Louis: Supernatural Prison book 6

by Eve, Jaymin

  I was rusty. I needed to use my abilities more—I’d practically been living like a human over the last few decades.

  “Go,” I shouted, already hurrying forward. My long hair streamed out behind me as I picked up the pace.

  Curses ripped from me as I closed in on the portal. I’d always planned the step-through to be large enough for everyone to run through at the same time, but this one was at least double the size needed. That level of power would draw demon attention. We had to hurry.

  Even though I’d managed to take off first, they’d all caught me quickly. Short legs were a curse at times. As I’d planned, we hit the portal at the same moment; the journey across was fast and bumpy. As my feet landed on the hard, unforgiving terrain of the land between, I immediately sucked my power back inside, hiding it away.

  The other side was dark and cold, so I sent up a few dim balls of magic, doing a quick head count. Four Compasses. Four jeweled princesses. Two Lebron sisters. I shut the doorway down in the same instant, relieved that I didn’t feel the presence of any dark demon energy.

  Not yet anyway.

  “Time to find Louis,” Jessa said, her voice low and determined. “The demons are going to wish they never touched my brother.”

  “Thankfully, we have dragon fire,” Braxton said confidently. “Because I know of nothing else that could deter them.”

  All eyes turned on me, and then everyone moved in closer to form a tight circle under my lights. I realized that they were waiting for me to confirm that there was no other weapon we could use against the demons. Part of me was surprised and grateful that they already respected my power and knowledge, even before I’d really done anything to prove myself to them.

  It spoke of a confidence they had in themselves, because otherwise they’d be trying to do this all without any help. Just to prove they could.

  Keeping my voice to a whisper and my senses on high alert, I quickly said, “There is a spell I can use on lower-level demons. They’ll be repelled across this world, unable to return for a long time.” I swallowed hard. “But for the upper-level demons, like the one Louis banished … I’ve never known anyone to actually best them in a battle unless they were bonded to a supe. Defeat the supe and you have a chance to banish them back to this world. There’s a split second of vulnerability.”

  “That’s what Louis did,” Mischa said, her voice sounding hoarse. “But for some reason his soul went along with it.”

  “Which demon was it?” I asked, realizing there was a chance I’d know the name.

  “Davind,” Tyson replied. “He was insanely powerful. His energy literally cut through ours.”

  Swallowing roughly, I tried to steady my breathing. “Davind is one of their leaders. There’s almost none as powerful as he is. Louis knew this. He has fought that particular demon before, and he knew….”

  That there was no other way. Davind didn’t steal Louis’s soul and take it back. Louis attached himself to the demon and then used his energy to send them both back to the land between.

  “He knew what would happen?” Jessa breathed. “He knew he would be taken to the land of demons, and he still chose that path.”

  “He chose to save us all.” Mischa was crying now, tears silently tracking down her cheeks, barely visible in the low light. “To save our babies.”

  “Yes,” I confirmed, not at all surprised. My feelings for Louis were hard to define, because there was a lot of anger and pain intertwined with all of the millions of good memories, but I would never deny the pureness and light of his soul. He was one of the best supernaturals I’d ever known, and just because he’d broken my heart didn’t make that any less true.

  “So how do we find him,” Jessa whispered, leaning in even closer. The wild scent of shifter washed across my senses, and despite our current dire circumstances, a flicker of joy at being back with supernaturals hit me.

  I was so ready to return to this world.

  “I’m going to track him,” I said quietly. “We will have to move quickly because demons will be drawn to our energy. This world is dead, the ley lines depleted to the point where I almost can’t feel them. So we’re going to stand out.”

  The three dragons especially.

  I eyed the fourth Compass, the huge vampire who apparently didn’t have a dragon yet. But I could see what a lot of them wouldn’t be able to; his dragon was there, just under the surface.

  Maximus regarded me while I watched him, amusement flickering across his dark eyes. “What are you seeing?” he finally asked.

  “You have the energy of a dragon,” I murmured. “It’s not released yet, but it will come in time.”

  My words seemed to please him. He stood even taller, towering over Mischa, who was at his side. Wasting no more time on that, I focused instead on finding Louis. His energy was more familiar to me than almost anyone’s, and I found him with ease. “Got him,” I said, locking my own energy onto his.

  I got a wisp of power in return, and worry bloomed with full force in my mind. He was weak.

  “Hang on, I’m going to open a step-through. We don’t have any time to waste,” I said, before reaching for the stores of my power inside. It was odd using my own power only, but there was no other choice here. I just had to be careful not to use too much, in case we had to fight.

  Darkness washed across my senses just as the doorway swirled into existence. “Demons,” I bit out harshly, before sending out a shield to delay the evil entities heading our way. “Move. Now.”

  I let them go through first, until there was only Braxton and me left. “You go,” he said, “I'll keep the demons at bay.”

  I shook my head. “No, you will be overwhelmed in seconds. I'm holding them back right now, but there’s literally a thousand of them closing in on us. They like to stay close to the portal of Faerie. Close to a land of energy.”

  Braxton grumbled, his huge chest lifting. “Then we go together. No one gets left behind on my watch.”

  I knew it was bothering him to be here while the rest of his pack was on the other side of my step-through. I felt the same way, so I just nodded and reached out to link my arm through his. That way I knew we'd both make it through and I could shut the doorway down before the demons broke through the last of my barrier.

  When we popped out on the other side, there were multiple breaths of relief. “You scared me a little,” Grace admitted, moving forward. “I wasn't sure you were going to make it through.”

  “Lizzie was holding the demons back,” Braxton told her. “I had to make sure she didn't get left behind.”

  Without seeing our surroundings, I shut down the step-through, making sure nothing followed us. When I finally got a chance to look around, I had to blink at the unnatural brightness a few hundred yards away from us.

  “Circus of Souls, I'm going to assume,” Justice said, her eyes locked on the flashing and zigzagging illumination. “This is where Louis is supposed to be?”

  “That’s where they said he was,” Jessa bit out. “Let's go pay them a visit.” Determination creased her brow. “I'm ready to have him back. I need him back.”

  Everyone moved closer together, keeping an eye out as we started to walk in the direction of the lights. I could feel Louis’s waning energy with each step we took toward that place.

  Instinctively, I knew one thing for sure.

  We were running out of time.

  4

  Louis

  A running stream of black-and-white images flashed through my mind. I was not controlling them, and each one sent inky spirals of darkness through me. This was their new form of torture, and for the first time I wasn’t sure I would make it through without breaking. Regina … her eyes wide and filled with laughter as she ran from me. There was a field of wildflowers just near their house. She would spend hours dashing through them, picnic basket and rug in hand for when she grew tired and wanted to lie back and stare at the clouds overhead. I always knew I could find her out there when she disappeare
d.

  Wait … no. That was wrong. It wasn’t Regina who loved the wildflowers.

  It was Tee.

  I had no idea why the images of Elizabeth Teresa—Tee to me—were being confused in the demons’ walk down memory lane. Because they were sisters? Was my mind reaching the end of its limits?

  Was I starting to fade?

  I’d never confused Tee and Regina before. Outside of them being sisters, they had very little else in common. Regina was tall and broad, lots of curves and muscles. She was loud and funny and dramatic. She was a good girl, always following the rules, but she had a cheeky side as well. She also loved attention, always wanting people to watch her and appreciate her gifts. Tee was none of those things. Quiet and powerful, she commanded attention even when she didn’t want it. She was also beyond kind and smart; she’d been my first real friend. She had saved me from the lonely existence that probably would have destroyed any slice of good inside of me.

  And I’d lost her too.

  The wildflowers disappeared then, as did my maudlin memories, and another set of images appeared.

  No!

  They’d finally found the wound at my center.

  The moment I came home to find Regina lifeless, her blood and energy ripped from her body … nothing more than a shell. The vivacious, funny, headstrong magic user I had loved was gone.

  I hadn't been there to save her.

  I'd been busy with my sorcerer duties. With being the strongest mage there ever was. With being the best.

  I should have been home.

  It was one of my greatest regrets, and it hurt like nothing I’d ever felt to see her again. The demons made it so real. I could smell the copper of her blood. Taste the remaining resonance of her fear and pain.

  A guttural roar burst from me, and since I hadn’t made a sound for a very long time, that was a win for the demons. Regina's body disappeared in my mind’s eye and I tried to breathe through my pain. There was no time to regroup though; the next scene was Tee stumbling into the house to find me crouched by her sister. She had screamed and screamed, and then she took off. I left Regina and chased her, because she was all I had left in the world.

  Together we had mourned, and then I had lost her too.

  “You're going to lose her permanently,” the demon hissed at me, its translucent body drifting around me. “The one who holds your soul.”

  Tee’s face was burned into my brain, and a dull roar in my head was making it hard to think clearly. I found myself asking, “What are you talking about?” My voice was rusty from not being used. “The one who held my soul is already dead.”

  Chilling laughter from another demon. I couldn't tell them apart when they swirled in and around each other like this. There were at least twenty of them surrounding me this torture session, closing in, their coldness seeping into my essence.

  “Wrong,” it replied. “You’re so very wrong.”

  I jerked on the chains, my movements slow, but determination to reach one of these bastards was filling me. If I could get my hands on them, I might be able to absorb their energy and refuel my own. This was a last-ditch option, because the darkness in a demon’s soul had to go somewhere, and that somewhere would be right into my soul, but I was desperate. They must have sensed that–they were smart enough to hover just out of my reach.

  “You're very weak now,” a demon said, swirling to just beyond my fingertips. “Very weak. Would you like to make a deal?”

  Rock bottom had come and gone long ago. The fact that I was considering absorbing a demon’s energy told me everything I needed to know about my mental state. But still I would not make a deal. I could not. If my body and power were returned to Earth with a demon riding shotgun, then the world was over. As much as I wanted to end my captivity and suffering, I could not do that to the world. Absorbing some of their energy was different to allowing them to use my body and power on Earth. The former should still allow me some control until I could release the darkness. The latter would strip my free will from me.

  The swirls of demons around me stopped moving then, and I wondered what had distracted them. Less than ten seconds later, I straightened as familiar energy brushed against me. Fuck. Everything inside of me went icy cold. Jessa and her pack were here, their bright energy like a beacon in this dead land. They had arrived in the land between, and while part of me was grateful to know they hadn’t given up on me, I really wished they had. Now I was going to have to watch them perish because I was too weak to save them.

  The only positive in my current situation, stuck in the center of a very well-lit circle of hellfire, was that no upper-level demons were inside with me at the moment. These lower-levels would be deterred by dragons—their fire could destroy them—so my family had that one chance.

  The fires soared higher then as the demons fed energy into the magical flame. Hellfire would burn a soul and physical body to dust in a fraction of a second. It cost them a lot of energy to keep it powered, but it was essential when they had to unchain us for certain physical tortures or when we were moved. The fire was the only thing keeping us from escaping when we had those few moments of freedom.

  And it would stop my family from getting to me.

  Powerful gusts of air started buffeting the flames, and icy tendrils of strong magic brushed across my soul. My senses were dull without my body, but I could still feel the difference in air temperature. A roar drew the mass of dark demons closer to the center of the flames, and they started to rise up, until they were hovering near the stone ceiling.

  As the familiar energy of my family drew closer, the darkness that lay under my sorcery energy started to swell. Soon it boiled and churned within me. The light I used to fight the sorcery darkness was almost gone—whatever the demons had done to me since I got here and the loss of my normal power and resilience had all but obliterated my control. The final straw was possibly losing my only family.

  One demon had remained close, and in its distraction—watching the others—it drifted into my space. My hands brushed through the specter, and I didn’t hesitate to connect our energy.

  Everything went misty then and I embraced it, allowing the power of this demon to fill me. I was basically draining it, which was very different to allowing it to possess me. If I’d been in my body, I’d never have been able to do this, but since I was only a soul as well, it worked.

  As more of the mist filled me, rational thought faded. I didn't care. This was what I needed to save them. As I let more of the darkness rise up through my soul, it released a power and energy that I hadn't felt in a long time. Light was stronger, but darkness was willing to do anything to succeed, and it was not weakened by this world. Or by demons.

  My strength returned.

  Once I’d drained the demon, I threw it away, the wispy remains of its power flickering on and off. My soul started to expand; the chains holding me rattled as my energy destroyed them. In this moment, I couldn’t remember why I’d always shied away from darker magic. That had been a stupid rule to follow, because now I’d have the power … the strength … to make sure that no one was ever taken from me again.

  I would be a god. If I’d been this strong when Regina was alive, she’d still be here with me. Another roar burst from me, deep and guttural, and echoed around the fire pit with enough force that if I’d been in my physical body my eardrums would have burst. Silence descended over the entire area; the demons even stopped their chattering to move closer to me,

  The final clank of my chains hitting the ground was extra loud in the silence.

  “How?” a demon hissed, rushing toward me. It hovered over the one I’d drained for a beat, and then flames appeared within the center of its dark cloud. It was one of their favorite weapons: a cloud of pain.

  Only I was not vulnerable any longer.

  The darkness of my new energy pushed forward, and I let it go free. The demon dissolved in an instant, whatever fire it had been holding going with it. The others halted their downwar
d trajectory and immediately tried to go in the opposite direction, sensing their impending doom.

  I gave them exactly what they expected. Instant death.

  The remaining souls in here belonged to supernaturals, and they were all chained down. Each cried out weakly, asking me to free them, but it was not in my interest to bother. I didn’t need them; therefore there was no point in wasting time or energy on them.

  They should think themselves lucky I didn’t require their energy to escape, because I would have just taken it. It was my right to take whatever I needed.

  Everything was mine now.

  5

  Elizabeth Teresa Montgomery II

  My focus on Louis’s energy was so strong that I barely noticed anything else around me. The only time I was remotely distracted was when we encountered small pockets of demons. The closer we got to the light, the more demons there were. But with three dragons and my own power, we were easily able to overcome them. I had no idea what dragon fire did to them, but it certainly made them scatter when it started to spew in their direction.

  Eventually we found ourselves huddled on the edge of a large stone building. Turned out those unnaturally bright lights were hiding a bunch of buildings. “He’s in here,” I murmured as we moved closer, just on the edge of a section where the light didn’t touch.

  “There’s a lot of energy here,” Braxton replied in a whisper of husky tones. “A lot more than I've felt since we arrived. I'm going to shift again.”

  “Should we all shift?” Jacob asked, pushing back a few strands of white-blond hair.

  “Three dragons is going to draw a lot of attention,” Jessa said, her gaze landing on mine. “But … maybe that’s what we should be doing. Distract the demons with dragons, so the rest of us can sneak in and save Louis…?”

  I thought on it for a moment. “The idea has merit,” I said with a nod. “I can’t think of anything with less risk. The dragons are at least very resistant to dark energy, and their fire scares the demons.”