by Maya Daniels
“It’s not stupid. I know exactly what I’m doing, so stay out of my way. I just need you to get them back home safe. You promised, and your word is your bond, angel.”
With those words she walks away, and my feet follow her of their own accord. I have no control over my own body as it follows her, like it is attached to her with an invisible cord. At this moment, I’m not sure I am not tethered to a mortal, just like Tiamat. My mind is swirling with too many things to be able to piece coherent thoughts together at this time, so just like the house pet I accused Tiamat of being, I follow at the heels of the witch before me, leading us to something I am not sure we will walk out of the same as we are now.
16
Alexia…
As I stomp into the clearing inside the cave, still pissed off at Lucifer for his remarks, I don’t pay much attention to what’s around me until I stop next to Remi, since she is the closest. Then I realize Derik is already inside, standing in the middle of the cave next to the pole at the dip in the ground. I push through the others so I can stand in front of them, but Jezzinta grabs hold of my dress and yanks me back so I stand with them. I swear they do everything they can to make this whole clusterfuck harder. Why can’t they be selfish for one day and think of themselves first? If we get our asses out of this, we probably need to set up some rules. Right now I want to laugh at the idea, because I can picture their faces if I were to tell them this. Shaking my head, I stop moving and look at the douchebag in front of us.
“Well? Talk,” I tell him impatiently and he glares at me. Well, fuck him. I glare back.
“I will be back later to talk. I have things to prepare. I have a surprise for all of you. In the meantime, you’ll be my guests here,” he says, spreading his arms around as if he’s showing off his luxurious penthouse, not a cave full of cells with people in pain.
“I’m pretty sure this is more important,” I tell him.
“You would think so.” He grins at me, and I’m trying my best to hold my temper at bay.
“I know it is, so let’s not play games. I also have things to do.”
“Ah, ah, ah! You will stay here until we make a deal. They can go back to their cells and you two come closer.”
“They come with me,” I growl. No way am I letting them out of my sight.
“You and Lucifer can come here, and they will be safe in their cells, or I can get rid of them easily if it’ll make this whole thing go smoother,” he says nonchalantly.
“Of course! And then you’ll join them, because if they are not alive, there’s nothing stopping me from taking your life…slowly.” Two can play this game, so I start looking at my nails as if I’m not interested at what is going on and my heart is not in my throat. If shit keeps happening at this rate, I don’t think I’ll ever remember how it feels to breathe easy.
“I didn’t say I’d kill them. There are many ways to deal with them,” Derik says, and I realize this is where our negotiation starts.
“No deal! They stay where I can see them, otherwise let’s get this over with, you and me. I’m getting tired of bullshit.”
“I tried to play it nice, but I see we are past that. Let’s do it my way, shall we?” As soon as he was done talking, the cloaked creatures swarmed us and I heard metal clinking so fast that by the time I see what is happening, all of them are being pulled away by metal cuffs with symbols etched on them like the cell bars. All five of them are quiet, letting this happen, which makes me angry, as if they accept this as inevitable, so I try to reach a hand to blast the creatures, but I feel the metal on my wrists at the same moment and I almost sag to the ground. It drains my strength with every second that passes. I’m so angry I think I can almost spit fire out of my mouth like a dragon, but the angrier I get, the weaker I feel, so I stop struggling. I hear the growling next to me and look at Lucifer, thinking he is fighting them, but although he sounds like an angry bear, he’s standing still, not moving and staring at me with anger twisting his features.
“Stop struggling,” he mumbles so quietly that I almost didn’t hear it, but I do listen and somehow, as I try to relax, a bit of my strength returns and I can at least stand without falling over.
“You can at least try to fight them,” I snap angrily at him. I have no idea what his fucking problem is. It’s almost as if he doesn’t want to take sides but just tags along for the sheer fun of seeing how things unfold, not caring about anyone or anything. I’d strangle him, if only my hands were free. The more worked up I get, the more tired I feel. It’s such a fucked up situation that I can’t calm down, no matter how hard I try.
“Bring them over here,” Derik instructs his creatures.
Lucifer and I are dragged towards the center of the cave. I look over my shoulder to see the girls being taken into the cells across from us. At least I can see them there. And then what? As if I can do shit if anything happens to them while I have these stupid cuffs on me. I almost trip over my own feet on the uneven ground and I suck in a breath as the bony hand of the creature grabs my upper arm so I don’t fall flat on my face. The touch feels like it’s sucking the life out of my soul and I feel colder inside. Not cold in my body, cold at the core of my essence and it makes me want to puke. I’m gulping air, but luckily it removes its hand from me. I think Lucifer was growling, but I can’t be sure because my ears are buzzing and I feel faint.
They drag us to the pole and link our cuffs at the top part in such a way that we’re facing each other. Leaning my head on the wood, I turn to glare at Derik. Just looking at him conjures images of the many ways I’d like to kill him flickering through my mind. As I stew in the anger, my energy drains by the second. My wrists are pulsing and sweat trickles down my spine.
“Calm down, witch. Start breathing and calm your anger or you will die here within minutes,” Lucifer mumbles for my ears only.
I start taking deep breaths and just like before, my energy comes back. I feel tired but not drained.
“I see you learned that trick very fast, Al,” Derik comments.
I’m trying my best to ignore him and keep breathing. Facing the wooden pole, leaning my forehead on it, I do my best to calm the inferno that is pushing at the pit of my stomach. Eyes squeezed shut, I keep panting like I’ve ran a marathon. Slowly but surely, I manage to push the anger back as much as I can. It’s not gone but it is manageable. That will have to do. When I open my eyes, I’m staring at Lucifer’s chest, and as crazy as it sounds, I see his breathing matches mine. I wonder if he’s struggling with his own anger. Maybe he’s just better at hiding it than I am. Looking up at his eyes makes me pull my head back like he slapped me. There is hunger in those eyes that makes my whole body clench. It calls to something primal in me and I press my thighs together, frustrated. This is not the time, place, nor the lifetime, for that matter, for this. Derik’s laughter snaps me out of my trance. I glare now at Lucifer, who smirks at me. I really want to slap the angel.
“What do you know? Even Lucifer isn’t immune to you, Alexia,” Derik chuckles like a two-year-old.
“Yeah! Lo and behold, the magical vagina!” I tell him dryly, not taking my eyes off Lucifer. I wonder if maybe this realm is messing with his head like it is with mine. Maybe that’s why he’s acting strange. Speaking of realm and acting strange, I turn to Derik.
“Don’t you need to go somewhere, asshole? I thought that’s why you tied us to this pole like horses.”
“I just had to see this. It’s a good thing to know for sure that the angel is not as indifferent as he likes to appear. But we will talk about it later. You two relax and enjoy the hospitality here. I’ll be back soon.” Laughing at his own joke, he turns around and walks out of the cave.
As soon as he’s gone from sight, the robed creatures disperse and return to walking around like before. An unnatural quiet descends all around us that brings a feeling of dread to my stomach. I can’t even hear the muffled moans and soft crying from the women who were here when we were trying to find the girls. I twist ar
ound my protesting arms to look at the cells that are visible to me and see if the women are still there. That brings a frown on my face.
Everywhere I turn, I see they have dragged themselves as close as they can to the bars and are looking at me, meeting my eyes. My stomach drops to my feet. There’s hope in all those eyes. They think I will do something to save them. Or maybe having Lucifer here makes them think that. I almost walked out of this realm with my sisters in tow and they still think I can help them. Guilt eats at my insides like acid. I let that asshole chain me like a mule and can’t do anything to get myself out, much less anyone else. Naturally the cuffs drain me again, so I close my eyes and start taking deep breaths again. It looks like this will be a long journey.
17
“Hey, jackass, stop feeling sorry for yourself and let’s come up with a plan.”
Remi’s voice rings loud and clear and I jerk my head in her direction. All four of them are in one cell, looking at me with various degrees of scowls on their faces. Remi and Jezzinta have their clenched hands on their hips, Faith is standing with her hip jutted out and her arms folded on her chest, and Meda has her hands, with her fingers entwined like in a prayer, under her chin. I can do nothing but stare. They are behind bars and Lucifer and I are cuffed to a wooden pole. It’s not like I can do shit at the moment.
“She has a point, Sap. We need a plan,” Jezzinta adds, as if anyone in a five mile radius didn’t hear Remi’s declaration. I can’t help it. I laugh. A loud deep belly laugh I haven’t uttered since they were taken from me.
“Oh, no, I think she finally lost it.” Meda’s quiet and worried
proclamation makes me laugh harder.
“She never had it to be able to lose it now,” Jez says dismissively.
Two seconds later they all start laughing with me. It takes a few minutes for the laughter to die out and a few more for the chuckles to finally stop. Rubbing my face on my shoulder to get rid of the tears streaming down my face, I look at the angel and freeze. In one moment he is looking at me, the next at the girls with a frown on his face, like a scientist looking at a formula that doesn’t make sense.
“What’s wrong, angel?”
“Not long ago, you almost died. Multiple times at that. We get them out just to end up back here and chained with them, and all of you find this funny? I have not seen you laugh like that. I think humans have bigger flaws in their genetic makeup than I originally thought.”
Jezzinta’s giggle accompanied his statement. Remi and Faith snorted right after Meda giggled too, and we all started all over again. By the time we are done, I’m hanging by the cuffs because my legs can’t hold me anymore.
“What do you want us to do? Cry? Will that change anything?” I’m still smiling like a fool, looking up at him while hanging like an ornament.
“I do not think any of you understand the gravity of the
situation,” he huffs.
“We understand it perfectly, Lucifer, but unless she calms down, she will die here. I didn’t see you doing something about it!” Remi snaps at him.
“He was doing something. He was ogling her boobs,” Jezzinta, ever helpful, adds. The others snicker. I do my best not to start laughing and keep my face expressionless.
“I understand how fucked up the situation is. We really do need to come up with a plan, but I’m not sorry for feeling lighter now that I see them alive in front of my eyes. I don’t know what will happen next, and I will die trying to get everyone out of here if need be. In the meantime, I will enjoy their company, no matter the circumstances. I have missed them more than you will ever be able to understand.”
Taking a deep breath, I turn towards my sisters. “You know having a plan is great, but not so great when everyone can hear it.” I raise my eyebrows at them for emphasis, looking at the caped creatures walking around all over the place.
“Meh, they don’t understand what we are saying. We tested that theory a while back when we first got here.” Remi waves her hand like she’s chasing flies in front of her face, dismissing my worries.
“That’s useful to know,” I mumble.
“What’s that, Sap? You already knew that?” Jez smirks at me, so I just shake my head and try to stand on my feet again.
“Okay, so we need to figure out how to get out of these cuffs, angel.” I look at Lucifer. “Do you have any bright ideas?”
“Would I be cuffed next to you if I did, witch?” His frown is so deep that it’d cause a grimace on anyone’s face, but not his. He just looks good enough to kiss right now. I shake my head to disperse the thought. What the fuck is wrong with me? Maybe I just need to get laid and my brain will start functioning properly again. I can’t remember ever being this rattled in the head.
“That’s what I’ve been saying,” Jez says with laughter in her voice. Shit, did I say that out loud? I look around. The girls are snickering and Lucifer’s eyebrows are almost touching his hairline. Fuck! I did say it out loud.
“Plan! Cuffs! Remember? Keep on track!” I snap at them and they all laugh, with Lucifer chuckling, which pisses me off and my energy is getting drained out of me by the damn cuffs again. I take deep breaths and a few seconds later, it stops, thankfully.
“Call on your fire, sis, just burn them off,” says Jezzinta.
“The cave is warded, and I don’t have the lantern anymore, Jez. I can’t call shit.” I keep taking deep even breaths so I don’t get worked up again.
“You never function like a normal person, jackass. Did you try to see if it’d work?” Remi adds her two cents to the banter.
“Before I try, let’s come up with a plan. If it works, I rather not stick around here to figure out what to do next.”
“There is no need for a plan. If it works, you take off mine, too. We get the witches and we are out of here. I’ll open the portal as soon as we are outside the wards.” Lucifer sniffs as if my idiocy for not knowing is beneath him. I really want to see if I can take the cuffs off just so I can punch him in the face right now. Deep breaths!
“There are a few flaws with your plan, angel, so let me enlighten you right now.” I speak slowly, like talking to a child, just to piss him off. He scowls at me and I grin at him which makes his scowl deepen. “As I was saying, a few flaws. One, if we leave here, he will just follow, and more people might get hurt in that process, including Daisy. Second, we will have to come back very fast since Philip is here as well, and we don’t know how long we have to get him out before something horrible happens, judging by what that asshole said. And third, there is no way we can get this many people out that fast.” Taking one deep breath, I look at him expectantly because I already know what’s coming.
“We can get him out, you and me. The witches are in one cell, they’ll be easy to grab, and they’ll go through the portal fast!” He says looking at me with those midnight eyes, daring me to argue. Well, I really don’t like to disappoint him. The girls already started by yelling and telling him where to shove it if he thinks they’ll be leaving, which makes me want to laugh.
“Not just them, angel. All of them.” I must have made that decision subconsciously to get everyone out of here. Since my arms are cuffed above my head, I lift one leg like a ballet dancer and do a half circle, encompassing the cave and the cells filled with women to get my point across. It wasn’t my brightest idea since lifting the leg made the dress slide up all the way to my hip, and now Lucifer’s eyes honed-in like a hawk at the apex of my thighs. My breath caught in my throat and my mouth went dry from that look, so I snap myself out of it the next second and drop down my leg very ungracefully.
“Ewww, I really didn’t need to see that!” Jez yells at the same time the rest start talking too.
“I told you she changed,” Meda mumbles.
“The angel can look at me like that any day,” Faith sighs.
“What are you playing at, Alexia?” Remi obviously thinks I have a plan with all this and by the sound of it, she doesn’t like it.
; “You think I always have a reason for doing things?” I ask Remi and ignore the rest.
“I can bet my life on it,” she says while squinting her eyes at me.
“Well, I’m happy to inform you that I don’t, no matter how it looks to you. Sometimes, I just do stupid shit before I think it through.”
“No plan, huh?” She’s still not convinced and still squinting at me.
“Nope! I like at times to do shit willy-nilly. I like to live on the edge!” I wiggle my eyebrows at her. That got her to crack a smile.
“Oh, you rebel, you!” she laughs. I can’t help but smile back. I have missed them so much. Just now I realize that until seeing them I was really afraid that I would never find them or be able to get to them in time. My chest squeezes tight at the thought, so I blink repeatedly so I don’t let tears flow down my face. Now is not the time.
“Anyways,” I turn to look at Lucifer, “as I was saying, we will need to work fast. If I can get the cuffs off, we can grab one lantern holder, knock him out, then cut his arm and open all the cages. More of us doing it will help speed things up. Then get the hell out of here. We can go into the woods, we are safe there since these creatures can’t get in…”
“Derik may be able to get in,” he cuts in.
“…and if that ass gets in there, I’ll deal with him. Plus, he has Tiamat tethered to him. Inanna was freaking out when I called her there because she thought she would get noticed, that’s why she merged with me. We might get help from Azalea if she feels you there, which will be a bonus. Don’t forget, we can use our magic outside the wards. It’s one of him and many of us. Then we will find Philip and get the hell out of here,” I finish out of breath.
