Beelzebub tried to lash Sam with a chain.
I got in the way.
“Doesn’t it hurt?” Cole asked apprehensively.
“No.”
The look on his face told me that he didn’t believe me.
I tentatively touched the gash once more. “It doesn’t,” I whispered. The pain of leaving Sam in that horrible place was far worse than any physical pain could ever be.
“You must be in shock. I think you need stitches…”
He was waiting for me to freak out, to scream and melt down. I wasn’t going to.
I didn’t have time for that.
I had to be strong; I was Sam’s only shot at getting out.
Sam. Sam, are you okay? Please God, let me still be able to reach him through our Mindbond. If we didn’t have that I was sure I would crumble.
Heven! Did you make it out? Where are you?
I literally sagged with relief, swallowed past the lump in my throat and swiped at my tears with the back of my hand. I could still talk to him. We still had our link.
Yes, I’m fine. Cole and Logan are fine too. (At least I prayed Logan was okay.)
His rush of gratitude and relief strengthened the tether I had on sanity and made me all the more determined to get him out.
Thank God.
What about you? Did Beelzebub come back yet?
I’m fine. He isn’t here. That was something at least. Still, how long until he came back, madder than ever? We had to work fast to get Sam out of there.
“Where are we?” I asked Cole looking around, trying to get a handle on my surroundings.
“The fountain,” he said patiently, pointing a short distance away at the fountain that we had entered what seemed an eternity ago.
The Treasure Map was lying next to the fountain. Well, what was left of it. I retrieved it on wobbly legs. I didn’t want the stupid thing. It had caused more pain and heartache than anything. I was beginning to wonder if any of it had been worth it.
Of course it had. I scolded myself as I tucked the scroll beneath my arm. It brought you Sam.
“I need to go check on Logan.” I didn’t know what kind of shape Logan was in, but I knew that I would do whatever it took to keep him alive. When Sam came home—and he would come home—his brother would be healthy and whole.
Just then a blur darted out from between a few parked cars and came at us. I braced myself, but the figure stopped just shy of barreling me over. “What took so long?” she demanded.
My muscles couldn’t relax even though this person was not a threat. “Gemma, Sam is trapped in Hell. We were forced to leave him there. We have to go back and get him. We need a plan.”
“What happened to you?” Her eyes widened as she came closer to stare at my face.
“It’s nothing.” I waved it away. “Can you help me get Sam back?”
“Of course I will help. But now isn’t the time. You’re injured.”
I gritted my teeth. Didn’t she see the urgency of the situation? I looked at Cole for some back up. He looked beaten up and exhausted. I sighed. “Could you check out Cole? He took a few hard hits down there.”
Just like that she was gone and instantly at Cole’s side. I turned to watch the pair together.
“Cole?” Gemma asked, her voice lowering in volume. “Let me see.”
“I’m fine,” he insisted, but didn’t turn away from Gemma’s seeking hands. She grasped his head lightly and pulled him closer to examine his injuries. She made a small noise in her throat as she studied the swollen, blackened eye.
“You’ll live,” Gemma declared. Her fingertips splayed lightly over his wounds, moving in an intimate caress. I wanted to look away. It was painful to see the connection between them and know I abandoned the one with whom I shared that kind of connection with.
But I couldn’t look away. I couldn’t tear my eyes from them. I felt a lump form in my throat and the threat of tears behind my eyes.
Just as I was about to lose all control, Gemma lowered her hand and stepped back. Cole’s face was completely healed.
“The back of his head has a gash in it,” I told her, so she would heal that too.
Cole glared at me for admitting to yet another injury and ruining his ‘tough’ guy image, but I didn’t care. Sam was already in enough danger. I wanted my brother safe.
Gemma slid her hands through Cole’s thick, dark hair and brought them together at the back of his head. When she pulled away, her fingers were red. She frowned at the smears on her fingers.
“Hey,” Cole murmured, grabbing her elbow and breaking the spell his blood seemed to have over her. She looked up and blinked at him. “It’s really not that bad.”
Gemma nodded and threaded her fingers back into his hair, Cole’s eyes fluttering closed. The next thing I knew, Gemma had released him and was coming toward me.
I backed up as far as I could go, but the fountain was at my back. “I don’t want to be healed,” I told her.
Gemma stopped and stared at me. “No?”
“No.” Why should I be healed and pain free when Sam was down in Hell suffering? Panic welled up inside me. I couldn’t leave him there. I couldn’t.
“Heven, that’s crazy,” Cole said, striding forward. He stopped at Gemma’s side. “She isn’t thinking clearly. She…”
“Why don’t any of you seem to get it?!” I yelled. “Sam is trapped in Hell! We have to go back, now!”
“And we will get him back, Hev,” Cole said, using that patient voice again. I hated the way he talked to me like I was going bonkers. I turned my back on him.
“Please,” I said desperately to Gemma. “I need you to do something for me,”
She nodded. “Anything.”
“Take care of Logan. Keep him safe till I get back.”
She didn’t understand. “Get back?”
I nodded and began walking away from the fountain, then stopped and turned back, ready to launch myself at it the way Sam had.
“I’m going back to Hell to get Sam.”
I started to run.
Gemma caught me around the waist before I could jump at the fountain and tackled me to the ground.
“Let me go!” I screamed, trying to shove her off. “I’m going!”
Gemma pinned me to the ground and I made a sound in frustration. I was done with being weak. If she wouldn’t train me, I would find someone who would. “The portal will not open for you. It will only open for Sam.”
I stopped struggling against her and a sob caught in my throat. I hadn’t thought about that.
Her voice gentled when she said, “Even if you could, it’s too soon. You’re soul is still vulnerable and needs some time to root more firmly back in your body.”
“My soul is fine,” I growled.
“You will be of no help to Sam right now. You’re injured, exhausted and your soul…”
“I have to get back there,” I said flatly, cutting off the rest of her words. “Who knows what Beelzebub is going to do to him.”
“Sam is very strong, Heven,” Gemma tried to reassure me.
I heard her, but I wasn’t listening. “I should go now while Beelzebub is preoccupied.”
Gemma lifted a brow.
“Heven pushed him into this burning pit in his dungeon,” Cole explained.
Gemma gasped. “You did that to Beelzebub?”
I shrugged. He deserved worse than that.
“Hecate seemed to think it was funny,” Cole murmured.
“You saw Hecate!” Gemma exclaimed.
Which reminded me. “What about Kimber, Cole?”
Just the mere mention of her changed Cole. The lines around his mouth and eyes tightened, his shoulders tensed and his aura flashed muddy, cloudy colors.
“Who is this Kimber girl? Wasn’t she in the catacombs?” Gemma asked, reading Cole’s reaction.
“She’s our friend—used to be our friend, anyway. Cole dated her,” I answered, watching as Gemma slightly flinched.
/> “She betrayed us and sold herself to Hecate,” Cole spat. He turned to Gemma. “I broke up with her a few weeks ago. Before we met.”
“She’s in Hell?” Gemma asked, turning toward me.
“In a cell right next to Sam. She helped us get out of there.”
“You must wait to go back, form a plan,” Gemma urged.
She knew as well as I did that no amount of planning would help me. I was on a suicide mission to Hell that I refused to back out of. At the very least, I was hoping to trade myself for Sam.
“Please,” Gemma urged. “I’ll help you get ready.”
“You’ll teach me to fight?” I asked.
“Yes,” Gemma promised over Cole’s dark cursing.
“Meet me later at the farm. We’ll begin then,” I said. “I have to check on Logan, but first I have something I need to do.” Something I needed to be alone for.
Gemma nodded, but Cole frowned. “Where are you going?”
“Will you stay with Logan until I get there?”
“Hev.” Worry and regret shone in his eyes.
I stepped forward and wrapped my arms around his waist. He returned the hug with force. “You don’t have to worry about me. Meet me at the farm later.”
“I’m sorry,” he said.
“I understand why you made me leave,” I told him. “Thank you.” As much as I hated to admit it, Cole was right to pull me out. I would be of no use to Sam if my soul was gone. I have to make sure that he is out and safe before I sacrifice my soul to save him.
“We’ll stay with Logan,” Gemma promised.
As I walked away from them, I heard Cole’s whispered words, “I feel like I should explain about Kimber…”
Gemma answered just as quietly as he had spoken. “Don’t. Everyone has a past. Including me.”
I didn’t hang around to hear the rest. It didn’t really matter.
Just as the city of Portland was awakening, I strolled away from the fountain and stared up at the newly lightened sky to yell, “Airis!”
* * *
The bright white of the InBetween was assaulting to my dark mood, but I ignored it, realizing that I asked to come here and it really wasn’t fair of me to treat anyone (especially someone who would hopefully help me) to my unhappiness.
“Things haven’t been easy lately,” Airis said, appearing before me. Her blond hair shone brightly as it framed her face with loose curls.
“So you know what has happened?”
“To Logan and to Sam, yes.”
“I have the Treasure Map,” I said, holding out the bronze tube, hoping she would take it and I would be rid of its responsibility.
“It is incomplete.”
I glanced down at its torn, jagged edge. “Yes. But I know what part is missing. I can replace it.” Who would have thought that having a photographic memory would actually be helpful?
“Did anyone else read it?”
“No. It was burned.”
As I held it out, a new bronze case formed around the scroll. The metal was smooth and perfect without any of the scratches and dents the previous case held.
“You’re not going to take it back, are you?” I said, not being able to keep the disappointment from my voice.
“No.”
“But why? It belongs in Heaven, where it is safe.”
“It is incomplete.”
“If I complete it, will you take it back?”
“When the time is right you will know what to do with the Treasure Map.”
Not exactly the answer I was looking for, but I accepted it because the scroll wasn’t why I was here. “Can you help me get Sam out of Hell?”
“I cannot.” Airis bowed her head as if to apologize.
I wanted to weep and scream at the same time. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath as a perfect image of Sam formed behind my eyes. He was beautiful, all tan and gold with deep whiskey-colored eyes and a perfectly sculpted face. I couldn’t let him down.
“Why?” I asked, calmly.
“I have no control over what goes on in Hell.”
“Beelzebub has Sam.”
“Did you know he’s a fallen angel?”
I shook my head. That explained why he thought demons were beneath him.
“He became the Chief of Demon’s on Christ’s allowance. He is very powerful.”
“You mean God appointed him Chief of Demons?” I asked, curious.
“Yes.”
“But why?”
“There are many theories,” Airis hedged, clearly not wanting to get into a religious debate.
I shrugged. I guess it didn’t matter anyway. What mattered was what was happening now.
It was hard to believe that violent, cruel man once came from Heaven. “How can I defeat him?”
“I do not know. He is very dangerous. My advice would be not to go up against him. Avoid him at all costs.”
At cost to Sam?
Hell. No.
“Can you give me some more supernatural powers that can help me get Sam back?”
“You have already been gifted supernatural powers.”
Yeah, stupid ones. I didn’t dare say it out loud because I didn’t want to sound ungrateful, but I mean, really, seeing auras and having a photographic memory… I wouldn’t even call them powers—just abilities to make me a freak. Yet, I couldn’t say that they hadn’t been completely worthless.
“So you aren’t going to help me at all, help Sam? Not even after everything he has done to help you?” It just wasn’t fair.
“You will have to do this on your own. Hell is not a place where I can help you.”
“Send me home.” I blinked back tears. “Please.”
Airis studied me for a long moment and I had to struggle to hold onto my patience and my calm. I would not cry. I would be stronger than that for Sam.
“There is something I can give you,” Airis said.
“What?”
“You only have minutes,” she said and then disappeared.
“Airis!” I yelled. Why had she left like that? How was I going to get home?
A sob caught in my throat and I scrubbed my eyes with the palms of my hands. When I looked up someone was standing before me. I blinked back the tears to clear my vision… certain that I was seeing things.
“Heven,” the familiar voice filled me with longing and warmth.
It took me a moment to realize he was really there. That he really spoke.
“Daddy?” I whispered.
He nodded and held out his arms.
I ran right into them.
He smelled exactly the same. All the years that he had been gone fell away and it was like he had never left at all.
“I’ve missed you,” I whispered into his chest.
His arms tightened even harder around me and I felt the breath catch in his chest. “I’ve always been with you.”
“I thought I wasn’t allowed to see you.”
“Things have been hard lately,” he said, drawing me back and looking down at my face. Concern darkened his features, but I drank them in hungrily. He was tall, almost six feet with a strong build including wide shoulders. His hair was light—like mine, but his eyes were a deep brown that Mom always called puppy-dog eyes.
“Have you seen what’s been happening?”
“Most everything,” he confirmed.
“Not all?” I wondered which parts he hadn’t seen and why he hadn’t been watching.
His lips pulled into a quick smile and I was reminded of Cole. I wondered how I never put the resemblance together before. In fact, if I had been able to see my dad’s aura, I was sure it would look a lot like my brother’s.
“I wasn’t able to see anything about your recent trip into the Underworld.” His mouth pulled down in disapproval. “You’re injured.”
He held out his hands to my face, but I stepped away. The mention of Hell made my chest feel heavy and Sam’s beautiful face flashed into my mind. As intensely glad as I was to have
these few moments with my father, it just wasn’t enough to shadow the pain I carried knowing that Sam was trapped in Hell. Sam.
I didn’t realize—not at first—that the thought was spoken, an unconscious attempt at reaching out to my beloved.
I’m still here, Heven.
The whisper of his words and the intensity of relief that rushed through me almost brought me to my knees. I heard the sob that ripped from my throat and was powerless to stop it.
Every time I talked to him I was afraid it would be our last conversation.
I was afraid that the very fine thread that tethered me to sanity might snap and I would float away into complete grief.
Are you all right? I didn’t know what else to ask. Everything else was too hard to broach. I’d left him there. What if he felt betrayed and hurt and didn’t want to speak to me ever again?
I looked up at my father and swallowed. He was staring at me with a wary expression on his face. I cast my eyes back down, squeezing them shut, shutting out everything but Sam.
Don’t worry about me. I can handle this.
I love you, Sam. I swear I’ll get you out.
I’ll find a way out, Heven. Don’t come back here.
I wasn’t sure what to say because I didn’t want to argue and I would be going back to get him. He must have felt my resolve and desire to not fight because a faint laugh echoed through my mind. I love you, Heven. Always.
My eyes snapped back up to my father. I felt torn with guilt. Here, standing before me, was my father, the man whom I wished for every single day since he died and I had a chance that no one else ever got, and I was so wrecked from Sam’s imprisonment that I couldn’t fully enjoy this.
I rushed forward, throwing my arms around his waist and burying my face against his chest. I couldn’t stop the hot tears that fell from my eyes or the burning in my chest from holding back my sobs.
“That’s my girl,” he crooned. “It’s all right now.”
“It’s not!” I cried, lifting my face up. “Sam is trapped in Hell, in Beelzebub’s dungeon. Kimber got caught up with Hecate and is trapped there too, and I’m pretty sure that her soul isn’t inside her body anymore. Well, maybe it is…” My voice trailed away, unsure. If Kimber’s soul was truly gone, she wouldn’t have helped us escape. It was all so confusing.
He murmured some comforting words and rocked me back and forth. Soon my crying quieted and I was left listening to the soft humming of a song that he had sung to me when I was a little girl. I let the melody soothe the roughest parts inside of me before gently pulling away. “You didn’t tell me about Cole.” I didn’t want to be angry, but I was.
Charade (Heven and Hell #2) Page 36
