bedeviled & beyond 03 - bedeviled & beleaguered (20 page)

I nodded, “Me too,” and waited for the medi-tech to pry the fevered fingers from my ankle.

When I looked up I was looking into the face of the devil’s mistress.

I opened my mouth to speak and she reached for me. Jerking away from her outstretched hand, I stumbled over a body on the floor, falling backward until I hit the wall behind me. My knees buckled and my gaze lifted in terror, finding Captain Lee.

Realizing I was in trouble, he started running toward us.

She reached for me again.

He wouldn’t be in time.

Her hand closed over my arm and I was gone.

Locked in space and time with my mother, Danika Phelps.

We landed in the shadows. I tried to jerk my arm out of her grip but she held me in an iron grasp, most likely reinforced by magic. My panicked gaze swept the area around us. The shadows were exactly as I remembered them from my previous visit there. It was not a happy memory.

She started dragging me forward, appearing for all the world as if she had a purpose and could tell where she was going. I figured she probably could. Her magic was dark and dark magic thrived in the shadows.

White magic like I carried didn’t fare as well.

“Where are you taking me?” Trying again to break her grasp, I tugged on my magic but found it elusive. Ignoring my question, my mother dragged me through the murky air of the shadows. My panicked gaze swung around, looking desperately for something I recognized. Something that would help me find a way out of there.

There were no landmarks, no guide posts. Nothing but shifting shades of murk.

Thick, lung clogging, mists.

The shadows consisted of nothing but varying shades of black. There was no light at all in the shadows. No geographic form, no rounded outlines, no trees, grass, or flowers, no buildings. There was nothing at all but a gray mist, melting into darker gray, flowing into black.

But the shadows were alive...they breathed...the sound like a heart beating in an open chest. With each thunderous beat my breath became a little shorter and my own heart ceased to work its solitary magic. My own rhythm slowed and merged with the rhythm of the shadows. I tried to take deep breaths to calm myself and nearly choked on the thick, slightly sulfuric air. Coughing, I closed my eyes, fighting to remain calm and pull breath into my lungs.

In desperation, I shuffled my mental drawers.
Dialle
?

Nothing. The shadows had choked off all communication with the outside world.

I was on my own.

My mother waved a hand and a door appeared, swinging open without a sound. She dragged me through. The door swung shut behind us with a dull thud.

The Devil’s Mistress let go of my arm and stepped away, smiling. “Hello, Astra.”

“Mother.”

She swung an arm around the room we stood in. “Welcome home.”

My gaze swept the room. It was indeed home, or the shadow version of home. The dungeon of Phelps fortress to be exact. I suddenly knew why my mother had insisted they recreate the dungeon when they’d reassembled the fortress on the bluff high above Angel City River. She’d built it on an access point to the shadows.

The huge room, I knew from hours spent playing make-believe between its cool, stone walls as a child, was encased in flat, brown stone. The center of the floor had a large drain, presumably to drain blood and other foul substances, from the days when torture had been commonplace. And, though they were currently hidden beyond the light, I knew thick, metal rings adorned the walls. The room appeared empty and felt unnaturally cold. My gaze swung back to my mother.

“Why’d you bring me here?”

“I missed you.”

“Uh-huh. Now tell me why you brought me here.”

“She was simply following orders,” said a voice I recognized from my past.

I turned toward the voice, my heart sinking, “Prince Nille, we meet again.”

The devil prince curved well-formed lips in a cold smile. His frigidly handsome face pulling any heat there might have been out of the smile. “Astra. Welcome to Hell.”

I laughed but we all knew I didn’t mean it. Goose bumps pebbled my skin. I was afraid he was right. It did feel like Hell.

“No really,” I said, “why am I here, mother?” I turned away from Nille, dismissing him as best I could with my body language.

Danika shrugged, “It has begun. The conduits are gathering.”

“Gathering? You mean being dragged kicking and screaming into the shadows?”

My mother lifted her arm and I saw the tear-shaped devil’s mark there. Nille did the same.

Apparently I was in great company.

“You are a unique case, Astra. Because of your special mix of powers you’re invaluable for this exercise. Your unwillingness to cooperate is a problem. A problem I’ve just taken care of.” My mother tapped me on the tip of my nose with a long, cold finger and my goose bumps got bigger and called all their friends.

“So. I said, looking around at the large, empty room. Just the three of us so far? I hope you two have lots of power to pull from because I’m not joining in your little party. I don’t care what you do to me.”

Nille nodded, the harsh illumination from the uncovered bulb above his head caressing his shiny, golden hair with tender fingers of light. “We expected you to give us some trouble, Astra. Which is why we brought insurance.”

He waved a hand toward one wall and the light moved to illuminate a single, limp form hanging from the rings.

Darma.

She appeared to be unconscious.

My skin crawled over my body in horror. Turning to my mother I said, “You would sacrifice your own daughter to the dark purpose?”

She shrugged. “We are all expendable, Astra. A reality that neither you nor your father has seemed able to grasp. It’s a weakness that will be your downfall eventually. But in the meantime...” she glanced meaningfully toward Darma, “it is a very handy tool to use against you both.”

My eyes widened, “Both? You aren’t going to try to pull him into this.” It wasn’t a question. The idea was preposterous. Tender my father might be, but he wouldn’t sacrifice a world of humans to save his own daughter. He was a Seraphim for the Big Guy’s sake, God’s right hand man. He had responsibilities, priorities. He remained ever true to the divine goal.

Didn’t he?

My mother shrugged again. “He’ll come to us. One way or the other. I know his weaknesses like I know my own strengths. He has many of them. Which is why he disgusts me so.”

I narrowed my eyes. “Trying to convince me or yourself, mother?”

She jumped as if she’d been poked in the behind with a live wire. Temper sparked in her beautiful black eyes. “Even now the veil drops into place. The humans have been driven to such a state of madness they’re turning on their own with little thought. No one will be spared the veil’s poison, Astra, no one. When the humans die the endless rule of the Royal Devil Court will begin. No one can stop this from happening, daughter. You might as well join us and reap the benefits once we sit at the seat of power.”

My disgust for her and her kind filled me until I thought I might explode. At one time I’d told myself she had some good in her. I no longer believed that. She had killed whatever feelings I might have harbored for her. A fear I’d lived with for years finally curled up inside my chest and went to sleep. It was like a giant weight lifting from my soul.

I knew, finally, that I was not like her. I could not be completely ruled by evil, corrupted totally by power.

I was my father’s daughter. And proud of it.

“Go back to Hell where you belong.” I spat at her.

She looked at me with disgust and waved a hand. Suddenly I hung beside my sister from that cold, damp wall.

I figured I was no worse off in those rings. I liked the company better over there, anyway.

~SC~

I dozed on and off, restless sleep peppered by nightmares and visitations from the Serpent. Occasionally my fitful rest was broken by static in my mind, as if someone was trying to reach me through my mental drawers. After a while, I simply wove the static into my nightmares and slept on.

At some point I climbed far enough into consciousness to realize that my sleep was too deep and too tenacious to be natural. I tried to extricate myself from it then but something held me there.

Finally a shrill screech in my mind caused me to jerk awake, though I still couldn’t pry my eyes open.
Astra! Wake the hell up
!

Darma’s dulcet tones.

I smiled in my mind.
Hey! What are you doin’ hangin’ around here?

Darma threw me a mental frown.
You need to shake it off. We have to get the hell out of here.

Okay.
I yawned hugely.
You got a plan?

Huge mental sigh.
You’re hopeless, Astra. How have you survived all these years without me around?

Mental shrug.
Why am I so tired?

I think it’s the rings. They have some kind of power attached to them. I noticed it tingling against my skin when they first put me in them.

So all we need to do is break the rings.

Well, that and then escape from wherever the hell we are.

The shadows.

Huh? The what?

We’re in the shadows. It’s bogyman land. They thrive and hide here and we don’t.

This is under the bed and in the closet?

I grinned.
Exactly
.

“Why is she smiling?” Prince Nille sounded cranky.

Oh, oh, we’re not alone in here.

I felt Darma frowning.
We’ll have to wait until they leave to break the rings.

Just like that. No concern that we wouldn’t be able to break the damn rings. I sighed in my mind.
Oh to be young and naïve again.
My lips curved.

“She’s smiling again. I don’t like it.” Prince Nille had certainly gotten very whiny in the fiery afterlife.

My mother’s voice held a note of impatience. She was most likely wondering how she’d gotten saddled with such a whiny baby. “She’s probably just dreaming about the Roaring Lion.”

Serpent
. My mind corrected.

Unclean Spirit
, Darma contributed.

Swine
, I added.

Lying Spirit
, Darma concluded.

Walking Orgick turd.

Okay, okay, I think we’ve covered it.

I’ve never known when to quit. I grinned again.

“She’s way too frunkin’ happy.”

Danika sighed, “Don’t concern yourself with her. She can’t do anything. She’s under the Serpent’s power.”

So, Astra, where are we going when we get out of these rings?

I considered the question for a moment and then realized the obvious first step.
The tunnels.

I felt Darma’s frown.
Huh
?

The tunnels leading to the river. There has to be some way to exit the shadows into the real world. It can’t be in the house because father would have known if there was a portal there. It has to be the tunnels.

That makes a weird kind of sense.

Thanks.

“Where are you going?” Prince Nille sounded petulant.

Danika’s voice when she responded was coated with barely disguised disdain. “I must prepare for the ceremony. You need to gather the others.”

“What about these two?”

Our mother made a derisive noise. “They aren’t going anywhere.”

“I’ll need your help with James.”

“I’m well aware of that. But you can handle a couple of Royals, a witch and an elf on your own can’t you?” She wasn’t even bothering to try to hide her disgust with him.

“Take care, witch.”
There
was the snotty, superior voice I remembered so well. It was about time he stood up to our mother.

However, in all fairness, it was logical to assume that getting blown into atmospheric gas by the white magic of an entire division of the celestial army and then being summarily ejected from the Pearly Gates by St. Peter could take some of the starch out of one’s spine. I was willing to cut him some slack for that.

You’re stupid, Astra.

Hey
! I told my sister indignantly,
Get out of my thoughts
.

Well, you just throw them out there. It’s not like I can avoid them when they’re constantly smacking me in the face.

Bite me!

Bite me first.

I threw her a mental grin and she grinned back. Just like old times. It was good to have her back.

We stopped talking and listened for a moment. Nothing.

Do you think they’re gone?

I gave her a mental shrug.
Only one way to find out. I’ll peek.

How are you gonna do that, Astra? I can’t open my eyes can you?

I will be able to, after I put some power into it.

Won’t they feel your power if they’re in the room.

They might, I’ll just try to use a little bit. It’s a chance we’ll have to take. If we wait too long they’ll be back.

Okay, go for it. And Astra?

Yeah?

Good luck.
I felt a slight pressure on my hand and realized she had to have done it mentally.

Hey! Cool trick.

She grinned proudly in my mind.
I’ve been practicing.

Good. Now if they attack me you can throttle them with your mind.

Har.

I focused my thoughts inward and found the string of power waiting for me there. I gave it a tentative tug and nothing happened.

These rings must be dampening my power somehow.

Try harder!

Oh, why didn’t I think of that?
I threw her a mental middle digit and she responded with the look that had quelled me for years when I’d been younger and smaller than she was. It still caused my heart to flutter a bit.