”
“She is in there.” Gabriel splashed water over his head, ran his fingers through his hair. Fatum Manor glared back at him.
“Try to remember that she’s stronger than any of us.”
“Even so, how does anyone survive in there?”
Thor stood between the earl and his view of the black fortress. “Maybe you or I could not live in that, but she’s special. That’s why they want her. She’ll survive and we will go and get her. And we’ll take a fair amount of them demons when we do.”
Standing up he shook Thor’s hand. “That we will.” The sun had just begun its westward journey.
“You should get some rest,” Thor said.
Gabriel was exhausted, but each time he closed his eyes, visions of Belinda being tortured filled his imagination with terror. “I will try.”
* * * *
Gabriel listened to the plan. It was simple and impossible; get inside, kill demons, rescue Belinda, and keep the master from entering their world. Gabriel stifled a laugh over Reece’s instructions, even though they were a bit more detailed. It was a good plan, though he had his doubts as to the likelihood of success. He had seen how many demons were inside the fortress. Having watched for several days, he couldn’t help comparing the vast numbers of demons and the few dozen demon hunters that made up the invasion force.
The difficulties ahead of them were irrelevant. He would rescue his wife or die trying. His gut twisted. What had she endured in the days since the demons stole her from him? He would always think of the day after his wedding as the day he had failed Belinda. In order to function, he had to push the disturbing thoughts and images out of his mind.
The first explosion of gunpowder demolished the west end of the embankment. Rock flew in every direction. Black smoke filled the air. In spite of the knowledge that the blast would occur, Gabriel’s heart jumped and his body jerked in reaction. The rocks under his feet shook for an instant before settling down again.
He, Reece, and Lillian rushed up the embankment on the opposite side and watched the mayhem in the courtyard. Several flying boulders crushed demons as they crashed to the ground.
As soon as the enemy realized that their barricade was breached, many demons ran toward the gaping hole, which meant they sprinted away from the trio of humans standing and waiting for just this response.
Gabriel led the way down the embankment and into the yard. He was glad to see that Lillian had forgone her normal formalwear in favor of men’s trousers and a long coat. There was no need for pretense in the wilds of Scotland. She still wore the high boots that sheathed her strange sai knives. Though at that moment, she held one in each hand.
As Tubbs had told the earl when they arrived, none of the local people dared come anywhere near Fatum. No one would see the group of demon hunters spread out along the ridge of the stone embankment and begin their descent.
Once in the courtyard, a staggering number of demons ran toward the explosion. They rushed around by the hundreds in complete chaos, while the three hunters dodged and evaded in an attempt to get inside the manor.
Tears blurred his vision as smoke burned his eyes and throat. He wiped them on his sleeve and continued forward. The ba
ttlefields of France flooded his memory, but that too he pushed aside.
They knew it was coming. All three of them ducked under the cover of the main entrance just as the second explosion destroyed the barricade they’d just come over. The third explosion collapsed the tunnel, the demons had been using. Screams, both of agony and fury rang through the air.
A trebox ran screaming in their direction. Reece lifted his pistol and shot. The ball found its mark between the eyes of the demon, which dropped to the ground three feet from them.
Gabriel pushed open the heavy oak door of Fatum Manor, and they slipped inside while the hordes of demons were distracted by the raining rock and attacking hunters.
Putting the exterior battle out of his mind, they walked through the foyer. The oppressiveness of the dark walls and blacked out windows gave him pause. Some kind of foreign red writing marked the walls, floors and ceiling. Dread clutched at his heart.
“Dear God, what is this?” Lillian asked.
“Hell,” Reece said.
If Gabriel described the interior of the house, hell was the best adjective. It was severe. It was as if the walls would close in on him.
Three trebox demons rushed through an open door to their left. The creatures hissed and screeched, each one holding up a short sword.
Lillian spun as the first one approached. She kicked the sword from the hand of the closest and sliced his throat in a backhand strike.
Gabriel stabbed the second with his much longer sword.
Reece threw a dagger at the third. He hit the beast in the shoulder. Black blood splattered, but he kept coming at them.
The trebox sliced downward, skimming down Reece’s arm as the hunter backed way. Reece stumbled back and fell to the floor.
Lillian screamed his name and leaped forward stabbing both of her knives through the demons back as she descended.
The scream and the fight drew more demons to the foyer.
Reece struggled back onto his feet while reloading his pistol. He fired at a malleus. The bullet struck the demon in the chest.
It stumbled forward several paces before it fell.
Reece threw a knife at a trebox and hit his mark in the creature’s throat. It too fell to the floor and lay still.
Ascension Page 23
