by Angie Fox
Too late. "I think we should sneak in," I told her.
"That's crazy," she snapped, but not fast enough. I heard the hesitation, saw the lingering interest in her expression.
"Is it?" I winked at her.
The power beckoned to us. It wanted us to come.
Shiloh's fingers closed around my arm. "We need to leave," she said, panic tinting her voice. "Right now. I'll even let you drive my Miata. I'll teach you how to knit."
I held steady. She didn't really want that. "My dad has a portal in there." I could practically feel the hum of it. "It's the one we saw in the vision this morning. A dark vortex. He's pulling energy down through purgatory and into hell. It's almost like he's building an escape tunnel. I want to see where it leads. We can discover exactly how strong the Earl of Hell really is."
After all, I was a planner, and this would definitely help me in my meeting tomorrow.
Her mouth worked, but no sound came out. She cleared her throat, steeled her resolve. "We don't have to go anywhere," she said. "Right? Because I don't think I could actually go in it without…"
"No. We'll stay here." I just wanted to get close. Hopefully I could now that I'd drawn in part of my dad's power. "We'll get a read on it. Enjoy it a little."
We needed a break. Besides, this was the perfect opportunity to see what was truly happening with the Earl.
Truth be told, I was set to go without her.
If Shiloh was shocked, she didn't show it. "I could be a big help," she said, her voice barely above a whisper.
"You've felt it all before," I told her.
She was the only one I knew who might be as adept as I was at reading this situation.
"Okay. I'm in," she said. She really was a friend.
Hand in hand, we crossed the street. As we did, I saw Dimitri turn the corner on his Harley. He had his bike in low gear, riding slowly, clearly searching for me.
He just couldn't leave it alone.
Well, if he was going to deceive me, I didn't feel so bad about doing it to him.
"Hurry," I said, slipping inside the gold front doors with Shiloh.
Chapter Twenty
The lobby was deserted. Thank Hades.
Yes, it was mean to keep Dimitri in the dark, but he'd go all caveman if he knew what we were about to do. The last thing I needed was to get dragged out by my hair.
If I could find the dark vortex on my own, if I could see for myself where the Earl was drawing his power, then hopefully we'd be able to figure out how to defeat him.
Or at least end this debacle and save the people in this church.
"Quickly," I said, urging Shiloh deeper into the lobby as Dimitri drove slowly past.
Yes, my husband was the good guy. He'd named himself my protector from day one, but that didn't mean he could help us with this.
I paused, breathless, waiting to see if Dimitri stopped.
He didn't.
I rested a hand on my switch stars and I moved farther back. So far, the Earl had been the only demon I couldn't slay. Shockingly enough, my weapons didn't work on him.
I'd have to find another way.
Shiloh paused in the shadows, just past the statue of Ammut. She fidgeted with the neckline of her obscenely low-cut dress. "Did he see us?"
I passed her, moving deeper into the dark. "I don't think so."
He'd made it his life's work to shelter me from the evil that pursued us, and usually he let me go do what needed to be done, but he wouldn't understand this.
"I don't think Damien would approve, either," Shiloh whispered, following me.
I paused as I rounded the corner. "Who?"
She winced as she said it. "My husband."
Right. I turned back to the task at hand. I knew she worried about him. I ran a hand along the wall in order to keep my bearings. "Have you heard from him yet?"
"No."
"It's going to be okay," I promised.
I'd make it okay if I had to go to hell and back. Which considering my history was a very real possibility. Still, I didn't want to think about that right now.
One thing at a time. I wasn't even sure if we could get close to the vortex. It depended on how well my melding with my dad had gone. My boots echoed off the marble floors. The quicker we got downstairs the better.
"It's this way," Shiloh said, hurrying for the darkened hallway to the left.
Now that she mentioned it, I could feel the dark churning under that part of the church. I had to settle down.
"There should be a basement entrance," I whispered, my voice sounding unnaturally loud in the deserted space. "There," I said, pointing to a wood door about ten feet from us.
With my dad's powers in the mix, I should be able to get past the locks and those wards that stopped Dimitri and Frieda last time.
Call it supernatural camouflage.
Or temporary insanity.
Shiloh perked up. "Wow. It tastes good," she said, as if she were about to indulge in a super sized bowl of Häagen-Dazs.
I wished it could be that way for me. "Why do succubi get to have all the fun?" I asked, only half teasing.
It really wasn't fair.
Shiloh pressed her lips together as if she had a delectable secret. "Fun is kinda in the job description." She ran a hand absently down her skintight latex dress. "Hades, I miss it sometimes."
Shiloh reached for the door first. She turned the knob eagerly and I pushed the door open the rest of the way. A steep staircase, as old as the theater itself, led straight down.
I pulled a cord overhead and lit up a series of bare white bulbs that cast watery light down into the abyss.
Perfect.
"Me first," I said, edging around her. The antique tile under my feet was slick. It didn't slow me down in the least.
I wasn't the accidental demon slayer anymore. I'd proven myself more times than I could count.
I'd defeated the mad-scientist demon who'd kept the Red Skulls on the run for thirty years. I'd torched every last succubus in Las Vegas (save Shiloh). And now I was on the ultimate dark power rush in order to shut down what could turn into the second coming of the Earl of Hell.
Boy, I loved my job.
The air cooled the lower I got. Nice. It felt familiar, as if I'd been here before. Of course I hadn't, but it occurred to me that I was drawing off my dad.
Fan-fricking-tastic.
A small landing at the bottom of the stairs led to a twisting corridor.
Shiloh was right on my ass. "There it is," she said over my shoulder as we came to a heavy iron door. There was a smaller, most likely decorative door in front of it, done in an iron-bars-and-metal-studs motif. Cute. Kind of like a medieval castle door.
Power zinged over my arm as I pulled the first door open. It must have been what burned Frieda.
I ran my finger down one of the metal studs. The wards were comfortably chilly, but they didn't hurt.
Shiloh rubbed up against the next door and gave a small giggle.
"Oh, to live like a succubus," I said to no one in particular.
I could feel the powerful vortex pulsing on the other side.
It felt amazing to be so close. I planted my hands on my hips and soaked it in. This was my reward. I'd changed, evolved. I had enough of my dad's power to get past his wards. He was such a manipulator. Such a jerk. And now I'd turned it around on him.
"We'll make it." At least to the dark vortex. If I could get a sense of how it worked, hopefully I could at least cut off my dad's power source. That would give me some breathing room to try to free the people he was draining.
It had an outside throw-bolt. Very medieval dungeon. "Stand aside," I told Shiloh. And when she was out of the way, I popped it open easily. "Thanks, Dad."
The door creaked outward and she poked her head closer. "It smells terrific."
"Rub it in." It smelled like a zoo to me.
Ornate bronze torches lined the stone walls on either side. "Boy, Dad really goes for this medieval th
eme."
Shiloh was right behind me. "Egyptian," she corrected.
She was right. The cups of the bronze torches resembled lotus flowers.
The hallway was narrow, the torches sizzling near my cheek. The door closed behind us with a boom.
I looked back and saw only darkness and shadows.
A low, rumbling growl echoed from up ahead.
Shiloh gasped, but I smiled. I knew what that was. "I heard it the last time I was here." When I'd first encountered Mimi and her measuring rocks.
"It sounds scary," Shiloh said, her voice echoing off the walls.
"It's tied up," I assured her, picking up the pace.
Metal rubbed against metal as she withdrew a torch from its holder. "Why do you say that?"
Logic. "If it were loose, it would have attacked us by now."
Shiloh didn't appear too comforted. But she didn't have time to dwell on it.
The hallway opened up on the wickedest dungeon I'd ever seen. It was as if we'd stepped back in time and entered the maze under the Roman Colosseum.
We stepped into a rather large central room with barred prison cells on all sides. An immense cobra was coiled in the one directly across from us. It was as big around as a storm drain, five times as long as a man.
Its purple scales shone in the dim torchlight. I stepped into the cavern and it flared out its hood and gave a bone-curdling hiss. Its curved white fangs could pierce straight through me and still have room to spare.
"Have you ever seen anything like it?" I asked.
"Yes," Shiloh said on a croak. "My old boss kept one as a pet. The thing fed on anybody who pissed the boss off."
Good thing Shiloh's husband, Damien, had taken care of that demon. "Where does it come from?"
"Lower Setesh Wastelands," she said on a whisper, as if that would make her invisible behind me. "I don't want to look at it anymore."
Well, I hated to break it to her, but all of the creatures were staring at us.
A pair of imps slunk from the shadows in the cell next to the cobra. Purple eyes glowed from under dark, furry brows. They had weasel-like faces and the bodies of thick, hastily constructed people. Dark hair clung to their bent frames. That cage not only had bars, but also a thin copper mesh to keep them from slipping through.
Good thinking.
The imps' congested breathing grew more and more excited as they drew closer, weaving in and out in an attempt to confuse their prey: us.
"What are they doing?" Shiloh asked, breathless.
"Hunting," I said quietly.
I kept a hand on my switch stars, just in case.
Tiny goblin-like creatures occupied the cages on both sides of us. They separated them by color. Gray and black on the right, brownish-tan and white ones on the left. They scampered about on their hind legs, letting out low grunts.
"Poor things," Shiloh clucked.
"What are those?" I asked, wrinkling my nose as a brown one scaled the bars and tried to squirm through the top.
"You know," Shiloh said, drawing closer to me. "Bakhtaks."
Their eyes were tiny specks, set back under large brows. "I think I would have remembered."
Shiloh gave me the look that said she knew better. "Ever wake up in the middle of the night and you have this weight on your chest? And you can't move or breathe?" She lowered her chin. "Those are Bakhtaks. They feed off your dreams." She studied them from a distance. "They're not the most pleasant creatures, but they certainly shouldn't be caged."
"Let's go," I said, before she decided to let any of them loose.
Two passages led out of the prison block, one on the left and the other to the right. I was unsure which to follow, and not really sure I even cared, as long as we got out now.
A low growl sounded deep down the left side passage.
"That's our ticket," I said, stepping over the manacles and chains littering the center of the room.
Shiloh ran her hand over a holder full of sticks with very sharp, pointy ends. "I'm not so sure about this."
"You can still go back," I told her. The door was just down the hall. "I won't think less of you."
She hesitated, her fear written plainly on her face. "No," she said, steeling herself. "You're my friend and I'm going to see you through this."
"I'm glad," I said, grabbing a torch and heading off toward whatever had been growling. Shiloh knew more about enchanted creatures than I did. Plus, I could use the company. While I was fairly certain that the vortex I'd seen in my vision was down here, under the church, I doubted my dad would keep it in plain sight.
I slowed my steps as the floor underneath me angled downward. I braced a hand against the wall and kept going.
"Lizzie…" Shiloh said, as it slanted even more.
I'll bet she was regretting those stripper heels now.
The air was growing cooler. Dark power prickled at my skin.
Shiloh cleared her throat. "This isn't part of the old theater," she said, her voice wavering.
I ran a hand against the wall. The stone was wet, oozing. "None of it is," not since we'd passed through the warded door. "This place has been conjured up by the Earl. No one else would build a basement in California."
"Well, that's comforting," Shiloh said drily.
The torches were spread wider now. Shadows lingered between each glimmer of light. In truth, it was scary as hell, but I wasn't going to tell her that.
"He can't see us," I assured her. "Or he'd have stopped us by now." No doubt he could open those cages with a thought.
My foot snagged on a bar and I glanced down before taking a hasty step back. Below was a prison cell full of creatures I didn't even know existed.
Snorting horned creatures butted up against uneven lumps that could have been rocks except that they were black and scaly. A thorned spike shot out of one of the scaly lumps, poking a horned troublemaker in the ass. It skittered sideways and straight under a giant gray lizard with two heads. "What do you call that?"
Shiloh held her nose. "I don't know, but they all need baths." She gave me a sympathetic look. "I'll bet this was what your dad was going to have you clear out."
"Unless he was sending me after the snake." So far, there hadn't been a favor big enough for him not to ask.
Shiloh sighed. "At least Babydoll didn't get stuck in there."
No, she'd come home with me.
"Let's keep moving," I said. We'd help the creatures, but it was too dangerous to attempt it now.
I walked over the bars on the balls of my feet, careful that my heels didn't get caught. I didn't know if any of the lumps or horned things could jump.
As I feared, our journey caused a small riot below. The mini-rhinos, as it turned out, were quite springy. Fat gray tongues reached up to lick at anything they could. Luckily just our shoes, but eww.
I was relieved when we'd finished crossing the cell. Mostly. The wards felt even stronger on the other side. Cool power pressed heavily on us as we continued down the sloping passageway. It was almost too much. I was going to get a headache if this kept up.
Unease prickled at the back of my neck.
"Do you think we're getting closer?" Shiloh asked, hovering close.
"Yes." The creatures had come from Dad's attempts to pull power from the dark vortex. He'd admitted as much to me.
It also stood to reason the nearer we drew, the heavier the security.
The passage opened up into a circular room. It was pitch black, save for an immense lamp in the shape of a full moon. It stood on three bronze legs, and the rounded alabaster holder in the center burned with an unearthly red fire.
A low growl rumbled from the far corner. A pair of blood red eyes watched us.
I drew back.
Holy hellfire.
I didn't see any cage bars blocking this one.
Shiloh placed a hand on my shoulder, her nails digging in hard as a jackal the size of a car stalked out from the shadows.
It bared its teeth, snarling.<
br />
It's not as if we could run back from where we came. The passage was too narrow. The underground prison would trip us up. If this creature wasn't on us before we'd even make it that far.
I drew a switch star.
If it leaped, I'd have one shot before it was on me.
And if I killed it, I just had to hope the Earl wouldn't be right on my ass.
Because I still hadn't figured out how to kill him.
"Stay calm," I said to Shiloh and myself. "Let's not be the aggressors." I didn't see any way that would work out.
The jackal moved like the predator it was, lithe and smooth. I took in its sinewy muscles. The gold hoops piercing its ears. The skin of a leopard draped over its shoulders, the lifeless head hanging between its powerful shoulders. I'd never encountered anything like it.
I watched it draw up on its hind legs in a move that looked almost…human.
"Maybe it doesn't want to eat us," Shiloh whispered.
"Yet," I told her.
I kept moving, step by careful step. Shiloh followed as we attempted to skirt the creature.
Her shoulder knocked into mine. "It's the god Anubis," she said, breathless.
"No, it's not." I had bought her line about the Bakhtaks, but the Egyptian god of death? That was just plain crazy.
Although I'd grant her, any ancient person seeing this thing would never forget it.
It watched us, stalked us. It let out a low-throated growl that sent chills up my arms. I'd been hearing the jackal.
My chest felt tight. It was impossible to take a deep breath, even though I wanted to heave with exertion. We were halfway past it and it hadn't attacked.
Maybe it didn't have us where it wanted us yet.
"Did you know," Shiloh began, her voice shaking, in the most inappropriate round of trivia I'd ever had the misfortune to witness, "Anubis selects worthy souls and takes them to Osiris."
I didn't bother answering. It took everything I had to keep focused on the beast. I wasn't about to take folklore as fact. There was a reason ancient people made up stories. The truth was too fucking terrifying.
And if we were really following this Egyptian theme, maybe we wouldn't mention the fact that I destroyed the Tomb of Kebechet. Kebechet being Anubis's daughter. No doubt she was a treat.
