The Darkest Gateway

by Jeri Westerson

  Nick started undressing. “You two can get us in and out of the cave, right?” asked Doc for the fifteenth time.

  “Yeah, Doc, no sweat.” Nick nearly jumped out of his shirt and trousers and stepped out of his shoes not with feet, but with paws. He glanced at Jeff, who just led the way up the trail.

  They both ran side by side. Jeff lifted his muzzle and sniffed the air. No trace of Baphomet’s scent of ash and tar. Nick kept stride and it was wonderful. Jeff tried not to think about the plans he’d made, the plans to go back home to California after all this was over. Nick was his pack and he didn’t know if it would be possible to leave him. But he needed to do it, had to.

  Nick glanced at him like he knew what he was thinking. Likely, he sort of did.

  They kept going until they made it to the cave entrance. The sheriff had roped it off with police tape so no one would wander in and get sucked to another dimension, or at least that’s how Jeff understood it.

  He and Nick sat and waited, though he could tell that Nick wanted to nuzzle him. It was a pack thing but Jeff was uncomfortable with it. Not because Nick was gay, but because he liked keeping his humanity, even when he was a wolf. Maybe especially when he was a wolf.

  It took about half an hour for the others to make it up the trail. Jeff hadn’t been too sure about Ruth, but smelling her as a wolf, she seemed to be right with him. If there was something amiss, he was sure Nick would know, too.

  They entered the caves and Jeff sniffed around. Yes, he knew the way. He could definitely find this scent again. He took the lead while Nick took the rear. It was getting darker and he could still see, but thank goodness for flashlights because he doubted even he could see in the pitch blackness with no light at all.

  He saw the green glow before the others. He gave a yelp and they headed toward him.

  It was a glowing crack in space slowly turning like some weird virtual reality game. But it really was just a crack. Did the book bring it? The coven seemed to think so. All Jeff knew was that it stunk. He hated the smell of it. He noticed Nick thought so, too, because he was wrinkling his nose at it and kept shaking his head, trying to get the smell out of his muzzle.

  Right? Jeff was saying in his head. He let his tongue loll, trying to catch some other better scents to mask the terrible one.

  Ruth walked around it, simply studying it. “I never would have guessed.”

  It was funny listening to people talk when he was a wolf. They sounded like they were talking into a cup, kind of hollow and muffled. He was just happy to be able to understand them. Without the wolfsbane, their voices sounded garbled. He supposed that being a werewolf made you forget your past self, forget those you loved even, just so you could kill. Yeah, the wolfsbane kept him just that much more human. He never missed a dose and was even getting proficient at making it himself, under the careful guidance of Seraphina.

  “How do we start?” said Ruth.

  Doc took out some things from a bag and Jolene took more supplies out of her backpack. Jeff never bothered with the details of what they were doing. He wasn’t into Wicca. He knew plenty of people back home who were into it, from teenaged girls who just wanted to dabble to full-on witches with tattoos, braided purple-dyed hair, and serious piercings. He’d slept with one of the latter once. She was a bit too intense for him.

  Soon, the coven had surrounded the rift and began chanting. Doc had a big leather-bound book that he was reading from as a sort of call and repeat. He didn’t quite understand what they were up to, but the rift sure seemed to. It began pulsating. Jolene tossed some colorful powders into it and the rift sparked and bucked. The chanting got louder. There was a strange electricity in the air. He felt it crackle around him, and his fur started to rise.

  All at once, something flashed and Jolene was yanked back, as if she’d been attached to a rope. She fell into the darkness beyond their flashlights and lanterns. Seraphina ran to her and lifted her head into her lap, cooing at her.

  “Are you all right, Jolene?” she asked softly.

  Nick wandered toward her, lay down beside her, and licked her face.

  Jolene lay there and suddenly snapped open her eyes. They glowed red. Everyone jerked back, especially when she said in a deep voice not her own, “Weak mortals. You think to close the gate. The gate is open! It will remain so. The game is not done.”

  “Oh, it’s done, buster,” said Ruth. She had something like a willow wand in her hand. She pointed it at the rift and then slowly walked it closer.

  “What are you doing?” said the voice. “Stop it, you fool!”

  Ruth poked it right into the glowing crack. A boom and light burst in all directions, blinding everyone.

  Jolene started to float off the floor. But her head was shaking violently and the voice was saying, “No, no, no, no, NO!”

  Ruth held the wand in the rift. She shut her eyes against the blasts of wind and gritted her teeth. She held up her wand arm with her other hand to keep it steady. The rift was expanding. Was it supposed to do that?

  The wolf’s self-preservation was taking hold of Jeff. He backed away. Wanted to run. Had to run away. But the human side, the Jeff side, forced the wolf to stop. You stay right there, wolfboy. Don’t you dare leave them. They’re your pack and they’re in trouble. That seemed to do it. He whined to Nick who looked like he was ready to bolt too. Nick whimpered and stood his ground, though his tail was between his legs.

  Jolene suddenly turned her head Exorcist-style toward Ruth. “Get away from there, mortal. You don’t know what you are doing. No one has ever interfered with the book!”

  “Get used to it!” screamed Ruth.

  “YOU’LL ALL DIE!”

  “We’ve all got to die sometime,” yelled Doc. He opened the book in his hand again and started reciting the strange words. Seraphina and Ruth repeated. They all talked louder and louder over the noise of the wind and the rumble coming from the crack. The cave’s floor began to tremble, like an earthquake. Pebbles fell from the roof, but Jeff was worried bigger ones were on their way. He admonished himself again when his paws edged toward the exit.

  There was a sudden and powerful boom that knocked all of them off their feet, throwing Ruth back. She landed on Nick, who gave out a yelp.

  When everyone looked up, the rift was gone. They all turned toward Jolene. She was lying peacefully on the ground as if asleep.

  Doc knelt beside her and opened her lids, looking at her eyes. “Wake up, Jolene. Wake up.”

  But she didn’t stir.

  “Get my bag,” said Doc to no one in particular. Nick padded over, closed his mouth gently over the handle of the black doctor bag, and brought it forward. Doc dug inside and grabbed a little pill-looking thing, snapped it, and waved it under her nose.

  Nick and Jeff shied back. Ammonia.

  Still she didn’t stir.

  “She’s not breathing,” he said worriedly.

  “Maybe you should start CPR,” said Seraphina. Big tears rolled from her eyes.

  Doc hesitated, as if he was arguing with himself. “Get me the book,” he said at last. Seraphina raced to the book and put it into Doc’s hands.

  He flipped some pages and stopped, holding his whole hand over Jolene’s face. He muttered some kind of incantation. It was a garbled sort of language, not demonic or else Jeff would have been able to understand it. Doc slowly lifted his hand away. A pale light hung in an arc between her face and his hand, like some kind of chalk smear. He seemed to hold it for a moment more before suddenly clenching his hand into a fist. The light went out and Jolene coughed.

  Doc bent over her again. “Jolene?”

  “Yeah, yeah I’m back.” She wiped at her face and Doc helped her to sit up.

  “Are you all right, young lady?”

  “Yeah. Just a little woozy. Another possession. Not nice. He really didn’t want to go, even though the rift closed.”

  “No, he didn’t.”

  “He is gone, though. I can feel it. I can probably sta
nd now.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “Yeah, let me get up.” Doc helped her and she stood, maybe a little wobbly at first but she got better quickly.

  A few more rocks tumbled down from the ceiling and edges. The cave trembled. She looked up. “Maybe we’d better get out of here.”

  “By Godfrey, I think you’re right!”

  Seraphina and Doc each took her arm and ran out of the room with her. Ruth followed after and Nick ran following her.

  Jeff looked back to the place the rift had been. No light remained. He sniffed and couldn’t smell it. That was good enough for him.

  He ran and caught up to Nick in the lead. The wolves trotted, often running back to make sure the humans were following. Dust and rocks kept falling. There was a great rumbling behind them. Get moving! cried Jeff, but all that came out were some barks.

  The entrance was in sight but now some serious rocks were falling, and the dust was making the exit hard to see.

  Nick and Jeff barked, urgently herding them toward the entrance.

  With a mighty roar, the ceiling crumbled. Everyone leapt for the entrance, rolling past the police tape. It seemed as if the whole mountain was coming down. Dust and debris crashed, filling the entrance with rubble and collapsing part of the cave opening.

  Jeff quickly assessed, pacing back and forth in front of the cave, and was satisfied that everyone had made it out.

  Seraphina and Jolene helped Doc to his feet. He was a bit scraped up but no worse for wear. “That’s one down,” he said. “And a mighty big one at that. Good job, everyone. Now all we have to worry over is Baphomet.”

  “And an angry mob,” said Jolene.

  “We’d better get back,” he agreed. They hurried as fast as they could up the trail.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Kylie, girl, this is it. I was actually going to walk into Satan’s lair. If anyone had ever told me… Nope. Not any of this would have been believed.

  We got to the cavern. It looked like dead birds were scattered by the entrance in all directions. Some looked beaten, some torn apart. Wild beasts? More demons? I shuddered at the black blood and feathers everywhere. I had to carefully pick my way over one to enter the cavern.

  Shabiri followed me and then skittered in front of me. “Listen, I know I promised to take you here, but now I’m not so sure it’s such a good idea.”

  “You can leave anytime, you know.”

  “Yes, I know.” She stopped and watched as I stalked forward. But then she seemed to change her mind and ran after me again, her ridiculous high heels clacking over the stone. “But maybe it’s not a good idea, talking to…Him. Did you ever consider that He might be angry at a human trying to tell Him what to do?”

  “I’m not going to tell him. I’m going to beg him. On my knees if necessary. Shouldn’t that please him?”

  Yeah, I began to wonder what I was getting into. What Satan would be like. Would I be too terrified to speak? But at the moment, I was good. I was running on adrenalin and chutzpah and moxie and anything else I could grab from my DNA. I mean, this was it. I could put everything I had into this because after it, there wouldn’t be any more. Might as well.

  Funny, but I wasn’t as scared as when I’d started out.

  Shabiri was still blocking me, even as the cavern grew cooler. It looked like the cave at Falcon’s Point with stalactites and stalagmites. But unlike the caves there that got darker the more you dove into them, this one was becoming lighter due to all that fire. Okay, that was giving me pause. Satan, fire, hell….souls. Too late now, Kylie. And anyway, this was for Erasmus. I swallowed past a thick lump in my throat. “I know you’re scared, Shabiri, but you don’t want to see Erasmus die, do you?”

  She didn’t look like the confident bitch I had known. Her face was twisted in uncertainty. For one, she loved him. For another, demons apparently didn’t do this kind of thing for each other. It was dog eat dog in the Netherworld. Acts of selflessness were alien to them.

  “Shabiri, you got me here. You helped me. I’ll tell him that before I die. You can wait outside. You don’t have to go in there.”

  She looked like she was pondering it. She really wanted to leave, but she also might hate herself if she did. “What if…what if…”

  “No more what ifs. I’m here. I’m going through with it.”

  She got in front of me again and held her arms out, blocking me.

  “Will you get out of my way!” I shoved her, hard. She might even have fallen, but I didn’t care. She didn’t follow me. I stalked forward and suddenly found myself in a doorway to an enormous chamber. And then my breath stopped.

  Satan was enormous. Huge. All out of proportion to what I’d expected. And he was in a pit of fire, just…sitting there. He looked like a walking lava flow but with red glowing eyes and towering horns.

  And he was looking at me.

  “Kylie?”

  Erasmus’ voice. Then I saw him. A choking cry wrenched from my throat. “Erasmus!” I ran. There was some sort of fluttering from the rock walls but I paid no attention to it. There was even some kind of demon looking like he was trying to become the wall, but I had no eyes for anyone but Erasmus. When I finally reached him, I flung myself into his arms. We held each other, gripping tight. “I thought I lost you!” I wailed into his shoulder.

  “You can never lose me,” he said. He brought my face up and kissed me.

  I held on and kissed him back hard. But then…he tasted different. He smelled different. He felt different. I couldn’t help but push him back to look at him. He wore the same face, the same physique, but something was off. His face. It seemed paler, the angles softer, the eyes more expressive and open.

  He was human. I reached up with both hands and stroked his face and hair. “What have you done?”

  “I’m human now. What…what do you think?”

  “I think I don’t want you to do this.”

  “But…I’m human. I thought you’d like that.”

  “I don’t! You’re Erasmus. A demon. I love him.”

  He looked stricken. “So…you don’t love me? As I am now?”

  “Of course I do, you idiot! I’d love you no matter what!”

  “Excuse me,” said a voice of rounded tones and controlled strength. When I looked, it was Satan, gesturing toward me with a delicate finger…that had a huge talon on it. “If I may cut in…”

  “Oh!” I broke away from Erasmus but clasped tight to his hand. “I’m…I’m so sorry. I forgot for a minute…”

  “A human forgetting the sight of—well, not be a braggart or anything—but look at me. I’m pretty impressive, no?”

  “Oh yes! Yes, you are. And frightening. And…big. And great…”

  Erasmus hissed out of the side of his mouth, “Stop talking.”

  I tried to smile but I don’t think it came out very well. And then Satan leaned toward me. He was far bigger than Baphomet at his biggest, and he leaned far, getting his long, pointed nose close to mine. My whole view was taken up with those glowing red eyes. There were pupils within, but instead of being round, they were dark squiggles that widened and narrowed as he examined me.

  “You are the human, the Chosen Host.”

  “Y-yes.”

  “And…you fell in love…with him.” He moved that enormous finger and pointed it at Erasmus.

  “Yes. I don’t want him to die. I came because I want you to take my soul instead. But before you do, I was hoping you could destroy the Booke of the Hidden. For good. Because no one should have to go through what I’ve gone through ever again. And…well. You don’t have to unbind Erasmus from it because he’s human now and I imagine he isn’t tied to it anymore, so...he saved you a step.” I was rambling but I just couldn’t stop.

  He grinned. His teeth were sharp and glowy. “And yet, you would come to me…with this?”

  Two fingers clasped my left arm and lifted me off the ground. I pumped my legs, terrified that he’d just drop me into his big
mouth and chew.

  He was looking at my left wrist, the one he was holding me by. The one with the tattoo!

  Oops.

  “I can explain that.”

  Satan still smiled. “I think you had better.”

  “I thought I could protect myself. I didn’t know if it would work. But now I see what a stupid thing it was getting it. You can burn it off if you need to.”

  “Or simply pull off this arm.”

  My lip trembled. “O-or…that.”

  His fingers released me and I fell to the ground. Erasmus made a move toward me but seemed to be thwarted by a look from the Big Guy. “Did you really think a simple tattoo would stop me? I can easily bypass such pedestrian magic. That is for the simple demon, the Soul-Eater, like your beloved. Tell me, did you get this tattoo before or after this great love occurred?”

  I rubbed my wrist and the knee I landed on. “After. And it wasn’t to protect me from him. It was to protect me from…well, you. I’m sorry.”

  “Never mind,” he said, waving his hand distractedly. “It doesn’t matter, as I said. It’s good to be cautious in my presence.” He settled in again, the flames jumping around him like bubbles in a spa. “But now, mortal, tell me. Why should I do this thing for you?”

  “I…I never came up with a why. I was just hoping you would. I’m…” Since I was already on the floor, I got up on my knees, grabbing hold of Erasmus’ hand. “I’m begging you. Could you please, please destroy the Booke and take my soul?”

  “No!” Erasmus cried. “Please! Take mine, not hers.”

  “No!” I leaped up and got in front of Erasmus. “You don’t want his. He was a demon. Who knows if it’s any good as a soul? Mine’s probably much better.”

  Erasmus pushed me aside. “But I was a demon! Think of the rarity, the unique quality of such a soul. You’ve never had another like it.”

  “Wait, wait,” said Satan, waving his hand. “We could do this all day. Ultimately, it’s up to me to decide.”