Dark Calling (34 page)

And this is when Keely knows with certainty that Kimberly isn’t just the typical soccer mom.  This is the moment it all makes sense.  Why it was so important
for her
to have her own child.  A child with her same blood.

Kimberly Kiem is an Angel descendant.

The room becomes a blur of arms and le
gs
and broken furniture.  The air fills with blood and sweat.
  Keely’s ears tingle with the grunts and moans.  She can’t just sit here uselessly sprawled across the floor.
  She gets to
her feet and looks at the ground
for something to garnish as a weapon.
  P
lucks a large splinter of wood from the demolished chair and tries to d
ecipher exactly where she can
help. 

Across the room, she meets Apophis’ eyes.  Somehow, without consciou
sly making the choice, she wanders
through the craziness in his direction.  Lila’s hand slides down her arm in an effort t
o stop her, but her ha
nd is coated in blood and sweat
and she’
s fighting ruthlessly against a large hairless Demon with ashy white skin.  Keely glides right past her.  Comes to a stop in front of the brother who has tried to kill her too many times.

Apophis is leaning against the wall examining his nails
.  He hardly acknowledges her.  Simply hooks his finger in the air as if to say ‘come here.’

K
eely raises her make-shift weapon
above her head with both hands.  From out of nowhere
,
it seems
,
Apophis pulls his mini-machete.  The same one he used to slit her throat two years ago.  “Join me or die sister.”

Her eyes become slits as she glowers at her brother.  “I will never join you.”

For a heartbeat, his face changes into one of disappointment and then honest sadness.  She thrusts her weapon at his h
eart, but he flicks it away and
snatches it from her with one hand.
  He smiles at her, almost proud
ly
.  “Last chance,” he sighs.

“I don’t want to be anything like you,” she chokes, accepting
the fact that
she is going to die.

“You already are,” he says passionately.  “We can take it all.  Everything.  It could be ours together.”

Keely shakes her head and closes her eyes.  “I would rather die.”

Keely doesn’t see Apophis flinch away from her words.  “I won’t kill you.  I’ll take the lives from every single person you care about.”  Her eyes pop open with terror.  He lifts his knife, using it to point.  “Starting with him.”  Keely follows the
point of the
blade
to Bryon, his back to them.  He’s close enough to touch, struggling with a Demon half his size
,
but with a lot of fight in her. 

Keely tries to move in his path, but she’s too slow.  The knife sails past her head, barely missing her.  She turns with it
,
screaming out Bryon’s name. 

Bryon turns inhumanly fast hearing his name.  Appearing out of thin air, Asmoday catches the knife before it mak
es contact with Bryon’s face, just as B
ryon’s hand moves a half a second too late to block.

Apophis makes an enraged sound deep in his throat.  Snapping his fingers,
his Demons stop their attack reluctantly.  Lila takes the opportunity to finish off the one she had been fighting for some time now.

By the time Keely turns back, Apophis and his remaining Demons are gone.

Facing the room, Keely
sees body after bo
dy appear out of
nowhere as they join this realm.

Asmoday closes the space between them in one stride.  His body nearly touches hers.  “The last time we spoke, you said you would be happy to never see me again.”  He meets her eyes
steadily.  “Is this still true
?”

Glancing around her, she observes that her mom is o.k.  Bryon is battered, but alive.  Lila is limping, but otherwise all right.  “No.  I have never been happier to see you, Asmoday.”

He smiles one of those smoldering smiles that are way too intimate and make Keely feel all gooey, and nervous, and disgusted all at the same time.  He to
uches her face gently.  “I did no
t do this.”

She brushes his hand away softly
.  “Apophis.  Again.”
  She looks past him as more and more bodies fill the room.  Many of them are human, but several are most definitely Demon.  Bryon isn’t sure if he can relax or not until the next person arrives.  “Michael?”

Ki
mberly’s head snaps in Michael Laszlo’s
direction.  They hold each other’s gaze for a moment before he puts his hand on Bryon’s shoulder.

“Who are all these people
?”  Keely looks back to Asmoday
.  She notices he is still too
close to
her
.  She takes a step back leaning on
the wall
behind her
.

“I led a group to Pandora to find you and Apophis.  We stumbled upon another team in search of you down in the tunnels.  After a small altercation, and some shared information, we began working together.  Once we knew you must be in another realm it was easy to find you.  I follow
ed your essence and knew where you were immediately.” 

“Keely!”

Her name never sounded so wonderful in all her life.  Nick’s strong arms pull her away from Asmoday and into his chest.  She clings to him,
afraid if she lets him go he’
ll disappear as quickly as he appeared.  “Are you o.k.?”

Keely raises her head enough to see his face, but doesn’t release her grip on him.  They both gasp at the same time, stunned by the other’s injuries.  She caresses his puffy eye, trails her fingers down his purple and swollen cheek, runs them across his bloodied lip.  “I’m
fine now.  But you, what happened to you?”

Nick looks over her head at Asmoday who is hovering closely watching them with deep interest.  Finally, Nick shrugs and pulls her back against him.  “Just a little altercation,” he says softly. 

Keely shifts out of Nick’s arms in order to look back at Asmoday, but he is already gone.  She sighs and looks back at Nick.  “A little altercation, huh?  That sounds familiar.”

Nick lifts his shoulders then places his hands light as feathers on each side of Keely’s face and kisses her gently.  Keely presses her mouth to his, ready to ignore the pain, but Nick winces.  She pulls back concerned.  “I’m sorry.  Did I hurt you?”
 
Nick shakes his head and leans down to kiss her again, deeper this time.
 

“I hate to break this up, but we still have missing people,” Lila says as if she isn’t sorry in the least.

As happy as Keely is to see Nick, she needs to find her dad.  She breaks the kiss, but takes Nick’s hand in hers.  She looks around the room for her mom and finds her staring back at her, a strange look on her face.  Keely realizes the last time she saw her mom, she was p
etrified of boys.  Now he
re
she i
s kissing one, unable to keep from touching him.  A guy her mo
ther hired no less.  Things have
changed so much
in the past week.  Nothing will
ever be the same again.

Twenty-one
:

“This is weird,” Lila whispers.  “Like really, really weird.”
  Her face scrunches up like she smells something
bad.  “Every logical part of me is screaming not to trust them, but—and I
know this sounds contradictory—b
ut my heart is telling me to follow them.”

“I’m done listening to your heart
, Lila.  Your damn heart made us sit in those cells,” Bryon huffs.  He shoots her a sli
ghtly menacing look.  “And then
what did your heart tell you?  Oh, that’s right.  Your heart said it was all good to walk through that door and get jumped by a bunch of Demons.”  He shakes his head wh
en Lila tries to protest.  “Uh-
uh.  I’m done.  From now on, I’m sticking with my gut.”

Lila snorts out an annoyed laugh.  “When I say I follow my heart, I mean I go on an instinct, moron.  It’s the same thing as going with your gut.”  She says the last word like it disgusts her.  “And you know it leads to the path I should follow.  Which is how I made it to you in the first place. 
And
I am not a clairvoyant.  I don’t have visions.  I have a guide.
It pulls on my heart, sending
me in the right direction.”

“We wouldn’t have found my mom or Nick either,” Kee
ly adds leaning around Nick to see Bryon better
.

“You’re not helping, Keely.”

“She’s not helping you, you mean,” Lila says
with a bite
.

Bryon stops walking and turns to his friends.  “I knew there was
danger for us in that room
.
  I felt it.
  That’s all I’m saying.”

“You could be developing another
a
ccolade.  Let us know if it happens again,” Nick suggests.

Bryon puts on an obvious fake
smile.  “Yay, we can test it out.”

“I don’t know what your problem is, Bry.  We got out of those cells.  We got Keely’s mom.  Nick showed up.  It all worked out.  Regardless of your feeling, we had to go into that room.  I mean, even if you knew those Demons were in there, you still would have gone in because Keely’s mom was in there too.  You see what I’m saying?”  Lila crosses her arms smugly.

“I wasn’t prepared.  I thought the room was clear.”

“Then that’s
your own stupid mistake.  You know it doesn’t work like that.  You should always be prepared for danger,” Lila sho
o
ts back.

“You guys, stop it. 
We are all exhausted and scared.  We’re all worried about someone.  That’s no excuse to turn on each other,” Keely scolds.  Nick gives her a small smile and squeezes her hand.

“You’re right.  I’m sorry, Bryon.  I’
m just worried about Dustin,
”
Lila murmurs.

Ke
ely tenses at the mention of Dustin’s
name.  Nick looks down at her, but she keeps her head turned, looking straight ahead at the group of Demons leading them through the tunnels.
  She still hasn’t decided what she should do about Dustin yet.

“I am too,” Bryon says gently.  “We’ll find him.
  Your dad too, Keels.”

She smiles gratefully at him before glancing over
her shoulder at her mom.  She’
s walking quietly beside Michael La
s
zlo, who is Bryon’s work
cover.  He runs Las
zlo
’s Landscaping.  Apparently he is a White Warrior.
Keely doesn’t really know
what that means, but understands it’s something special.  He works on call, so most of the time he is leading a normal life, making people’s yards look nice.  But if he’s needed, like he was today, they call him in.  Oh, and he
also
use
d
to date her mom.
 
Awkward
.

Her mom who is something other than human, but Keely hasn’t confronted her about that yet.  Wrong place.  Wrong time.  Once they find her dad and Dustin, and everyone’s home safe and sou
nd, then they’ll talk.

The group
of Demons in front of them stops
outside of a door.  Though they vary in size, shape, and levels of scariness, they are all dressed the same.
  Inconspicuously c
lad in dark jeans and
hoodies.  Some wear baseball caps under their raised hoods keeping their profiles hidden in shadow.  Keely isn’t sure which one is Asmoday, but she knows he’s up there.  Since his arrival, she has consistently felt
his presence.  It’s like there’
s an invisible cord t
hat runs from his body to her
s.  She assumes this is what he meant when he said he
had
followed her essence.  It frightens her to be connected to him so strongly, and the sensation only seems to be growing.
  Almost as if hearing her thoughts, Asmoday pushes his hood back and turns aro
und.  Their eyes lock instantly
and Keely feels the cord go taught as though someone had tugged on it.  It almost hurts, but she knows if she keeps moving forward, it will loosen up as she gets closer to him.

“Would you like
us to go in first?” Asmoday asks Keely, refusing to acknowledge the others.  She looks up at Nick for guidance.  “I addressed the question to you, Keely,” Asmoday snaps.  Keely jumps at his tone, never hearing him speak to her this way before.

Nick’s eyes slit into a glare and Keely grips his hand as tight as she can, anchoring him in place.  “Yes.  Please go in first,” she says as nicely as she can.