Hell's Gates (Urban Fantasy) (16 page)

J
ezze
and I ripped down the burned wallpaper, both of us leery about using magic or hellfire to cleanse the area. We doused it in holy water and then painted over the whole thing, just to be on the safe side. There was no way to know if whoever—or whatever—opened the portal could do it again. It made no sense to make it easy for them by leaving the circle in place.

The sun dipped closer to the horizon, giving way to the moon and bringing night closer. I stared at the dimming light, knowing I couldn’t put this off any longer. “I need to go see Mom.”

Jezebeth came to my side, both of us watching the sun disappear. She leaned her head on my shoulder and I rested my cheek on top of her head. “We’ll watch over Bry.”

I was tempted to tell them to take him somewhere else—anywhere else. But in truth, Momma R’s house was as safe a place as any. Whoever opened that portal could do it anywhere. They’d bypassed Momma R’s wards. They’d be able to get past any defenses. At least with Bry here, he had two powerful witches to watch over him.

“Keep him safe. Don’t take your eyes off him for one second.” Because, fuck, if I lost Bry… I wasn’t sure if I could ever come back from that. I mourned losing Sam, but we had forever. Immortality had its benefits and one of those had been hope that we’d end up together eventually.

Bry… I knew I’d have to lose him someday and I refused that to be any moment before he was ancient. Even then, I’d wiggle and worm my way into getting him blessed—or damned—by someone so he could live forever.

I drove to the edge of the city, not far from the field where I’d summoned that useless imp. As soon as I was outside the city limits, I parked and got out, ready to call on Mom.

Though, as it turned out, I didn’t have to deal with opening a portal at all. She was already here.

“I should have known you’d be waiting,” I grumbled and stomped across the field toward her. My mother could cross barriers at will. Which also meant she was on the list of potential suspects we’d compiled. As much as I’d wanted to strike her name from the list, I knew better. She was perfectly capable of doing everything that’d happened these past days. And even if she wasn’t directly responsible, she was probably enjoying being a spectator.

She always liked watching me suffer.

Mom tilted her head to the side, red eyes skating over me. I tried to figure out what might be bouncing around inside her crazed head, but I couldn’t even begin to fathom the depths of her depravity. She wasn’t anything close to human, and she didn’t have anything that could even be compared to mortal emotions.

She thrived on suffering, hate, and malice.

Y’know, in case anyone wondered where I got my temper.

“I need information, Mom.” No sense in playing with faux niceties.

She nodded. “That’s why I’m here.”

I snorted. “Yeah. Right. You knew your little girl needed you, and you came racing across the dimensions to help.”

Her expression remained frigid and I wasn’t sure if she got my sarcasm. “What do you need, Caith?”

“What do you know about what’s been happening in my town?” And it was still mine, it’d still be mine, when this shit was said and done.

Her gaze grew distant, drifting off to the side. “There have been whispers. No one talks of the truth. I can’t be sure I know what you’re asking me.”

I crossed my arms. “Someone has been sneaking a demon drug into the city and giving it to both tweens and humans. Whoever it is has been opening circles that serve as some sort of summoning spell, but they’re different.”

There was a flash of recognition in my mother’s eyes and she was subjected to her red-eyed stare once more. “Not summoning circles. If you’d studied the dark arts more, like I wanted you to, instead of running off to play swords with your first father, you’d understand that.”

For the love of… We were not going to talk about the dads as if they were merely numbers instead of living beings. “Papa Leth taught me everything I needed to survive this long. I’m alive because of him.”

Especially—like last year—when I was faced with over twenty zombies all looking to make me dinner.

We were also not going to address my failings as an evil daughter and that I disappointed her for not living up to her expectations. “P.S. We’re not doing the ‘you aren’t the daughter I wanted’ run around right now. Just tell me. What are they?”

“Gates.” She said the word as if it was so obvious. Her silent “duh” hanging in the air. Though, really, as behind the times as she was, I wasn’t sure what she’d use instead of “duh.” “You can tell the difference by the runes that mark them.”

“What’s the difference?” Because as loathe as I was to admit, she did know more than I did.

She gestured her hands the same way she always had when trying to teach me something. A floating model hovered in the air, fake miniatures of a summoning circle and “gate.” “A summoning circle is one-way. You bring something here.” A fiery imp crawled through one circle, dancing around and juggling its own head. I wasn’t going to laugh. I wasn’t. “And you have the power to send it back.” She closed her hand in a fist, the projection disappearing from sight with a flare of smoke. “Gates, on the other hand, work both ways. The one who opens the gate doesn’t have the same power as a summoner. Whatever comes through is able to resist whoever brought them to the tween. It makes the demon difficult to banish.”

I remembered the way I’d sent my mother back to hell when I’d closed my summoning circle. I’d never thought about the distinction between ritual circles, but the idea that something could come through without me being able to send it back sent chills racing up my spine.

It also sounded like the type of magic any mortal warlock would be a fool to mess with. Any time I’d heard of a witch or warlock using a circle, it was to bind a demon to their will. They’d either get information out of the dem or force it to perform a task. Dems hated being forced to do the bidding of a tween, which was why binding rituals had to be completed with precision. If things went wrong, you better me damn sure you sent them back before they ripped the summoner into bloody pieces.

“Who’s using them? Uncle Luc? ‘Cause that bastard hasn’t been answering me for
days
.”

“He has been… evasive.” She shrugged as if she didn’t care. Then again, she didn’t. “I can’t say for sure what he’s up to. He’s been busy, traveling far beyond the ninth circle. He’s been traveling so much that no one in the nine Hells can track him.” Mother pursed her lips. “I must admit. I haven’t seen him in some time.”

I frowned at that. Uncle Luc wasn’t one to announce his comings and goings, but he didn’t keep things from his own sister. He might be the Prince of Lies, but that didn’t mean he was secretive. He was more the openly plot and scheme kind of guy.

I also couldn’t figure out how his behavior tied him to Killian Howe. If Lucifer was up to something big, why did he send his devil’s advocate to the tween to offer me cryptic, if occasionally useful, advice?

“You’re worried.” My mom had floated closer while I was lost in my thoughts and she reached out to touch my cheek. I flinched, taking a step back and out of her reach. Her touch had never been comforting or soothing. All I got from her was pain. Instead of commenting on my evasiveness, she lied. “I’ve missed you.”

For one second, looking into her swirling, red eyes, I almost believed her.

“Yeah. I gotta go.” I put more space between us and then spun, ready to climb into my car and put distance between us. “Thanks for the info.”

“I’d like to come visit sometime.” Her voice had me gritting my teeth. Why did she have to lie all the time? I glanced over my shoulder and she stepped forward. “I’d like to see him. You’d have to lift your ban first. The ninth circle of Hell is hardly an appropriate place for a brownie child to visit his grandmother.”

Grandmother
. I shook my head, biting my tongue to keep from saying anything else. The gall of that woman… acting like we were
family
.

“Thanks again for the help,” I muttered and hurried away before she could say anything else.

If my uncle was the Prince of Lies, she was the Princess. The difference between them? While Uncle Luc was up front, my mother worked in the shadows.

Yeah, so that wasn’t happening.

I went straight back to Jezze and Momma R with what I’d discovered. It wasn’t much, but it was something. Between the gate thing and Killian’s vague “old dude suppressing his power” idea, we had a couple of different angles.

“Okay then, let’s do this thing.” Jezze reached for the first book and I plopped into the chair across from her.

“If you managed to narrow this down to two or three dems, I’m really on the edge of saying ‘fuck it,’ and beating the ever-loving shit out of them all. I’m tired of this playing detective bullshit. And, if I beat up a few that didn’t have anything to do with this mess… oh well.” I shrugged. “They probably did something to deserve a beating at some point.”

Jezebeth didn’t comment, but I knew she agreed. The witch had too much fun feeding my victims to gators to not be down with some ass kicking.

We were still researching when Sam arrived after a long day of cleansing drugged out souls. Exhaustion weighed on him, but I saw something else in his eyes too—purpose, joy, strength.

“How’s the search?” He leaned against the doorjamb, not coming any closer. Considering I was suddenly balancing on the edge of desperate need, that was a good thing. “I hope you’ve had better luck than me. I’ve run into nothing but dead ends all day.”

Since his eyes weren’t any redder than before, I figured his dead ends weren’t really
dead
and their lives hadn’t
ended
.

He strolled forward, dark leather moving with his muscular body. He slipped his jacket off, exposing his clinging shirt and the way it traced his muscles. The more often I saw him, the more I missed him. In my life, in my bed. A mate, but not a mate.

It was cliché—and so stupid—but Bry had filled some of the hole left in my heart when Sam had left. Now I was realizing that the hole had merely been glossed over by my love for my son. I still had a Sam-sized crater in my heart.

He lowered himself into a chair beside me, his scent drifting over and wrapping me in a comforting, arousing embrace. I shivered, desire sliding over my nerves, and my wolf whimpered in response. My mate. Our mate.

“What am I looking for?” His deep rasp sank into my skin and I swallowed hard, pushing past the arousal that clouded my mind.

I explained the criteria, nudging over the books we hadn’t yet checked. Hours passed, the three of us reading every word, no matter the language. I swear to On High, I’d never done so much reading and studying in my life. Of course, I grew up in the 1400s. It wasn’t like I went to high school.

We managed to cross off a few names, but there were still so many others.

I put the book down I’d been reading, staring at the ceiling and stretching my muscles. I was immortal, not invincible.

A delicate snore drew my attention and I lowered my head, spotting Jezze slumped forward, face buried in a book. I wiggled down in my seat and nudged her leg with my foot. “Jezze.”

She snored louder and I was pretty sure I saw drool escaping the corner of her mouth.

I kicked her in the shin. Momma R would have her ass if she drooled all over the books. “Jezze!”

She sat up with a start. “He was a frog when I found him.” I did not want to know. My friend blinked at me, eyes wide, and she brushed her hair from her face. “Whuh?”

“Go to bed. We’ve done enough for tonight.”

“But—“

“Bed. We’ve done all we can tonight.”

“Right.” She stretched her arms high over her head with a yawn, exposing her flat stomach and pushing her pert breasts higher. Yeah, I noticed these things, but not because I had sexy-girly feelings for her like I’d dug the lesbian siren. This was more about how Sam was reacting to the display. I shot my gaze to my left, eyes narrowed, and found him watching me with a smirk.

Bastard.

“I’ll see you guys in the morning.”

It was good the witch was toddling off to sleep. It was bad that it left Sam and me alone together. We’d been alone together plenty of times over the last few days. Of course, most of that time was spent tracking demons, beating up drugged out idiots, and keeping our minds on task and off each other.

In the middle of the night, alone in Momma R’s kitchen—closer to the coffee than the library—we had nothing to distract us from each other. I couldn’t have focused on the books if I’d wanted to. I found myself staring at Sam, noting his darker complexion and the deeper lines on his face. It gave him a handsome, weathered look, not the typical pretty-boy features of a normal gel.

He raised his head and caught me staring, our gazes locked for a long moment. The ticking hall clock timed our connection.
One. Two. Three.
I couldn’t look anywhere but at him. It’d been so long since we’d simply been
together
.

The yearning I buried, that I’d shoved deep into my heart, threatened to overpower me and I pushed it back once more.

“It’s good to see you again,” his deep murmur reached out for me.

“You too.” I tore my eyes away. Any longer and I’d beg for his touch—break every promise to myself and send him spiraling back down the path of the fallen.

I got up to pour myself another cup of coffee, needing something to do other than stare. But he wouldn’t let me run from him. He rose and followed me, stopping at my back and nearly pinning me against the counter. The wolf whimpered and whined, liking this show of dominance. Fuck, it
loved
the show. I laid my hands on the counter, fingers clinging to the flat surface and trembling while I fought the strength of my desire. I fought my wolf, I fought myself, I fought every cell in my body that craved him.

He touched my shoulders, large, warm hands a familiar weight on my flesh. But he couldn’t stop there. He couldn’t grant me mercy. He rubbed my back, fingers playing over my cloth-covered skin. I closed my eyes and let out a soft whimper. I hadn’t realized how tense I was until he began his massage. I don’t know if it had something to do with his divine grace, or if he was just naturally gifted with his hands, but his touch both eased and aroused me. Tingles passed through my body, muscles releasing their tension. But then a new tightness filled me, centering between my legs.