Exalted

by Ella James

  “Why me?” Edan asked. In truth, he knew exactly why, but he wanted to hear The Adversary explain it.

  “Because they trust you. You are, after all, so charming." The Adversary reached out and pinched Edan's cheek; his skin hissed as the Big A put a little fire into it.

  Edan gritted his teeth, refusing to flinch as his cheek burned. “There's no way they trust me now, if they ever did.”

  “They will trust you enough,” The Adversary said. He held out his hand, and Edan took it. "Play the hero, Edan. You will be rewarded.”

  Edan nodded, startled by the restless feeling in his chest. Being a Shade was too hard. Too many feelings. He couldn't endure them, not after the net came down. It would be too much misery. As a Demon, he could enjoy others' misery. Continue to live without fear of consequences, causing chaos and raining on parades whenever the opportunity arose.

  He shut his eyes and pictured a nice, round ass. Bouncing tits. A buttery southern-style biscuit. A face twisted with rage over some unexpectedly wicked deed Edan had done. The other petty things that his Demon self enjoyed. And he nodded. “I'll do it.”

  Chapter Eleven

  “So you really think Cayne's in Hell?” Meredith asked as she crouched behind Drew and Carlin. Their bodies, between her and the barred door, kept her hidden from the tiny hallway that led from one cell to the next, so no one walking by would see the hole she was blasting through the dirt wall of their cell.

  Blasting, because after an hour of scratching, they’d only been able to make a hole the size of a softball. It was Drew who'd had the excellent idea of trying to use blue fire.

  Over the course of what Meredith guessed was half a day, they’d taken turns blasting the wall, thus far burrowing about two feet into the packed mud that served as a divider between the cells.

  Their guess—an educated one, based on the silence all around—was that the cell next door was unused and, with a little luck, unlocked. If they could tunnel their way into it before anyone noticed, they could sneak out.

  “I think so,” Drew said, scratching his head. Dirt from Meredith’s evacuation was flying everywhere; she could feel it in her own hair, making her itch.

  “And tell me why do you think this?” Carlin asked.

  As Mer leaned forward on her knees and let the fire roll off her fingertips, she glanced over to find Car leaning her cheek on Drew’s shoulder. Even from the back, Meredith thought she looked tired.

  “I had a vision of us walking on a road that led to Hell,” Drew said. “I didn’t know it was Hell at the time—I didn’t know what it was. But I’ve thought about the…ah—” He trailed off, and Meredith stopped “digging”. She turned, and Drew cast a surreptitious glance at Carlin. “The way the Authorities affected us. Some of us. And how Edan seemed to have a similar appeal to the...er—”

  “Did you have a crush on Edan?!” Carlin cried.

  “Not a crush! But there was a draw. Everyone felt it,” Drew said defensively. “Even Julia.”

  Meredith nodded. “It always gave me…I don’t know. The willies.”

  Drew raised his eyebrow. “Willies?”

  “Julia said it reminded her of dementors.”

  “What is a dementor?” Carlin asked, and Meredith’s eyes bulged. “You never read Harry Potter?”

  Carlin shook her head. “Are you saying Edan is a Demon?”

  “No, I’m saying—wait, is that it? Oh my God!”

  “I think so,” Drew nodded.

  “He is not a Demon,” Carlin said. “An asshole, yes, a traitor too. But not a Demon!”

  Drew lowered his voice. “If what Jacquie told us is true—”

  “She tried to kill Julia,” Carlin reminded him. “She is not to be trusted!”

  “I know, but still, if what she said was true, Methuselah is working with The Adversary. Edan always said he was a 'consultant' for The Three. Maybe he was like a liaison between The Three and The Adversary.” Drew shrugged. “All I know is when I think of the road I saw as the road to Hell, it feels right. I may have even seen Edan leading us down it. It was kind of unclear as far as visions go.”

  Carlin shook her head. “I lusted for that man-ho! Now we are saying he's a Demon! It is too much. Too much!”

  Meredith turned around laughing, almost shooting Drew with blue fire before something, somewhere made a noise that sounded kind of like footfall and they all froze in place.

  The sound passed, but the light moment was gone.

  Carlin slumped back down beside Drew.

  “Julia is gone. I was a fool. I feel like we are done.”

  “We’re not,” Meredith said. She flexed her fingers, which were stiff and sore and becoming blistered. “You weren’t a fool for thinking Edan was hot. Heck, I did, too. We’ll find Julia. Unless I’m way wrong about the wall, I bet I can blast through it before your next shift.”

  Carlin reached out and hugged Meredith. “Thank you,” she said into her long, black hair.

  “What would it mean if a Demon was working for The Three,” Drew mused, and Meredith watched his dark eyes light up. “It would confirm communication between The Three and The Adversary. Not just communication, but collaboration. Which would fit with what we’ve been told.”

  “How is this?” Carlin asked. She ran her hand back through her curly chocolate hair, shaking out the dirt-covered locks.

  “Car, keep up,” Mer teased.

  Carlin turned, hands up, like she was refusing to catch a fly ball. “I do not want to!” she said vehemently. “It is all…too horrible.”

  Her horrible sounded like hor-ee-blay, a minor mess-up Meredith found endearing.

  “Me either,” she said. It made her feel sick every time she thought about Julia. Or Cayne. Or even Nathan. In contrast to the life she'd known before Julia arrived at the compound, this really was too horrible to comprehend sometimes.

  “The Three, if what we think we know is true,” Drew said, “are tired of being bound to Earth, and probably bitter about it, too. They’d like to get at The Alpha and spend time in Heaven. The Adversary is equally tired of Hell, and would like admission to Earth or Heaven also.”

  “Julia is a sacrifice,” Carlin said with a wince, “but what about Cayne? Why did Edan take him to Hell? What is the purpose?”

  “Clearly there’s a lot we don’t know,” Drew said.

  “Things we'll find out ASAP if I can just blast my way through this damn wall!” Meredith wiggled her fingers, casting a blue glow over everything.

  ***

  Cayne tightened his hands around the throat of the red-skinned, horned devil caricature that was, for the moment, The Adversary’s form. They were standing in rolling flames of hellfire that caused blistering pain without physically harming Cayne, and he was choking the monster who had sired him.

  The Adversary was laughing.

  In one quick motion, he knocked Cayne’s arms away and tossed him into the inferno. As the shocking pain drew a scream from his throat, The Adversary grinned. “I'm impressed with your...perseverance.”

  Cayne stumbled out of the flames, his skin feeling ravaged but looking whole, just like all the times before.

  “Let me go!” He roared as he charged. He feigned high, then tried to kick The Adversary’s feet out from under him.

  “Unfortunately, you don’t get any better,” The Adversary said as he nimbly avoided Cayne’s attack. He chuckled, then kicked Cayne in the jaw as he was trying to stand.

  Cayne’s face and neck exploded in pain, so much pain that if he were on Earth he might have passed out. But like all the times before, after a minute catching his breath, he was able to stand. And charge The Adversary again. And receive more punishment.

  He had no idea how long he had been in Hell. There was no obvious day or night, and Cayne never felt tired. He drifted from one twisted memory to another, enduring The Adversary’s taunts as Julia stood in for Kat, for Cayne’s victims, for his tormentors. As he watched Julia die a thousand different ways.<
br />
  Cayne was sick of it.

  “You’re not my father!” he cried as he rushed The Adversary, but The Adversary stuck his arm out for a quick, hard undercut. Cayne flew back, landing not in the inferno but in a narrow mud hall.

  “Not this,” he whispered, his rage flushed out of him by crushing sorrow.

  This was worse than everything else, because this, The Adversary assured him, was real. He’d been forced down the hall a dozen times, made to watch as Methuselah worked on Julia.

  “I don’t want to see this,” he moaned. “Not again!”

  “You must.”

  “Why!”

  The Adversary shook his ridiculous horned head. “Instruction, my son.”

  Cayne’s retort was cut short by a long whimper echoing down the hall. He clenched his fists but refused to go forward. He couldn’t keep doing the same thing over and over. If he was going to save Julia, he needed to do something different.

  “Tell me the meaning of this. Besides 'instruction'. If I understand more, maybe I'll be more willing to help,” he tried.

  The Adversary stared at him for a long moment, then with a wave of his hand, the tunnel and Julia faded. “I show you this for that exact reason: so you will accept your fate.”

  They landed on hard, cracked dirt. Dark gray clouds covered the entire sky. As far as Cayne could see in any direction, there was only dry, dead earth. “I’ll never hurt Julia. Your plan won't work if it depends on that.”

  The Adversary shifted, out of the devil form he’d adopted to mock Cayne’s 'terrestrial superstitions', into one that looked like an older version of Cayne.

  “You will fulfill our end of the bargain. You will submit to Methuselah’s design, and you will be my ambassador. I had hoped you would be a willing vessel. If not, I can take the same route as Methuselah. I can carve you out until all that remains is my will.”

  “So you say,” Cayne sneered. “I hope you’ve got eternity.”

  The Adversary smiled serenely. “I do. Time means nothing here. I could work on you for eons and return you to Earth the minute after you left it.”

  Cayne was careful to keep his mind blank. He had learned how to keep his thoughts from The Adversary. He avoided dwelling on his feelings or his plans for escape, incomplete though they were. Still, the Adversary sensed his despair.

  “There is nothing you can do to stop this.”

  “What if we went to Earth together and destroyed Methuselah. You could take his place.”

  “As leader of the Chosen!” The Adversary laughed.

  “As the top dog on Earth.”

  The Adversary smiled widely. “You must feel strongly for your girl if you’re willing to unleash The Adversary on your world.” He grinned. “I want nothing more than to encourage such a pure act of selfishness, but as long as The Alpha’s barrier exists, I’m no match for Methuselah on Earth. I can get there, as I did when I sired you, but I cannot stay long. For that to happen, the net would have to be let down. And for the net to come down, you must kill Julia. It is Methuselah's plan, and he is the strongest force on Earth.”

  “Come on,” Cayne cajoled. “You’re The Adversary.”

  “And vain, yes, but it’s simply a matter of—let’s say metaphysics. I have to exert too much energy holding physical form to stand against him, so long as the net is in place. Its intent is to keep us from advancing toward Heaven. Coming from Hell to Earth is as hard for me as from Earth to Heaven would be for Methuselah.” The Adversary shrugged.

  “I could lead your army—”

  “They wouldn’t follow you,” The Adversary said, his conspiratorial smile vanishing. “Your part in this is set. Your lover will serve as Methuselah’s vessel, and you will be the conduit for my power. Together, you will bring down the barrier.”

  Cayne clenched his hands into fists and stared at his sire. “I’ll kill you,” he snarled.

  The Adversary laughed. “The hard way then. I was hoping you’d make me break you. It takes longer, of course, but it’s far more fun.” He took a step closer and raised his hand. “Methuselah was actually being gentle with your little whore.”

  Cayne saw red in an instant. He leaped at The Adversary, but fell to the ground screaming as pain erupted across his entire body. A white fire hotter than any he’d felt yet covered every inch of him, burning his clothes, seeping into his pores, filling his head, his mouth, his lungs. Brilliant light, searing light, and so much pressure...

  Cayne moaned, writhing as almost every part of him was scorched, but somehow still intact. He couldn’t even anticipate the relief of death.

  Which was good—because as agony seared the thoughts out of his mind, an epiphany filled it: This was a link, he realized. Just like the one Methuselah had made with Julia when he leashed her. And if he had a link to The Adversary's power, that meant maybe he could use it.

  Chapter Twelve

  “Heck yeah.” Meredith laughed, throwing her dirt-smeared arms around Carlin’s narrow shoulders.

  “We did it,” Carlin gasped, swinging her slender hips like a hula doll.

  “Now let’s get the hell out of dodge,” Drew said, grabbing both their arms. He pulled them through the open doorway of the vacant cell, and they filled the small, mud hall.

  Carlin sniffed the stale air, wrinkling her nose. “I hate this place.”

  Meredith felt the same way, and she thought she might hate it worse because of how they'd gotten there. Even after they escaped—and they would escape, with Julia—she would still remember the feeling she'd had when she'd come around the side of the mountain peak and seen Nathan waiting in that van.

  That was betrayal. She still felt it like a knife.

  In fact, if she wasn't doing something, such as digging out of that cell Nathan had locked them in, her default emotion was pain.

  Pain over the loss of Julia. Pain that she'd played such a large role in their capture. Pain over...everything.

  Thankful that none of her friends shared her emotion-sensing gift, Meredith put her hand on Carlin's shoulder, and the three of them moved down the narrow hall like an awkward, six-legged worm.

  “Where do we go?” Carlin asked.

  “We need to find Julia,” Drew said, “so probably down. I bet The Three's lair is at the bottom of the pyramid.”

  "Why?"

  He shrugged. "Isn't that where they put pharaohs?"

  Meredith nodded. “It's as good a plan as any, I guess, but how do we know which way is down?”

  Drew wiggled his brows. “Trial and error.”

  With Drew at the front, Carlin clutching his hand, and Meredith clutching Carlin's, the three of them hustled down the hall, ducking inside a pale stone door when they thought they heard echoing footfall.

  Meredith almost hoped they had. She wanted to see Nathan again. She wanted to punch him in the nose. Then she thought about Julia, and she prayed they didn't get caught.

  The door led to another hall, this one clearly ascending; it had rough stone floors and walls that were decorated with the funky ruby-colored glowing stuff that seemed to be everywhere. Leave it to The Three to use creeptastic glowing mold to light their lair.

  After a few minutes on the hall, they heard definite footfall—lots of it. Several people were walking toward them.

  Shit!

  Meredith looked over her shoulder, but Carlin tugged her forward, into a run.

  The footsteps grew louder, and soon there were voices. They sounded angry, and Meredith was sure she heard Nathan's name.

  Something about “...pompous asshole."

  Then Dizzy's squeaky croak. “I'd like to kill them, one by one.”

  The footfall had slowed, but the three friends were struggling to stay ahead of it without making noises of their own. Drew tugged Carlin, who tugged Meredith again, hard, and she almost tripped. She swallowed back a “humph!” and kept her legs moving, realizing, with frustration, that their path was still slanting up, probably back toward the commons.


  They turned a corner, and waiting for them were Thierry and Adam.

  “Did you idiots forget about Catalina?” Adam asked.

  Carlin shrieked, and Drew threw out his arm in front of her and Mer, as Meredith's stomach bottomed out.

  Thierry smiled. “She found you without any problem, even when you were on the protected level.”

  He took a step forward, and Meredith looked over her shoulder, behind her, where Dizzy's voice was growing louder.

  “You should have stayed where Nathan put you,” Adam said.

  “He put us there to protect us from crazies like you! You assholes need to leave us alone!” Meredith snapped.

  But Adam's dark eyes were hard; he looked grave, and Thierry looked energized.

  “How ya doing, Drew?” Thierry reached for Drew, and Carlin jerked him back, out of Thierry's arm's length. "I'd rather take my chances with Dizzy," she cried, and they dashed back the way they'd come.

  Drew, Carlin, and Meredith spun and started running back down the hall, toward Dizzy and whoever else. At least they couldn't spirit anyone away, Meredith thought.

  They had only gotten a few steps when Drew stopped. Carlin screamed, but Drew was pressing against a stone like he expected it to move. All of a sudden the wall opened, fog misted up from the floor, and Drew was jerking the two of them inside. Not knowing what else to do, Meredith clung to Carlin, and the three of them were in free fall.

  They landed hard, in what looked to be some kind of grain silo. Carlin was still screaming. Drew was panting.

  Meredith's mouth had been scared shut.

  She reached out and cupped the stuff they were sitting in. Was it grain or something else?

  “Oh God!” Carlin cried. “Drew!” She shoved him.

  “I saw us falling in a vision, right before I touched the wall.”

  “Thank you.” Meredith threw her arms around him.

  “I don't think I necessarily deserve that,” Drew said wryly, “but I am glad to be free of them. And, it seems, a few floors lower.”

  “Hells, yeah,” Mer said. “Maybe we're closer to Julia.”