Destiny Disrupted (23 page)

“What’s your name?” I asked.

“Sutton. What’s yours?”

My heart turned inside out. “My name’s Shiloh.” I moved to the crumbling part of the wall and peeked through the hole again. “This is gonna sound like I’m rockin’ the crazy pants, but, um, I think you might be my twin sister.”

“What are you talking about?” Sutton asked, her voice high-pitched. “Is this some type of demonic mind-mangle? Because I don’t have a sister.”

“No! I swear!” I insisted. “Did you live in Castro Valley with foster parents?”

Her jaw dropped slightly. “How do you know that?”

“Our mother, Lauren, told me the story of our birth and separation. She got pregnant right after high school and had to give us up for adoption.” I left out the part where she was forced to do it and she had spent some time in the mental ward. Stuff like that was better explained by our mom.

She gasped. “Omigosh…are you serious?”

“Yeah, I only just found out a couple of months ago,” I said.

“This is…insane,” Sutton replied, throwing up her hands.

“Yeah, it is. This whole time, I thought you were dead. That you’d been kidnapped by some psycho and not taken by demons.”

Sutton sighed, but sagged onto her cot. “Oh, my god. This is huge.”

“Bizarre, huh? I mean, what are the odds that we’d finally meet in the Underworld,” I said. “But don’t worry. Now that we’ve found each other, I swear, I’m gonna get us out of here.”

“How?” Her voice sounded hesitant and doubtful.

Well,
I don’t have a solid plan yet
.

“Um, I’d rather not share the details,” I said, twirling a piece of hair over my shoulder. “How did you get here?”

“All I remember is walking home from school two months ago. Someone grabbed me, knocked me out, and I woke up in this dank cell.”

“Wait…did you say two months?”

“Yeah, I think it was about that long. Could be less.”

“Um, Sutton, you’ve been missing for over three years,” I said. “You disappeared when you were thirteen, right?”

“Yeah…”

“Well, I’m sixteen so do the math.”

“This is too much. I feel sick to my stomach. I swear it’s only been a few months.” Squeezing her eyes shut, Sutton rubbed her temples. “I’m already sixteen? That just blows my mind.”

“Time must go by differently in the Underworld. A few months here equals several years topside.”

“Apparently. So what are
you
doing here?” Sutton asked. “Were you kidnapped, too?”

“Not exactly. I’m dating—I mean, I
was
dating this guy named Trent Donovan. Turned out to be the Prince of the Underworld. And his new friends don’t want me interfering with the ceremony.”

“That’s totally crazy and sucky. Makes me wanna punch him for you,” she said, her voice sounding uneven. “Are you guys still together? Can he get us outta here?”

“We are definitely broken up after this.” I sighed. “I’m not even sure he knows Caym has taken me hostage. But you’re okay?”

“I’m five-by-five.”

“I’ll interpret that as your surviving this horrendous ordeal with a very upbeat attitude.”

Sutton cleared her throat. “Shiloh? I heard that demon call you a witch. Can’t you use magick to open the cell door? Blow it up or something?”

I stepped back from the wall and blood rushed into my face. “You believe in magick?”

“Hey, I’ll believe in anything that gets us outta here in one piece. After being kidnapped by a demon and living in the Underworld for months, I believe in a lot of things I never did before. So are you a witch or not?”

I gazed through the hole at my sister. “Yes, but my powers are useless. Caym had this cell especially made to prevent white witches from escaping.”

Shoulders drooping, Sutton blinked back tears. “So…we’re stuck here. Forever.”

“No. Just for now.”

“You really have a plan to get us out of here?” she asked, lifting her head and catching my eye.

Nope. No idea.

“Absolutely,” I declared. “Money-back guarantee.” Someway, somehow I would escape. “I’m so sorry that this happened to you.”

“It’s not so bad. At first, I thought they were going to kill me, but the guards just force me to visit this incapacitated demon, who’s like some sort of vampire. His touch makes my head go all woozy, then he opens my mouth and does some weird sucking thing.”

“That’s super gross.”

She sighed. “Tell me about it.”

“The Nocturne, the demons holding us captive, are also called, Soul Eaters. They survive on the essence of humans. They usually suck out the soul of their victims. I guess you’re lucky they haven’t killed you.”

“Lucky. Yeah, right.”

“Have they tortured you or anything?” I leaned into the wall to brace myself for the horrific details.

She sniffled. “No. Taking me to that ugly demon is torture enough. Otherwise, they’ve pretty much left me alone.”

That wouldn’t be the case for me. She didn’t know how
lucky
she really was.

“Have you met anyone else down here?” I asked.

She remained quiet for a minute, then said, “Only this older chick named Catarina.”

“That’s Trent’s mom! I wonder where they’re holding her—”

“Uh, she isn’t a prisoner. She’s one of the demons.”

“Say what?” I clutched my stomach as if I’d been hit with a cannon ball. Trent’s mother had embraced evil. She’d gone from being a wraith to a full-on demon. The Triad had lied to Trent. But how? Why?

From somewhere within the dungeon area, footsteps thudded closer and two demons in chainmail armor jogged past my barred cell. Sutton’s door creaked open.

“Come with us,” a demon said.

“Feeding time, boys?” Sutton asked dully.

The two demons stood on either side of Sutton, gripping her upper arms and escorting her out of the dungeon.

As she passed my cell, she turned her head and our eyes met. “Be back soon.”

While I waited for my sister to return, I lay on the cot staring at the stone ceiling. I was having the weirdest day ever. First my boyfriend betrayed me, and now my long lost sister turned up in the Underworld. Now I was more determined than ever to find a way to get us out of here and back to our mom.

The Evil Triad still needed a virgin to crack the Sheol. I didn’t have Esael’s demonic blood in me anymore and I wasn’t a virgin, either. So why keep me alive? Only to pacify Trent? Or did they still have some devious plan for me?

I didn’t have a freakin’ clue.

The shades curled up with me on the cot, Kasha snuggling under one of my arms and laying her head on my chest.

“Raze?” I yelled. “Can you hear me? I could really use a dramatic rescue right now!”

No answer. I called out his name, over and over again, but there was no response. Not that I expected one when I was trapped in some vestige of a more barbaric time, buried deep within Hell itself.

I turned my head and stared out the bars of my chamber. Where was Trent? What had he done when he found my Jeep still parked outside his house? Gone looking for me? Or had the clever demons moved my vehicle?

The shades sat up, ears perked and twitching.

“Someone coming,” Bakaz whispered.

“Can you guys get a message to Ari and Raze for me?”

Bakaz nodded. “Tell them you trapped in Underworld.”

“Yes! Go now,” I whispered.

The shades shifted into shadow and vanished.

I didn’t have time to worry about Trent, or if the shades would get help. Caym was back, with what resembled a riding crop that people used on horses. My heart whammed hard in my chest.

“It’s time to stop fighting it. Time to accept your destiny as our prince’s consort. Like I said before…” He smacked the leather crop against his palm. “We have ways of making humans bend to our will.”

I awoke on the cot, bloodstained and bruised, my body a song of aches and pains. The throbbing from the riding crop’s brutal lashing left my muscles stiff, and it hurt to move even an inch. I moaned and tried to push the tangled hair from my face. After a few minutes, I rolled onto my side, crying and clutching the thin blanket.

Time had no relevance anymore. I was floating outside my body, away from a world of torture and agony. The long days blurred together. Sutton called out to me once or twice, but I was too weak to respond.

A week later, Caym returned for round two of ‘let’s torture Shiloh.’ I prayed for death as he whipped me with that leather switch, but my prayers went unanswered down here in this hellish domain. My entire body hurt, my skin had been beaten to a bloody pulp.

Sutton screamed. “Please stop! Please!”

Caym ignored her pleas. I tried to move my hand to shield my face from the next blow. I was met with a searing pain like a hot poker stabbing into my side, and I screamed in anguish.

“Will you consent now, witch?” Caym asked, holding the riding crop over his shoulder. “Join the side of evil?”

“No…never,” I rasped.

“Stubborn
and
stupid,” he muttered, bringing the switch down on my legs.

I curled up into fetal position and sobbed until he stopped beating me.

Caym yawned. “Enough for today.” With a huff, he strolled from the chamber.

I crawled to the cot and slumped onto the thin, squeaky mattress.

“Shiloh!” Sutton called from her cell next to mine. “Just do what they ask before they kill you,” she cried.

“No. I can’t give in to evil,” I whispered, then slipped into unconsciousness.

When I awakened hours later the room was still dark, cast in a perpetual gloom. I was conscious enough to drink the water and choke down the stale bread that the demons had left for me. A burst of pain encompassed my body whenever I moved and I let out a quiet whimper.

Where was Trent? My mind flickered back to the moment I’d last seen him at Craven Manor. Did he know I was here? My friends would be trying to find me, trying to rescue me.

The demons wanted me to submit and join Trent and the dark-side. Use my powers for evil. But I still refused. I scanned the warm room and tried to devise some ingenious escape plan. Fresh tears sprung to my eyes when the magnitude of the hopeless situation swept over me.

“Sutton?” I called.

“Yeah? Are you okay? Why are they doing this?” Her frantic voice penetrated the thick wall between us, drifting out into the corridor.

“It doesn’t matter, but if they realize we’re sisters, it might get worse…for you.”

“So there’s no hope then? No one’s coming to rescue us?”

“I’m afraid not. I’m so, so sorry. I promised to get us outta here, but I don’t know how. In the Underworld, I don’t have the power to defeat the Nocturnes—”

“Then we’ll find another way! Please don’t give up. Even if we’re stuck in a demon dungeon, I’m not gonna stop trying to break free and neither should you.” She cleared her throat and it sounded as if she swallowed a sob. “Let’s talk about something else. Get you mind off the pain. Tell me more about our family. Our mother.”

Pulling the thin blanket over my body, I told her all about bitchy Darrah and my awesome dad. I explained how I found out that Lauren was our birthmother, and the rest of our V. C. Andrews’ family drama. I even went into detail regarding my friends, and finally, my head-over-heels, stupid crazy love for Trent.

Sutton listened quietly, occasionally asking a question as we talked for hours. She told me all about her foster parents, and they sounded like really nice people. Sutton mentioned that on the day she disappeared, she’d had a huge fight with them and she didn’t want it to be the last words she said to her parents. It made me think of Ariana and the argument we’d had at the house before I left for Craven Manor. I also filled Sutton in on my coven, Hex Girls, and my supernatural talents.

Something dawned on me. Sutton must be a witch, too and I was pretty sure Caym didn’t know.

“If you and your coven,” Sutton said, “are supposed to be some of the greatest forces of good in the world, then they won’t stop searching for you.”

My body slumped. “That’s the hope. Because I can’t beat these demons alone. They’re too strong in this realm. And I don’t have any magick, which majorly sucks.”

She peeked through the small hole between our cells. “Is that why you’re looking like you just ran over a puppy?” Sutton chipped away the rocky wall and pebbles fell through on my side of the chamber. “You know, I’ve gone through some fairly dark times in my life, tackled some scary things, among them being locked up down here. But let me tell you something, when it’s dark and I’m freaked out or whatever, I always think, ‘What would Buffy do?’”

I faintly laughed. “Seriously? You’re a fan of that show?”

“Well, duh. Only a clueless, anti-TV hypocrite wouldn’t like that show. But that’s not the point. Shiloh, we may not know each other that well, but it sounds as if you lost yourself to the darkest love that’s ever existed and you fought back. I think you can handle anything. And you don’t seem like the kind of girl who gives up that easily.”

“You’re right. You really have that much faith in me?”

“We’re sisters, so do you really need to ask? You said most of your power comes from your emotions, and I know you feel weak and scared, but you’ll need to dig deeper to get us out of here and back home. Whatever it takes, you need to find that inner-strength and channel it.”

I sat up. “Wow, you’re really good at the spirit boosting pep-talks. It sucks big time that we met like this, but I’m grateful to have a friend, I mean family, with me.”

“Me, too. Now keep trying!”

“I will. I promise,” I said. “You know, if I’m a witch, then you are too, Sutton. Maybe it’s time you awakened your own ability.”

“How?”

“There are a few meditative things we can try before the guards return…”

She was right. I couldn’t give up. I would fight even if all seemed hopeless.

We practiced for an hour until a guard—all muscle, and strong enough to lift an army tank—walked along the corridor, pushing a cart and delivering the meals. He glanced my way, eyeing me with cold and malicious black eyes. The demon approached the door of my cell, and I instinctively backed away into a dark corner.

He chuckled. The guard stepped closer as if he were trying to build up some sort of villainous swagger.

“You’re awake,” he said. “You’re one of the Chosen Ones, right? Pleasure to meet you, witch.”

I rolled my eyes. “The pleasure is most certainly
not
mine, butthead.”

A slow and sinister grin seized his ugly face. “You’re as gutsy as they said you were.” He unlocked the door, the metal creaking open with a resounding groan as he stepped inside. The guard held out a tray of food and a glass of water. “Hungry?”

My stomach grumbled in response. I hugged my knees to my chest and didn’t answer.

“Now be a good little witch and stay there,” he said cautiously.

The instant he hunched over to place the tray on the floor, I sprang up with what little strength I had left and grabbed the platter. The bread and water splattered on the wall. I lifted the metal tray and swung as hard as I could at him. A loud
crack
pierced the air and the demon’s head rocked to the side. He went down like a ton of bricks onto his hands and knees, shaking his head and appearing dazed.

I skirted past him and ran out the door, slamming it shut behind me.
I was free!
I hurried to Sutton’s cell and peered inside.

She was reclining on the cot, but jumped up when she recognized me through the bars. “Holy crap! What’d you do?”

“I’m fighting for both our lives. No matter what happens, I’ll come back for you,” I promised.

“Hurry!” she said, waving her hands wildly. “Before they catch you.”

I took off running toward a steel door at one the end of the long corridor. In the doorway, there were two sets of staircases, one going up and another going down. Footsteps pounding on the upper level made the decision for me, and I rushed down the other flight of stairs. An infusion of adrenaline shook my limbs. Dank endless corridors jutted this way and that like a horror movie maze. I sprinted through the labyrinth of hallways, ignoring the pains shooting through my body.

Only more passageways and empty rooms. This failed attempt at escape wasn’t what I’d been hoping for. I couldn’t even find a weapon left lying around or a neon exit sign in this stronghold.

Most the doors were locked, and a few I didn’t even try opening when scary, growling noises seeped through the stone. The lower I traveled, the hotter it became. Steam poured off the walls and floor, and my body broke out in a sweat. My hair hung in limp strands, sticking to my face and neck. I paused, breathing hard, and leaned against a wall. The air seemed denser, coated in brimstone and sulfur. I coughed and swayed on my feet.

Coughing harder, I slid to the ground and rested my head on my knees.

“Valiant effort,” Caym said.

My heart and stomach switched places. There was no escaping these evil creatures or their castle of doom.

I lifted my head and blinked up at him. “Can’t blame a girl for trying.”

“You’re much tougher than you look.” He sighed. “Raziel might’ve shared his angelic blood with you, but it won’t save you from your fate. No one can.”

I shook my head. “You’re wrong.”

“Why fight it? Accept your place and things will be so much easier for you.”

Don’t let him get to you. Demons enjoy messing with people’s heads.

I narrowed my eyes. “You’re talking crazy.”

He shook his head. “Foolish girl. You will join us soon enough.”

“No way.
Nothing
could make me become a member of your twisted evilness.”

“You’ll change your mind once the cambion reaches his full potential.”

My shoulders tensed. “I doubt it.”

Caym bent down and swooped me up into his arms. “Let’s go back to your cell.”

I licked my dry lips. “Punishment time?”

He shook his head. “I believe we’ve established that beating you into submission clearly isn’t working.”

He carried me all the way back to my cell. I didn’t try to fight or resist. My strength had deserted me, and I lay limply in his arms. Back inside my chamber, Caym laid me on the cot and covered me with the thin blanket.

Caym grinned. “You know, that long walk made me awfully thirsty.”

His hands clutched my head and I gasped. He put his lips close to mine and inhaled like a freaky vacuum. My life force was hemorrhaging into his mouth, pieces of my soul draining away. My eyes bulged and I struggled to pry his long fingers from my throat. I thrashed my head, but he held on tight.

My vision darkened. Lightheadedness overrode everything. Death was like a soothing lullaby in my head. My eyes blinked closed.