Dweller on the Threshold (40 page)

I could swear I saw her personality in those eyes.

Fury sliced into my stomach as I once again met the Dweller’s gaze. “Can you speak?” I asked through tightly clenched teeth.

He grinned and that was it. I spun out, grabbed the cord and yanked with all my might. It snapped and whipped around wildly while I pulled it in. For the first time, I was sincerely happy that it was so long. As I coiled it around my arm, I never took my eyes off the Dweller.

I was ready when he moved. I held the cord out between both hands.

He released a low, deep, vibrating chuckle that raised the metaphysical hair on my body. “You can’t strangle me with your puny rope.” I hadn’t really thought so, but I was gonna try. I had to try something.

“Beri!”

I glanced down to find Dooby frantically jumping in the circle. Too busy to be surprised that he could see me up here, I waved at him to keep speaking as I kept my eyes on the Dweller.

“I almost have it. Keep him busy!”

Another deep, creepy laugh crept over my skin. “He is a poor excuse for a necromancer. He thinks I do not hear him?”

I shrugged. It was all I could do to hold down my panic. The longer I waited the greater chance he would have to destroy my sister. The other demons took longer to build up enough strength but I had the feeling this thing could come through anytime he wanted. I was guessing he hadn’t done anything yet because he was too interested in how I came to be in his dimension.

“I don’t know him that well.”

“Nor do you know yourself.” He looked down and I followed his gaze to my brother.

Castor could obviously see him because he stared back, pure venom in his eyes.

Nikolos had said the person of light must face their Dweller and win the battle to truly pass into the light. I wanted him to fulfill his destiny but, though I didn’t know how, I understood I was the one to make this happen.

“Sssssilly goddess.”

I thought he meant Phro and glanced at her. She stood silent and unable to help, her expression frustrated and white with fear.

“I speak of your mother.”

My head whipped back to him so fast I nearly went spinning again.

Contemplative amusement twisted those deceptively plain features. “You don’t know.” He looked down at Castor. “And he doesn’t know. Interessssting.”

Could I believe this…this thing? After all these years of searching, could this creature tell me the truth?

I shook my head. “You assume I’ll believe anything that comes out of your mouth.”

“You don’t want to know of your mother?”

“Sure I do. But I want truth. Not evil twisted lies.”

It threw its head back and laughed. The sound rattled my bones and caused birds to swarm from the trees in a huge thick wave that shot north.

“Sssilly goddess. Ariadne thought she could right her great wrong. The blame for the death of an entire civilization lies at her feet and what does she do? She gives up her immortality to seduce evil itself to sire twins. One being of light and one to protect. Can you do that, Bergdis Hildegun VonBrahm?”

“It’s O’Dell.”

He merely smiled. The argument was dumb anyway, but I was desperately trying to give the slow necromancer enough time. Something in the forest still stirred. I could see a swirling mass of black behind and below the Dweller. There was a faint mist hovering over the ground; it mixed with a spiral of dirt that shifted much like the snakes had.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Nikolos crawling toward the others. Dooby muttered, “Fuck the circle,” and jumped from it to help drag the big man to the mirrors. Blythe apologized as she gathered blood from his chest into a small cup.

The blood of an ancient.

The Dweller laughed again. “Victor raped your mother. She gave up her existence for my current hosts. Now, we are three—as it should have been before. It takes three for my complete materialization in the physical plane.”

“Hosts?”
Plural? Was he talking about me? I was the host, too?

And like that, the ground around the snakes rumbled. Blythe screamed as the earth shook and cracked open—about ten feet behind the place my sister stood. The sound was like a thunderous gunshot. Red flames swept from the opening and spread along the surface as a fire elemental rose powerful from the earth. It had a humanoid body shaped from what looked like cracked, sizzling coal. Fire spilled to lick the surrounding trees, chasing away the snakes. It burned open the dimensions—creating a pit in the earth that yawned wide and black.

Blythe collapsed on the ground yet held her arms out. Thin streams of light connected her fingertips to the elemental like horizontal puppet strings. Her face twisted with effort and I knew she wouldn’t be able to hold it for long.

I also knew I didn’t want that fucking thing loose.

The Dweller was distracted long enough for Dooby to shove my brother between the mirrors.

I took advantage of the chaos and slammed into the Dweller with a force that sent me spinning and reeling like I’d hit the inside of a giant bell. His words spun in my head. Two hosts. Two fucking hosts. He’d made it sound like we were more than twins. Born of a goddess, sharing the responsibility…

I screamed and wrestled control of my metaphysical body before sweeping around to fly at the Dweller again. I stumbled through the air, flipping when he suddenly disappeared.

On the ground, my sister’s body fell.

A howl rose from that black, yawning abyss as a curl of red smoke soared up to slam into an invisible barrier. It was trapped between the two facing mirrors Dooby and the others had placed at the edge of that opening in the ground.

I dove back into my body, then groaned and turned onto my back. I spit out bark and blood. The side of my face felt like it was on fire where I’d slammed it into the tree. I crawled onto all fours and stood, my legs shaking so badly my teeth rattled. I lurched toward those mirrors, stopping to swipe my knives from the ground on the way. Black swirled around the edges of my vision. I didn’t know if they’d gotten him out in time to save my sister. I just knew they’d gotten him out.

Bees gathered around my head as if urging me on. The snakes slithered in the open near my feet. I could feel power returning to my body.

The Dweller started to solidify. Its eyes came first. Those same flat black things. I knew if I lived through this I’d remember them to my dying breath. Those eyes met mine as the thing started to resemble one of the Dweller Demons in color, but was so much more human in appearance. It hissed, shimmering violently. “Come to me Bergdis. Castor.” It grew bigger. “My children. We’re an unholy trinity.” It laughed at its own stupid joke.

“I must have inherited my sense of humor from my mother,” I muttered, hoping it had the same weak spots as its Dweller minions. I was taking a step closer when Nikolos stepped in front of me, blocking my way.

He looked worse than I felt. And that was saying a lot. He slid his hands into my hair to cradle my entire head, rubbing his thumbs over my bottom lip. I held my breath. He let go and lifted the necklace with the ankh over his head before draping it over mine. “I will be with you through this.”
 

The forest was quiet. I could still see the Dweller growing in size and feel it getting stronger behind Nikolos. I shook my head at Nikolos’s words.

The corner of his mouth lifted, then fell. “I heard him talk of your mother—my goddess. She gave the ankhs to me and my wife at our wedding.” He kissed me. My eyes widened in understanding as a tingling force poured into my mouth from his. He was gifting me with everything he had left. His life.

I began to struggle but he held my head harder, nearly hurting me in his intent. My eyes snapped open wide as the Dweller with his black, mottled demon skin rose high into the air over Nikolos’s head. Its mouth stretched wide, black eyes narrowed on me.

“Bergdissssss. Ever trap smoke in a jar?” It took a deep breath then blew it out. I heard the moan of trees bending behind me. “It writhes, twists and turns, seeking the smallest opening for escape. It finds it. Always.”

I tried to pull away from Nikolos but he held my face still as he instead moved back. He opened his mouth to say something, but whatever it was—I couldn’t hear it.

Because the souls around him had started to scream. I looked down to find them being pulled in one huge mass toward the Dweller. I dug my fingers into Nikolos’s arm. “He’s taking the souls!”

Nikolos’s eyes softened as he placed another soft kiss on my mouth. He let go, stepped back once, then again. I wrapped the fingers of my good hand around our entwined ankhs, horror darkening the edges of my vision as he bid me a silent goodbye. He turned and ran at the thing. The Dweller’s expression went slack with shock just before Nikolos slammed into his physical body—taking them both into that pit.

I screamed and ran toward the edge only to be knocked back by the swarm of souls that rose, like the birds had earlier, in one black mass.

That mass splintered.

I turned to see Blythe collapse. The magic she’d been using to hold the fire elemental vanished and the ground closed up with a roar that made me cover my ears.

Gulping in deep harsh breaths, I clenched my fists. Stupid, fucking Minoan had planned this all along. I knew it. Tears burned my eyes before spilling over to drip on the earth.

I watched as Dooby checked Blythe’s pulse, saw him nod an okay at Castor. I remembered that last expression on Nikolos’s face. He’d never had any intention of killing the host. He’d come along to protect him, knowing he would die in this battle.

I wiped the tears from my cheeks with dirt-covered fingers.

My sister moaned. I slowly climbed to my feet and lurched toward her. I would have gone sprawling if Castor hadn’t moved like lightning to catch me. So many emotions swam over his features, concern… remorse. I had no smiles for him. Nothing. I just kept seeing Nikolos jumping into that hole with the Dweller.

“Beri?” Elsa’s voice was low, shaky.

I dropped to my knees next to her. “Hey, you.” I’d really thought the Dweller was going to rip through her body—and to see her here, whole, with her beautiful blue eyes shining at me made me forget the pain for a moment. The one in my side. The ache over Nikolos was too fresh. I knew that it would never heal.

“Thank you,” she whispered.

“Do you remember it? I’d hoped you wouldn’t.” I smoothed her hair back and wiped a bit of blood from her chin.

“Cop’s memory.” She grinned but it was a weak one. “I saw something that looked like me come through the mirror. I stunned it with the perfume bottle and got all the way into my car and down the street before it caught me. Since then, everything has been kind of blurry, but I was still aware. I’m sorry about Nikolos.”

I lifted my eyebrow. “You were in a coma.”

“Yes, but I don’t think it was a real one. Part of my mind was still there, still aware. The other part of me was split off. With him.”

“You could feel being trapped in that mess? Around Nikolos?”

Sorrow pulled her features taut as tears slipped from the corners of her eyes. “It was awful. But I wasn’t alone. He kept us alive—the pureness of his spirit.”

“He’s dead, Elsa.” My voice broke on her name and I closed my eyes as it hit me. Really, really hit me.

I felt a presence next to me and looked up in surprise at Phro. She had pulled enough energy resources to be visible—to actually make a sound with her steps as a twig broke under her sandal. She knelt beside me and smiled. I’d never seen that expression on her face before. It was almost serene. “He’s not dead. Not yet anyway. What lives in that underworld he entered is greedy. Creatures—many, many creatures—will be happy feeding off his spirit for a long time. You might be able to bargain with them.”

I held my breath as a spark of hope flooded in to lighten the heavy grief. “I can go in there?”

“Not like this. You’re too weak.” She touched my hand. “You have to give yourself time to recover. Gather strength. Getting in there again won’t be easy. Not even with my help.”

She sighed and smoothed her hands down the already-perfect material of that silly white dress. “I know now why I’m with you. Why only you could see me for so long.” She wrapped her hands together. “I pissed off your grandmother.”

Now I had a grandmother?
I glanced at Castor, who just shrugged.

Phro twisted the white material in a fist. “Nikolos told us about his people going mad on Aegenia—that they’d slaughtered each other in that madness. We, the gods, didn’t know what was happening. For the first time even we were at a loss. These were Ariadne’s people, so when she left the ruins of Aegenia she wasn’t prepared for what happened then. She caught the eye of Dyonisis. He’s the one who made her a goddess.”

My body throbbed with exhaustion. I wanted to take my sister to a doctor. I wanted out of here so I could heal and start finding my way into wherever Nikolos had gone. I wanted to know if the Dweller was
really
gone since neither Castor nor I had officially vanquished it. I sighed. “Phro, how does this have anything to do with you?”

“Ariadne’s mother was Pasiphae. Pasiphae was already pissed at me because of that whole thing with the stupid bull. Did you ever read the myth about her having sex with a bull?”