“Giselle, how the hell are you here?”
“When the worthy die, they are sent to guard the rest of the levels of the veil from those cast into the deep level.” A grin slipped up over her lips. “It is rather fun at times.” Her smiled faltered. “But why are you here?”
“Orion took Milly and Pamela. And he plans to take Milly’s child and possess it.”
Giselle paled and lowered her weapons. “Mother of the gods.”
“Come on, you can help us.”
She shook her head. “No, these are the borderlands between the sixth and seventh veil. I stand here, but cannot go deep into the seventh veil.”
Too good to be true, I should have known. “Then watch for us, because I’d bet my ass we’re going to be running flat out in order to make it back here in time.”
“I always watch for you, Rylee. Now go. Save them both as I know you will.” She smiled and then lifted her spear in a salute. I turned away, my heart lighter for her belief in me. Time to run. Hundreds of miles, well shit, maybe we weren’t so screwed.
Alex and I ran full out, the landscape blurry and strange around us, the smell of old basements closed for years then suddenly opened, the musty scent of eras gone by and perhaps of bad things in the past surrounded us. Not the worst smell I ever breathed, just off putting. Here and there we glimpsed figures in the distance, no doubt they were demons but we didn’t stop. And again I was glad Alex was covered in black fur and I had my black coat and dark jeans.
For now we were unnoticed, and though I didn’t think it would last, I would take it while I could.
I clung to Pamela’s threads, using her for the most part to guide me. She was scared, but calm and a shining piece of hope sung through her. She had faith it would turn out okay. Damn, I loved that kid. With each step we drew closer and closer, the feel of her in my head hopscotching rather than smoothly moving in my direction. Didn’t matter, the end result was the same, even though it felt weird.
I reached out and put a hand on Alex, slowing us both. “We’re close. How does the bracelet feel, is it warm at all?”
He shook his head. “Nope. Nice and coolio.”
“You feel it warm up at all, you tell me, okay?”
With his eyes as serious as I’d ever seen them he nodded. “Gotcha.”
I looked up and took a step back. A freaking high rise building shot out of the ground, the dirt around the base looking like it had been planted and then grown as opposed to having been built.
At least a football length wide and several football lengths high, I’d never seen any building so fucking big in my life.
“Holy shit,” Alex whispered. “Pamie and Milly in there?”
“Yeah, they’re in there.”
He let out a soft groan. “That’s not goody good.”
Above us the building seemed to answer him, groaning, the girders and whatever grinding against one another. I reached to my back and pulled my swords free. Just in case. I snorted softly. Who the hell was I kidding? I was going to need my blades, it was only a matter of time.
Approaching the building, I looked for an entrance. No doors, but lots of windows on the lower levels. Once we drew up against the behemoth I almost wished we hadn’t.
It was a building, yes, but it was alive. The wall was skin, thick, dark, and pebbled, and whatever the building was made out of had been carved and hacked to resemble a building on our side of the veil. I put a hand out, touched the wall.
Warm and slightly prickly under my hand, the skin had tiny little hairs all over it. Alex swallowed loud enough that I could hear him. “Can you smell what this is?”
“No, no, no. Alex no knows.”
Shit, if he was reverting back to third person … I turned to see him peeing where he stood. Terrified.
I crouched beside him. “Alex, listen to me. I know you’re scared; I am too. But Pamela and Milly need us, so we have to go in there. We have to get them out and take them home. You understand? We both need to be brave.”
Whimpering, he nodded. “Pamie shouldn’t stay inside the monster.”
Monster, yeah, that was enough for me. I didn’t really need to know what the demons had carved up in order to make their building. In fact, I didn’t really want to know at all.
The first window I came to I peered in. Inside seemed again to be a mockery of an office building with a desk and chairs, a filing cabinet. Very strange. Some of it seemed to be carved directly out of the building, out of the creature. But there were spots where new material had been brought in, nailed and screwed into place. Where I saw the stains of old blood from those anchor points trickling down the walls. How long had this monster been kept like this? I shook my head. What a miserable fucking existence.
I lifted my hand to the window and, before I touched it, it slid open. A welcome to our home sign wouldn’t have freaked me out as much. No matter. We needed in and we were going in.
Alex gave me a boost and then scrambled up the side. The building didn’t shudder, but I almost felt its pain. I peered out to see Alex’s claws dug in to make it up over the ledge. A strange sensation flooded over me and I let it take me and said the words rattling in my brain.
“Sorry. We just need to get our friends out. We mean you no harm.”
The building/monster gave a slight shudder and went quiet and for a split second I almost thought I heard a whisper of words. So low I could easily convince myself I was hearing things. Except for the way Alex’s ears perked up and he tipped his head.
I will help.
But that would be ridiculous. A demon wouldn’t help me, a demon slayer. I pushed the words away and crept across the room to put a hand on the door. From what I could tell, we had to find a way downstairs. Milly and Pamela were way below us.
I did my best not to think about it. But before I opened the door, I waved my blade in the pattern Erik taught me and had Alex do the same with his claws. We were in full on demon territory. Seemed dumb assed stupid not to be as prepared as we could. But again there was no burning light, nothing to indicate the runes worked. Which gave me the willies.
Turning the doorknob slowly, it twisted with a soft creak that made me cringe even though it was pretty quiet. I opened the door enough to peer down the hallway, then put my head out further to peer down the other end. Nothing. Empty.
Somehow that didn’t make me feel any better.
You wanted to feel good about being in a place where Orion existed in the flesh? Where demons lived and breathed and bred?
My body froze as the thought hit me. Motherfucking pus buckets. Sweat broke out along my brow and I had to force myself to move. I focused on the details around us and finding a way downstairs. The walls were almost iridescent silver, reflecting small bits of light, making it bright enough to see without any torches or electricity.
My breathing hitched and I fought to keep moving. The strangeness of our surroundings didn’t help keep my mind from producing some seriously bad scenarios. Like walking around a corner and bumping into Orion.
Did I want to kill Orion? Hell yeah, in every possible way. I wanted to string him up and beat him to death with each of his own limbs as I hacked them off.
But I wasn’t stupid. He was here, in the flesh, and I wasn’t ready to fight him. No fucking way.
“Alex. You smell Pam or Milly?”
I looked back and he shook his head, his eyes all but shaking back and forth. His eyes were wild with terror, and it froze him to the spot. I needed him with me if we were going to get through this intact. “Come on, we’ll find them. Then we’ll get ice cream.”
His ears perked up and he sidled up to my leg. “Tiger striped ice cream?”
“Sure. And pizza.”
His tongue flicked out as he licked his muzzle. “Hungry.”
“Sooner we find Pam and Milly, sooner we can get out of here.” The idea of feeding his belly was stronger than his fear. At least for that moment. He put his nose to the ground, breathing deep. I kept m
y eyes open for any sign of a demon. In some ways, I was more freaked out about their absence than by the fact we could get swarmed by them at any point. In my mind the devil you see is a hell of a lot better than the one you couldn’t see, hiding in wait to ambush you. While I didn’t want to fight any demons if we could avoid it, I hated that we hadn’t run into a single one. That was too fucking weird.
We traversed the first floor, peering into rooms, checking for any way into the lower levels. Nothing.
“Warm,” Alex breathed, then pointed to the bracelet. Fuck a duck. I stared at my feet, an idea forming. Cutting down through the floor would cause the monster building pain, but it might be the only way—
A high-pitched chittering snapped my head up and I stared back the way we’d come. Around the corner stepped a demon. No, not one demon—hundreds of them. They were small bugs, like a large roach, and they clung together to make the semblance of a man walking down the hallway. How did I know this?
The mini demons broke apart and flocked toward us, hissing and chittering, a steady stream of words barely intelligible, but I understood.
“Blood and bones, fresh to eat, we love our meat, sweet, sweet, sweet.”
Yup, not sticking around for that. “Run!”
Alex and I bolted from the horde of mini demons spewing their twisted poetry. Another corner and we ran smack into a large form and for a brief second I thought it was Orion, felt the chill of the possibility nearly take me to my knees.
But no, it was just a regular ass demon. I screamed one of the words Erik taught me, “Dabine!” As I thrust my sword forward into his right eye, surprising him. Or maybe it was a her; I had no idea and didn’t care. Alex snarled and took the demon out at the legs and then we were jumping over the body and dashing down the hall.
Behind us the chittering continued, the bugs singing away as they drew closer and closer, completely ignoring the fallen body. Apparently they only wanted us.
There were no doors to go through, no getting away from these things and they moved fast, like water rushing down a river.
“A door, a door would be fucking well nice,” I breathed out as we ran, my eyes searching and then … shit, a door ahead shimmered into existence. I didn’t question it, though a part of my brain said I probably should.
No time.
I grabbed the handle and swung the door open, Alex and I falling through before we slammed it behind us. This room was darker than the others. Darker and it smelled like shit. I stood and gagged, unable to keep my gorge from rising.
“Damn stinky,” Alex grumped, heaving beside me. In the near dark, I barely saw him. Not that it mattered.
A shuffle in the room, a whisper of cloth, a sharp intake of breath neither mine nor Alex’s. The bugs slammed into the door, and their chittering climbed into a higher pitch.
“Sweet meat, sweet meat, sweet meat. We love to eat sweet meat.”
A rock and a hard place had never sounded so good as in that moment. Easier than the choices that faced us right then. “Alex. Stay close.”
Somehow we had to go down. And if we couldn’t find a stairway, I’d make one.
“Do you know who I am?” A voice, raspy with disuse, called from the darkest shadows of the room.
“Nope and we aren’t making any fucking introductions. Come any closer and the only hello you’ll get will be from the tip of my sword.” I backed away, Alex with me.
“Little Tracker, little Rylee. Don’t you want to see me, don’t you want to know what your fate will be if you keep on this path of destruction? If you wish to finally face Orion, you need to know what he will do to you. What he does to all demon slayers.”
That voice, it pulled at me, made me stop thinking about finding Milly or Pamela. For a moment, I forgot about the thousands of demon bugs waiting for us on the other side of the door, though they hadn’t stopped their sing song of death.
“Who are you?” I whispered.
He shuffled closer. “Do you not know your own flesh and blood?”
A light bloomed and his face came into view.
Erik’s face.
I stumbled back. “That can’t be, I left you behind. With Ophelia and Blaz.”
He let out a groan. “A doppelganger demon, one who took my face and showed you what you wanted to see. A family member, one who could teach you a little about demons, yes? Give you symbols and things that would help you stop them?”
I swallowed hard, my mind back tracking. Fuck me, how could I have not seen it? The pieces of the puzzle slid into place and I barely breathed. Erik, the one I’d left behind, and Orion had said the same thing. The same quote about the blind not wanting to see. Or what about the fact our blades only burned bright when Erik was with us? Shit, it had been him making us think there was power in his stupid freaking words and symbols. He’d even convinced me not to Track demons so I wouldn’t figure out what he was.
“Yes to all the above.”
“Words that would keep them from you? That would end their existence? Words like dabine.” The light around him grew stronger. “But did he say he had no real power, he was just a human, taking his brother’s place?”
I nodded, numbed to the core. “But he helped me; you aren’t telling me the truth.”
The Erik in front of me gave me a tired smile. “Did he help you?”
Again, I was forced to see that while I’d wanted the other Erik to help me, he’d always hung back—doing the minimum, really just getting in my way, slowing me down. Putting me in danger on my own.
This Erik, the one in front of me, let out a tired sigh. “In families of slayers, every member has magic running through their veins. There are no words that work against demons. It is your blood, your blood and your heart and the innate power you carry. The fact you’re Immune is proof enough. The fact that you carry a small ability to glamor, the fact that you’re a Tracker, all of those are proof that you are a Slayer to the bone.” He slumped to his knees, then fell back to his ass. It was then that I saw the chains, heavy black links that held him tight to the wall and allowing no more than a few feet in each direction.
“Ophelia vouched for him. Why would she do that?”
While I waited for him to answer I Tracked Slayers as a whole and got a solid ping right in front of me, but nothing else, not even on the other side of the veil, not even from Alex who supposedly had demon slayer blood in him. But of course, that was a lie too.
More puzzle pieces came together. If Alex and Liam thought they could take down demons, they would leap into the fray, putting themselves into danger they couldn’t truly face.
The demon Erik had been setting us up all along, hoping to kill off my allies. They would have believed themselves safe behind the demon Erik’s silly words and symbols slashed into the air. Rage flooded my body as the real Erik spoke.
“Ophelia is broken, badly, her mind twisted when your father died. She would be very easy to convince, easy to control.”
“Are you fucking kidding me?” I spluttered. “Easy to control?”
“That is what happens when the bond between rider and dragon is destroyed. The rider can survive, but the dragon, their minds are too deeply ingrained with the bond. Even if they seem sane they lose their ability to deeply read someone’s mind; it burns that ability clear from them when their partner dies.”
A sudden, sinking thought, like a half ton of cement slid through me. “If I don’t have Blaz to ride into battle against Orion, what happens?”
Erik lifted his eyes to mine. “The world is done. If your dragon dies, and Ophelia dies, there are none able to carry you into the darkness. They are the only two who could do it.”
Trust your heart, Rylee. Your heart will never lead you wrong.
Your heart will get you killed one day.
Love is never wrong, and your heart knows it.
My heart said he was telling the truth. I lifted my sword and he closed his eyes.
Only one thing left to do, and no time to second
guess myself.
Chapter 19
THE BLADE ON the chains caused a spark, but the blade prevailed, biting through the thick chain with relative ease.
“Come on, uncle. We’re on a rescue mission. I just didn’t know we’d be taking three out of this hell hole.” He might not have been reliable in the past, according to my mother, but I didn’t think he was that way anymore. The man in front of me was a solid rock of strength; I guess being captured by a demon changed you. Besides, I needed him at my side.
A breath whooshed out of him. “How do you know I’m your uncle and not a demon taking his place?”
I shook my head. “You wouldn’t believe me.”
“Try me.”
“I Tracked Slayers as a unit. You’re the only ping I got. That and … my heart tells me you’re telling the truth. I trust that more than any words you say.”
He whispered to himself as I turned away. “Just like Elena.” That was my mother’s name. “She always led with her heart. Always.” There was a slight tremor in his voice.
“No time for crying and shit right now.” I said, ignoring the shake in my own voice. “We’ve got to find a way downstairs. Pronto.”
“There is only one way,” he said, then pointed at the doorway behind us that bulged and sagged with the weight of those fucking bugs.
“You’re shitting me.”
“I shit you not.” Erik, the real Erik, cranked the door open and swept his hand forward. The demon bugs fell back, curling in on themselves, the chittering easing off until nothing but silence.
Just that, a single sweep of his hand, and they were dying. It couldn’t be that easy, could it? He saw my wide eyes, no doubt full of disbelief.
“Wait ‘til you see what else we can do.”
A thrill rushed through me, followed quickly by dismay. Time, there would have to be enough time for him to show me. He must have caught the look on my face.
“You have to believe, Rylee. You have to put your weapons down and believe in who you are. That is when the power will come, when you will truly be a Slayer in your own right.” He strode forward and I saw the differences between him and the doppelganger. This Erik, though he’d been imprisoned for who the fucking hell knew how long, walked with purpose, with a determination I recognized in myself. He wore rags and no weapons and yet there was more danger in his one middle finger than in all of that demon who was impersonating him back home. There was no whining, puling puke afraid of his own shadow. I hoped Blaz ate the doppelganger.
Veiled Threat Page 17
