by Ryvr Jones
“I wouldn’t be so sure about that.” They all turned to the fireplace, where a tall, thin man stood. He was like a masculine, formal version of Seersha—dark hair and eyes, black suit, shirt and tie.
Rhys immediately got ready to fight. “Who the fuck are you?”
“More importantly,” Caeron assumed battle position as well, “how the fuck did you got in here without my permission?”
Seersha sighed. “Hello, Arawn.”
Chapter Fifteen
“Answer me, or get the fuck out of my home.” Caeron stepped closer to the newcomer. He had a theory about how the intruder had broken his wards, but he hoped he was way off base. I have enough shit to deal with as it is. “Before I take you out.”
The fucker arched a brow, then turned to Seersha. “Your subordinates don’t seem well trained, Seersha.”
“Take it easy, Caeron.” Seersha appeared to be unfazed by their visitor, but Caeron could feel she was worried. And that made him worry. “He got here the same way I did. He’s just not as polite as I am. He’s the lord of Annwan.”
“I believe you’re not polite, as a general rule.” Arawn rested and elbow on the mantel. “If I had to judge, I’d say I’m more polite than you.”
Seersha rolled her eyes. “I was being sarcastic, Arawn. You need to get out more.”
Well, fucking great. Another one of Death’s Bridges on his doorstep. And it had to be this one. Caeron had been in Annwan, dealing with the Enforcers. He didn’t remember seeing this fucker and didn’t think Arawn would recognize him anyway, but he needed to thread carefully.
“Tamerah is resting,” Nell said, entering the library. “I cleaned her the best I could, and changed her to a shirt I found in your wardrobe, Caeron.”
Rhys growled, obviously disliking the idea of Tamerah wearing another man’s clothes. Caeron couldn’t resist teasing him. “How about I give you the shirt, Rhys? It’s yours. I’m sure she’ll love it. I have great taste in clothes.”
Rhys flipped him the bird, and Nell laughed. “You’re too easy, bony one.” She turned to Arawn, grimacing, evidently sensing the tension in the room. “And who are you?”
“You could say he’s my colleague,” Seersha said. “Death is a complicated, messy business. I manage collection and delivery. Those two,” she pointed her chin at Rhys and Caeron, “are part of my, let’s say, division. I take the souls we collect and deliver them to Donn, who is in charge of distribution. Tech nDuinn—his house—is the assembly place for the souls, before they can go to the Otherside.”
Seersha perched herself on the table, propping her feet up in a chair, and pointed to the prick. “Arawn here is the lord of Annwan—what you, lady historian, would call Hell. The damned souls are sent to his realm to be cleansed.”
“Punished, you mean,” Caeron growled.
“Potayto, potahto. Whatever.” Seersha shrugged, and rested her elbows on her knees. “And that concludes our business lesson of the day.”
“So, he can use the Shadows, same as you.” The idea of Arawn walking in and out of his place as he damn well pleased made Caeron want to punch him in the nose. “I need to get some Death-proof locks.”
Arawn leaned against the mantel. “You cannot keep Death away, not for long. As you cannot keep Life away. Life always finds a way, Death always finds a way. One towards another—”
“Let me tell you,” Caeron cut him off, “I love cryptic shit. I really do. But you still haven’t said what the flippity-fuck are you doing here.”
“I came to warn you,” he dipped his head towards Seersha, “as a professional courtesy. The Enforcers are on the way. They will arrive...” He glanced at his watch. “Now.”
Somebody banged at the front door, apparently with every intention of breaking it down. They all stared at each other, various degrees of fear in their faces.
Except for Arawn, who appeared bored. Caeron expected him to yawn at any moment. Fucker. “Why didn’t you say something sooner?”
“You seemed more interested on your conversation, on knowing who I am. As I’ve said, I’m polite. It would have been rude to interrupt.”
Caeron’s eyes almost popped out of their sockets. “You’ve got to be shitting me.” The banging got louder, and fear crept up his spine in a chilled wave.
Arawn was still unaffected. “Besides, what difference does it make? No one can escape the Enforcers.”
Caeron rolled his eyes. “And you say Rhys and I are the morons, boss?”
“I have enough morons in my life to last me a thousand centuries,” Seersha grumbled. “I’m an island of intelligence, surrounded by idiots.”
The front door creaked loudly.
Those soulless bastards are going to ruin my fucking door. “Cut it out!” Caeron shouted in their general direction.
The banging stopped.
“There must be something we can do,” Caeron said. “They can’t get inside without my blessing. I’ll tell them to go fuck themselves. It will buy us some time.”
“What purpose would that serve? Time is meaningless to them,” Arawn, the prick, informed. “They won’t leave without her.”
Rhys stepped forward. “I’ll fight. I can’t stop them, but I can distract the fuckers while you get out. Hide in the Shadows while we try to figure something out.”
Okay, that was weird. Rhys had never forgiven Seersha for not telling him how to die, and for refusing to release him of their deal. Why was he willing to fight for her? Maybe he realized she’s been helping us. Whatever his reasons were, Caeron wouldn’t let him go alone.
“I’ll help him.” Besides, Caeron would love to kick some Enforcer ass, even if they had a snowball’s chance in hell of winning. He’d dreamed of fighting them for a long, long time.
“So will I,” Nell offered, surprising him once more. Her bravery was as impressive as it was reckless. She was the Fire Heir and could wield her daggers like nobody’s business, but she was mostly human. She was no match for the Enforcers.
“No.” Seersha shook her head and got off the table. “I’m almost moved by your foolhardy offer, but fighting would only makes things worse. I’d better go. The sooner I go, the sooner I’ll be back.”
Arawn arched his disgusting smarter-than-thou brow. “If you come back.”
“Oh, I’ll come back.” She gave the prick an evil smile that would’ve made a lesser man cower in abject fear. “I have insurance.”
“Insurance?” Arawn seemed disturbed for the first time since his arrival. “What can you possibly have to use as leverage?”
Seersha ignored him, turning to Rhys. “You owe me.” Her gaze encompassed Nell and Caeron. “Each one of you owe me. Big time. And I will collect.”
“With interest, I’m sure,” Arawn said.
“Probably.” She sighed. “That’s it for me for tonight. See ya, boneheads.”
When she was gone, Rhys asked Arawn, “How did you know they were coming?”
“They use my facilities as headquarters.”
Caeron suppressed a shudder. Hold it together, man. He knew what the Enforcers were capable of, and what they were going to do to Seersha. Nobody deserved that. “Your facilities are a prison.”
Arawn waved a dismissive hand. “I prefer to think of it as a…how do the humans say it? Ah, yes. A rehabilitation center.”
Revulsion bubbled in his gut. “Of course you do. I bet your ass hasn’t ever been rehabilitated.”
“I know my place. I follow the Rules. I obey my orders. It’s simple.”
“It’s simple if you don’t care about anything other than your sorry ass, dickhead.” A brutal laugh tore up Caeron’s throat. “You obviously don’t give a shit about anybody else. You’re revolting.”
Arawn smiled. It was a frightening thing, cold and full of menace. “I should crush you, like the bug you are, for your disrespect.”
I’d like to see you try. Caeron couldn’t tell him that, though. Not without arousing suspicion about who he was. “Please don’t
crush me,” he drawled. “I’m rather attached to being alive, if it’s all the same to you.”
Rhys walked up to the prick. Standing right on his nose, he asked, “Why are you still here?”
“Amusing myself. You lot are pathetically entertaining. I suggest you back off, though. Before I decide to—”
“What?” Rhys interrupted, smiling menacingly. “You may think I’m a bug, but you won’t like what’s hiding under my shell.”
Arawn examined Rhys attentively, and his eyes widened a fraction. “I see.”
Rhys bared even more teeth. “Get out. And don’t come back without an invitation.”
As suddenly as he had appeared, the prick disappeared.
Caeron breathed a sigh of relief. “Thanks, man. He was annoying the shit out of me.”
“What a jackass,” Nell said. “Why didn’t Seersha leave us to fend for ourselves? We could have got out on our own.”
“Not without interfering with humans. They were about to enter the library and see us. Not to mention the rotten bodies and all that shit. We’d have broken the Rules, and the Enforcers would have come for us instead of her.” He couldn’t suppress the shudder this time.
“Am I subject to these rules?” There was a tendril of panic in her voice.
Good. Not completely reckless. “Some of them. I have a compendium here, somewhere. I’ll give it to you later.”
“What you need to remember is this,” Rhys said. “Supernaturals are not allowed to interfere with human lives. You can’t reveal our existence to them, and whatever magic, power or gifts you have can’t be used to alter their lives in any way.”
Nell plopped on the couch, covering her face with her hands. “So, if I’d broken the rules in the past, I could’ve been destroyed.” She peeked between her fingers, looking up at him. “Who’s in charge of this? Who came up with the rules?”
Caeron sat beside her. “Originally there were no rules. Bad shit happened—”
“Bad shit happened?” Her eyes twinkled. “Is that a technical term?”
He narrowed his eyes. “I’ll inform you that I’m the sole resident teaser and mocker of this mission. I have centuries in this position under my belt. Don’t try to compete with me.”
Nell laughed, poking him in the ribs with a finger. “You’re trying to scare me off because you know I’m a better teaser than you.”
“Fantastic,” Rhys muttered from his post beside the fireplace. “Now I have two comedians to endure.”
Nell leaned into Caeron, whispering loudly, “Is the bony one always this surly?”
“No,” he answered in the same tone. “You should’ve seen him before Tamerah came along. He’d have ripped our heads off by now.”
“Caeron is also a dullahan. Why don’t you call him ‘bony one’ as well?”
“Because the bonehead would like it.” She winked. “You, on the other hand, pretend to hate it, when the truth is you think it’s funny. Endearing, even.”
“I do not,” he growled, but the denial was negated by a trembling of his lips.
“Oh, I’m touched.” Caeron put his hands together over his heart. “I was starting to think you liked Rhys better than me, but then you call me bonehead and I feel all mushy inside.”
“You’re mushy, alright. And vain.” Nell hooted with laughter. “Rhys doesn’t even know he’s attractive, which only enhances his appeal.”
“I’m not!” Rhys blushed furiously. Both Caeron and Nell looked at him, then at each other, and burst out laughing.
Caeron was the first to recover. “So, bad shit happened. Bad as in destroying-humankind bad. That’s why the Rules were created. A bunch of Gods—”
“Gods?” Nell sat up, grasping his shirt. “Like, real, honest to God, Gods?”
“This is going to be one long ass history lesson.” Rhys let out a heavy sigh.
Nell released his shirt, and Caeron glared at Rhys. “You’ve had centuries to learn this shit. And you always knew, since you were born, how your world functioned. Imagine having all this crap flung at you on a single day. Wouldn’t you have questions, o great bony one?”
Rhys glared back. “Don’t call me that. I’ll tolerate it from her, but I put up with enough of your crap already.” He bowed his head to Nell. “I apologize. But we don’t have time to explain all the Creation’s history to you. We haven’t even talked about your Lineage, and we need to think about some kind of strategy to deal with the rotten souls. And all the other shit that’s going on.”
“Fair enough.” She turned to Caeron. “Give me the Cliff notes, and I’ll research the rest later.”
“The God of Light—we call him Belenos—was tasked with the creation of a special breed of supernaturals, capable of fighting and subduing all other species and breeds. Each of the other Gods gave him something to use in their makeup. Thus the Enforcers were born.”
“Okay, but how do they know when somebody breaks the rules?”
“Belenos’ consciousness reaches everywhere where there’s light, which is his domain. So, he has this ‘I feel a disturbance in the force’ kind of shit going. When a transgression goes beyond a certain point, it registers on his shit-meter and bam! Enforcers are knocking on your door. They take you to the prick’s facilities, and they punish you.”
Nell curled into a ball. “How?”
“It depends. Belenos decides what’s fitting. Imprisonment, torture, or even execution.” And he was a grade-A asshole with a sadistic bent and too much power on his hands. But Caeron wasn’t going to say it and scare Nell even more, not now.
“That’s it?” Her mouth hung open and her cheeks flushed. “No process, no defense, no appeal? That’s bullshit!”
Caeron agreed wholeheartedly. “Unfortunately, that’s how it goes. And since most of the other Gods and Goddesses left us to fend for ourselves, there’s not much we can do about it.” His shoulders slumped. He hated, absolutely despised being powerless against the Enforcers and their puppeteer.
“No. I refuse to believe it.” Nell shook her head, her red curls bouncing around her face. Her blue eyes sparked. “I know the world is going to hell in a handbasket and we’re the unlucky suckers who get to save it, but after we do that, I’ll find something to do about it. If it’s the last thing I do, I’ll fix your ‘injustice’ system—”
“Something is wrong.” Rhys ran to the library’s door. “Something is wrong with Tarani.”
Here we go again.
The Enforcers dragged Seersha to Annwan and shoved her into the dungeon, restraining her with the shackles and chain hanging from the ceiling. They’d been forged with Belenos’ fire, and nobody could break them. Not even the most powerful supernaturals. Not even Belenos himself, if the legends were true.
I’d like to see Belenos struggling to get free from his own contraption. Fucker.
Once she was secured, they banged her around, even though she wasn’t putting up a fight. As much as she wanted to resist, to fight back, it would be useless. Their strength was unmatched, and they hardly felt any pain.
She, on the other hand, despite being much stronger and more resilient than a human, did feel pain. And fear. And hate. And an acute desire to kick them all in the nuts.
I wonder if they even have nuts. It seemed pointless, since they didn’t have souls nor emotions, let alone baser needs such as sex. The Enforcers looked like humans, but they were empty vessels, organic machines functioning only by Belenos’ will and orders.
One of them gave her a last punch in the ribs and said, “Our father has questions for you. He’ll be here shortly.”
“Your father is a moron,” she spat. “Dipshit.”
“We’ll see if you’re so disrespectful when he arrives. He has been watching your steps, Death’s Bridge.”
No, please, no. He couldn’t possibly know what she’d done. Nobody knew it, and he had no way of figuring it out. Did he?
Her hearth thundered, her entire body shaking. With fear. With rage.
If only I could kill them. Destroy them. Obliterate Belenos and his henchmen from existence.
Maybe then she would have some peace.
She was always thinking about them, afraid they’d show up again, fearing they eventually would catch up to her and ruin everything she’d worked for.
But her day would come. Even if she’d never be able to kill them, she would be free. Of them, of the fear.
For now, she just had to lie. And wait.
Biding her time.
They would pay.
Where am I?
Standing in complete darkness, Tamerah couldn’t see anything. Unease engulfed her. She called for Rhys, but there was no answer.
Unease morphed into panic. She reached blindly with her arms, turned around in a circle, took a cautious couple of steps. There was nothing surrounding her.
Only darkness and an eerie silence, absolute and dead. She took a deep breath, knowing she needed to stay calm if she wanted to get out of…whatever this was.
What happened? How did I get here?
The last thing she remembered was being in the library. Looking at some books with Nell. Then…
Everything came back in a rush, making her want to vomit.
Rotten souls. They had swarmed the library, killed the two human patrons, and piled up on Rhys and Caeron.
Tamerah had been terrified. She’d remembered killing one of them in the ruins, and tried to recall exactly what had she done. She’d touched it and…said something. A word.
While she’d choked, rooted to the spot, trying to recall the damned word, Nell had taken two daggers from her backpack and started slashing corpses.
A minute later, something had exploded on Tamerah’s left side. Pieces of stone, wood and glass had flown at her with a heat wave, throwing her to the ground.
Her head had collided with the stone floor, and the last thing she knew before losing consciousness was that her skin was burned, a million small cuts making the burn worse.
Then…
Here she was.
No. There was something else.
