Red Blooded

by Amanda Carlson

“It will work,” Lili said. “I swear to it.”

  “I can help,” I added. “If I morph to Lycan, it won’t be hard. I can hold it down with Tyler.”

  “No,” Rourke said, shaking his head. “There’s barely any room for us to maneuver around with that thing in this hallway. Your job will be getting us into the rooms.”

  Ray went shoulder to shoulder with Rourke. “This thing is going to be like a bucking bronco,” he commented. “Sounds like my idea of good time.” He grinned and rubbed his hands together, his irises jumping to silver.

  Tyler stood right behind them. “On three,” Rourke said, turning to Lili. “You get its attention, toss the vial and the shirt, and then we’ll spring.”

  Lili took a step forward, her voice low and soothing. “Here we go, boy,” she coaxed. It snarled and shook its heads. “You love this stuff.” She shook the vial in front of it. “Remember? The last time you woke up you didn’t remember a thing and the sleep is so very peaceful.”

  Last time?

  The orthrus paced to the side like a crab as Lili took a step closer. One of its heads extended and right as it snapped its jaws, the demoness tossed the vial.

  There was a crunch and she took several paces forward and threw Rourke’s T-shirt at its two heads.

  It grabbed the shirt and shook it like a puppy with a rag toy. Worst plan ever.

  “Crap!” I yelled.

  “Doesn’t matter,” Ray shouted. “We’re going in.”

  All three sprang at the same time.

  Ray landed right in front of it, grabbing a snout under each arm. Rourke dove for the tail as I held my breath. Tyler took the flank, shoving the beast up against the wall with his shoulder right as it started to bellow.

  Rourke was fierce, his back bending, muscles flexing as he took the tail right below its head with both fists. It lashed out at him, but he held on, turning his back into the flank to help Tyler. Sweat glistened along his chest, which was easy to see without his shirt on.

  That man was pure heaven even in the midst of Hell.

  “You’re not… going to win,” Ray ground out. “I can hold my own against you.” As the beast bucked its long necks, it repeatedly tossed Ray into the wall. “I’m not letting go, you dickweed, no matter how many times you bang me… up… against… ow.”

  Once the beast was significantly pinned and had started to slow its efforts, Tyler yelled, “Go! Get into the rooms. We’ll follow you as soon as we can.”

  Lili leaped forward, slipping by the howling beast at an angle. I followed, grabbing Selene by the arm and tugging her along with me. “Where’s the entrance?” I yelled.

  “It’s camouflaged in the rock,” Lili answered. “My magic should still be able to break the code, but if not… you will have to do it.”

  “Of course I will,” I grumbled. “You keep making this stuff sound easy, except it’s not. What’s going to be waiting for us inside, a griffin?”

  “There will be nothing inside, except for relief,” she said. “Nothing is allowed to enter these rooms without permission, something the Prince does not give to anyone.”

  Lili ran her hands over the rock ten feet from where the boys were still struggling with the orthrus.

  “How long is the spell going to take to activate?” I asked, glancing back with trepidation. The snake tail still giving my mate a run for his money, and if he was bitten, I was going to lose it all over this hallway. We’d already encountered venom from the Underworld in the form of rabid bats. This would likely be much worse, judging by the size of the beast. I had no idea if I could cure Rourke if I needed to.

  “It should be weakening soon,” Lili said, irritation in her voice. After a few more failed attempts to find the door, she dropped her hands. “The passageway is not here.”

  “What do you mean, not here?” I moved up beside her and ran my hands along the wall, searching for anything I could find. “A doorway doesn’t move.” Well, it usually didn’t.

  “The Prince has guarded against my attempts more than he ever has before. Even after all our many spats, this entry was still accessible to me through magic. I don’t understand it.” She appeared genuinely confused as she shook her head. “It should be here, and I should be able to sense it.”

  I edged her out of the way and took over. “The relationship between you two is clearly over. He’s giving you no more chances. That’s why he has a huge, scary beast blocking your path.” A beast who was still struggling. “Lili?” I asked. “If the Prince thought you might come back here, and he bothered to mask the door, don’t you think he’d make damn sure the orthrus wouldn’t fall to your magic too?”

  “It’s not possible for him to do so,” she answered, her face appearing struck at the notion. “I am the strongest spell caster in Hell. No one here can best my magic.”

  “That may have been the case before, but something has obviously changed.” I shouted over my shoulder to the boys, “I don’t think Lili’s magic is going to work on that beast! We’re going to have to come up with a plan B if I can’t find this opening quickly.”

  Rourke gritted his teeth as the snake rattled in his grasp. “We’ll have to take it down. There’s no other way.”

  Tyler’s face was red with effort. “This thing is not even close to slowing down, if anything it’s gaining its second wind.” The thing bucked and raged.

  Instead of trying to find the door, I rushed toward the head of the beast, where Ray struggled with both heads locked under each of his arms. He was holding on, but it wouldn’t be long until the beast finally bashed him off.

  I grabbed the neck of one of the heads and the thing immediately tossed me off, slamming me into the wall. I recovered my footing and launched myself at it again. Its hair was coarse and warm under my grasp and its neck was about the size of a watermelon. I had to sling my elbow around it to hold on. Tyler was right, the beast was not even close to waning.

  I glared at Lili as I yelled to the guys, “I’m going to throw some magic into it and see if I can do something.” We need to find a way to take it down. What do you see? I asked my wolf as my magic filtered in. This thing was all blackness. It was a true beast of the Underworld. I used my demon magic to prod it, and it pushed me back. But it wasn’t stronger than I was. We have to find something to hurt it or disable it. This thing had to have a heart somewhere. If I concentrated a blast of my magic there, it might work.

  “Go for the stomach,” Lili called. “It will trigger a mass effect.”

  “The stomach?” I questioned. “Why wouldn’t I try to stop its heart?” The thing roared in my ear, as if it knew my intent.

  “Hannon,” Ray said through a clenched jaw, “can you hurry it up? I can’t hold this thing still much longer.” I noticed for the first time that Ray had pivoted himself up against the wall and had braced his legs across the cave so I could hold on to the neck without getting thrown again.

  “I’m working on it, Ray,” I muttered. “I’m looking for something to hurt inside this thing, but I’m coming up short. It’s all darkness inside. Like a void.”

  “The orthrus doesn’t have a working heart,” Lili explained. “It has no veins. Go for the stomach. It does eat. If it explodes, it should shut down the rest of it.”

  “Where is the stomach located?” Rourke shouted as he turned, keeping a firm knee pressed into the beast’s flank. Tyler had spread his entire body up against its side, grunting with effort as he struggled to keep it pinned.

  “I don’t know why it has not gone to sleep,” Lili cried. “I find it unbelievable. The stomach is on the bottom of the beast—”

  Rourke rammed the snake’s head against the wall hard enough to shake it silly for a few precious seconds while he drove his other hand into the beast’s underbelly with so much force the hallway shook.

  The thing shrieked like a pterodactyl.

  One more concentrated punch to the belly and the beast opened up.

  The orthrus stumbled, losing its footing as black
sludge poured out of the wound. Without hesitation, Rourke stuck his hand farther into the mess.

  “Be careful!” I covered my mouth and nose. The smell was ridiculous. “I hope the blood isn’t poisonous.”

  “I found it.” Rourke’s jaw was clenched and fierce concentration lined his face. “Just… one second… more.” With a final yank, the beast’s insides flooded onto the ground in a huge splash.

  The beast crumpled to the ground as its legs gave away. The boys and I jumped back as it fell. I glanced over at my mate, who was covered with the equivalent of black tar all the way up his arm and down the front of his chest.

  He smiled grimly at me. “Sometimes all you need is strength concentrated in the right place.”

  Tyler panted, leaning against the far wall away from the beast. “That was badass,” he said to Rourke. “I’m just glad it was you and not me who had to go there.”

  Rourke grunted, sluicing the sludge off his arm with his other hand and flinging it to the ground. “You wouldn’t have been strong enough, wolf.” He grinned. “It took all my strength to get through that thing.”

  Tyler stood straight up, ready to refute my mate until he saw the twinkle in Rourke’s eye. “Well,” Tyler said good-naturedly, “I concede it might’ve taken me a few more hits than it took you, but I would’ve gotten through. No doubt about it.”

  “By that time, we all would’ve been dead,” Ray guffawed. “It’s nice and handy to have an ancient cat around when you need him.”

  It was also nice to see my mate smile. It was a rare event. But it was time to get back to business. I turned to Lili. “You have one more chance to get this right. How do we get in?” I jabbed my thumb at the rock wall behind me.

  “I don’t know,” she said, panic in her voice. She knew this was it. “If the door is here, it’s cloaked from me. I’ve sent my power out all over this wall to no avail. This is all very distressing.”

  I walked over to where we’d stood before and placed my hands on the wall. “How do these walls seal themselves up like this?” There were no cracks in the stone. “It looks like nothing was ever here.”

  “The walls are alive, much like the ones you saw with veins earlier. With a proper spell they will grow together in a matter of hours. It doesn’t take much coaxing,” she replied.

  “Well, I guess we’ll just have to coax it back open again.” I scoured the wall. Wait, did you sense that? My wolf had concentrated our power and tossed it outward. It had finally struck something. That something had a taste. And the taste was familiar. Good gods, how can this be?

  I dropped my hands and turned around.

  Selene was positioned farther down the hallway, leaning with her back against the tunnel, her head down. Rourke picked up on my unease.

  “What is it?” he asked. “What’d you find?”

  “Something has indeed spelled the wall, but unfortunately the signature is all too familiar.” I glanced down the hallway again. I cleared my voice. “Selene, have you been here recently? Did the Prince bring you here?”

  Selene’s head came up. “What?”

  “I asked you if you’d been in this hallway recently. Did the Prince task you to spell this wall?” I rapped it with my knuckle. It made sense the Prince would’ve used the only thing that might trump Lili’s magic or at least give it a run for its money.

  Selene glanced around her like she’d just discovered she was down here. She shrugged. “How should I know? These tunnels all look the same to me. It’s like one big caveman subway system around here. I’ve been through plenty of them during my stay in the land of awful.”

  “Selene, I’m asking you because I detect your spell signature in this wall. But it’s a little… off.” I had no other way to explain it.

  “What do you mean off? What’s wrong with it?” Ray asked, moving forward and placing his hand on the wall.

  “I’m not sure, but it feels like an echo of some kind,” I said.

  Selene pushed off the wall and came forward. She placed her palms on the hard surface and gasped. “That’s not my magic.”

  “Are you sure?” I asked. No two magics were ever the same. “Selene, this feels too close to yours to be someone else’s. I’ve felt your magic firsthand.” I probed along the wall again to make sure. “The spell is red, just like your signature. Everything about it is yours. It’s just not as… precise.” Maybe the Prince had tapped her to do it after he’d had most of her magic drained?

  She dropped her hand. “It’s not mine.” Her voice held a dull ring.

  I turned to Lili, who had her brows drawn. “What gives?” I asked.

  A dark look came over Lili’s face. “He must have made a clone.”

  18

  “Please run that by me again,” I demanded. “A clone of Selene? How is that possible?”

  “The results are… unpredictable at best, but we do have the technology and magic to make a demon clone,” Lili answered as she turned toward an emotionally deadened Selene, who had taken a few steps back. “It makes more sense to me now why you are like you are.” She ran her eyes over Selene’s body. “Clones are made directly from your power and magic—like sucking the life out and leaving a shell—but when the demons finished making the clone, I’m certain you were supposed to die, but somehow you prevailed. I had not thought it possible to survive a cloning, so I never even suspected it.”

  Ray whistled. “That’s a pretty shitty way to go, but it explains why she’s still here.” By the inflection in his voice, I could tell I wasn’t the only one who felt a little sorry for the villain in our midst. That made me feel better. Selene had basically caused Ray’s brutal death by convincing Eamon she loved him, so if he could find a way to forgiver her—any of us could. It made me immensely proud of him.

  If Ray managed to hold on to his humanness, as I did, I believed he would fare much better in the long run.

  “If the Prince had Selene’s doppelganger spell the entrance, then there’s a good chance the clone is awaiting us in his chambers,” Lili intoned. “We must tread with caution.”

  “Sounds like there’s a new mistress in town,” Tyler muttered. “And if she’s exactly like Selene”—he eyed the former goddess—“except more powerful, we’re going to have another epic battle on our hands.”

  “I can break the spell in the wall. It’s enough like Selene’s,” I said, “and I’m familiar with her signature. But once it’s broken, is there a way we can quietly sneak up on this clone if she’s in there?” She had to be in there. The Prince of Hell needed a new resident spell caster to protect what was his.

  Selene finally seemed to understand what we were saying and elbowed me out of the way. “If anyone is going to break this spell and kill this imposter, it’ll be me. I deserve retribution more than any of you, and think I know the best way to defeat myself.” She smacked her palms against the wall and closed her eyes.

  Selene had little more than an echo of magic inside her, but as I watched, it seemed to be enough. The wall began to vibrate.

  “How are you doing that?” I whispered, my head next to hers. “You shouldn’t be strong enough.”

  “I created these spells. They were mine even if I didn’t wield them. This is one of my less extraordinary ones. It’s meant to mask something’s true nature. The door is here, it only seems as if it’s not.”

  I stepped back and gave her room, turning to the group. “We’ve been lucky so far, no demons have found us. The Princess must still have them on lockdown, but I’m sure that will be over soon. When we get in, we deal with imposter Selene and figure out how to help the Princess defeat the Prince.”

  That sounded easy, right?

  Rourke gestured at Lili. “And once we get in there, I want to know exactly what’s in the new Scriptures you found, demoness.” He narrowed his eyes. “No evading our questions. We need to know what we’re dealing with and why the demons will go to war with each other—especially why the Princess of Hell is willing to help us escape.
If you leave anything out, you will feel my wrath.”

  Lili appeared uncomfortable. She wasn’t going to share the news willingly. I put a hand over my nose to block the increasing stink of the dead orthrus as I added, “Lili, there’s no way to get away from this. We need to know everything.”

  She shifted on her feet. “What is written in the Scriptures is for demons only. We are not allowed to… share with others. It is forbidden.”

  Rourke took a step forward, still bare-chested, his forearm tattoos jumping as he fisted his hands. “I don’t give a rat’s ass about your demon rules or laws. My mate’s name is written in your history books and I want to know what we’re dealing with, do you understand? I didn’t arrive in Hell to free her, only to find myself here”—he motioned around the tunnel—“for nothing. The only reason we haven’t escaped and gone back to our plane is because Jessica wants to be done with this ordeal. I agree, but only up to a point. Now it’s going to be your job to tell us what we need to know.” He bared his teeth.

  She shrank back from his anger, but before she could answer, the wall wavered and the spell melted away to reveal a door.

  “See.” Selene had a grim smile on her face. “I told you I could break it.”

  Ray came up from behind and guided Selene by the waist, maneuvering her out of the way, and remarkably, she let him. “Great,” he said. “We’ll take it from here.”

  Once she was relocated, she placed her hands on her hips. “You don’t need to treat me like a child. I’m strong enough to take my alter ego down on my own.”

  “We’ll see about that,” Ray said, his face set. “We go in first, and if we need your assistance, we’ll let you know. If that lady in there is anything like you, it’s going to be one pissed-off clone.”

  I glanced at the door warily. He was right. I’d already defeated Selene once and I had no desire to do it twice. “Is this the front door?” I asked Lili.

  “No,” Lili answered. “We are entering from the back. If this other… woman… is indeed his new mistress, she will be keeping his house in the main rooms. If we go quietly we might gain a small advantage. Certainly she will sense us at some point—if she is indeed that powerful.”