Rhyn's Redemption (16 page)

Deidre hesitated. “I don’t remember my parents.  Sometimes I don’t think I ever had any.  No siblings, no friends.  I was … different.  Always different.  Scared most people away.  Probably a good thing, because I’ve always had a rather ornery streak.”

“You sound like Rhyn.”

“Your mate?”

“Yeah.”

“Hmmm.  Anyway, I took over the this huge corporation at a young age.  I kept too busy to get out much.  Not that I had much of a role.  I just did the crappy job while watching everyone else make mistakes.  When you inherit a job like that, you don’t have as much say in the way things go as you’d like,” Deidre said with some distaste.  “You see, I’m a dull person.”

“You don’t sound dull,” Katie replied, suspecting Deidre was the daughter of some billionaire with a corporation spanning the world. “You sound … wanting.  You never wondered what other people did, since you were always working?”

“Sometimes.”

“Never wanted to try to make friends or anything?”

“Never cared for people too much.  I was happy alone,” Deidre said.

“Assume this is the last day of your life, since it might really be for both of us.  What one thing would you have done if you knew it was your last day?” Katie asked.  She settled next to the trapped woman, trying hard to keep her mind off how cold she was.  She was grateful for company, even if Deidre seemed as lost as she was.

“I would’ve told him I loved him.”

“So there was someone!”

“Long ago, yes.  I drove him away.  We were from … different sides of the tracks.  I had everything, he had nothing,” Deidre said. “I wouldn’t give it all up, and he wanted no part of the soulless corporation I manage.  I made him leave me.”

“Sounds rough,” Katie said.  Deidre sounded accepting of her decision, but Katie couldn’t help wondering how long it had taken her to come to peace with sacrificing love for the demands of her job.

“What about you?  What would you have done if you knew it was the last day?”

“Exactly what I did,” Katie said. “Though in hindsight, it doesn’t seem like anything is really ever enough.  I could’ve said so much more than I did or maybe, just did something in addition.”

“At least you have the peace of knowing you did something.”

“Yeah, I do. And no regrets about what I did, though the few days I’ve spent here make me wonder if there was an easier way.”

“If we knew all of life’s secrets, we might be bored,” Deidre said. “Since I’m here, I guess it’s a good thing I didn’t take a chance on him.”

“Everyone should find that person that makes them feel alive and have a chance with him,” Katie said and rested her head against a wet branch.  “I wish I’d been more willing to take that chance, too.  Might’ve had more time with him before ending up here.”

“He deserved better than me.”

“Everyone deserves a chance at happiness, Deidre.  Even rich girls running empires.”

Deidre said nothing.  Rain fell steadily, until Katie’s skin was too numbed to feel it.  She heard Deidre’s breathing grow deeper as the woman fell asleep.  Aware there could be demons or other creatures in the dark, Katie roused herself to keep watch, as Gabriel had kept watch over her.

Her thoughts returned to Rhyn, and she recalled how he’d fought the last day they’d been on the Sanctuary.  She’d never seen anything like it, a combination of power, agility and fire.  He’d been willing to kill his only friend on her behalf, and the memory was both gratifying and sorrowful.  He’d done it for her. He’d do it for others. It was who he was, if he gave himself the chance to realize it. The man who spent lifetimes in Hell out of a sense of family loyalty would be just as loyal to any he was charged to protect.

The night was long and cold.  Deidre slept, and Katie drifted between a fitful doze and her thoughts.  Dawn crept across the jungle, peering first from the tangled branches overhead then inching through the trees.  As soon as she could see well enough, Katie crawled to Deidre’s feet.  The woman continued to sleep, and Katie looked her over.  She looked like any other college student in cargo pants and a light sweater.  Deidre’s long, flaxen hair was in a messy braid, and her skin was pale.

Katie’s gaze dropped to Deidre’s hands.  They looked normal, but so had Gabriel’s.  Andre had warned her about the Gabriel-demon.  She looked around, wanting to believe the phantom would reappear if it sensed she was in danger.  The Gabriel-demon had appeared distant, as if uncomfortable acting out its role.  Deidre had been open and warm towards her, like a real human.

Katie touched the roots ensnaring the sleeping woman’s ankle.  The mess baffled her, as if the roots themselves had reached out to grab Deidre’s ankles instead of her slipping and stumbling into them.  The gnarly roots were twisted and thick, wrapped too tightly for her to pry them apart.

She started to saw at them with the knife.  The wood was thick and wet.  She shifted closer, gasping when the root healed the cuts she’d just made.  Furious at the latest trick from the Immortal underworld, Katie sawed furiously at the root, until her arm ached.  She’d barely made a dent when she switched arms.

The cut healed itself in seconds.

“Shit!” she shouted and flung the knife into the nearby brush.  “This placed is cursed!”

Deidre awoke and looked at her then at her ankles.  Katie was caught by the other woman’s eyes.  They were large and turquoise, like the shallows surrounding the Caribbean Sanctuary.

“It’s not working.  The trees keep repairing the damage I’m doing,” Katie said. “I’m not sure what to do.”

Deidre grunted and visibly tugged at her feet.

“Damned magic …” Katie drifted off, looking at the roots anew.  “Magic.”

“Ugh.”

“Here, eat these.  I’ve got an idea,” Katie said. She handed the pale woman a food and water cube and popped two of her own.  Standing, she waded into the brush where she’d thrown the knife.  It glinted in the morning light.  Katie swiped it, glad the trees didn’t have a taste for metal as well as Immortal sustenance.

“What’s your idea?” Deidre called after her.

“It probably won’t work.  If you’re with me long, you’ll find I have the worst luck ever.  But it’s worth a try,” Katie answered then muttered, “Not like I got anything else to lose.” She made her way back to Deidre with the knife and knelt.

Katie pulled up the sleeve of her soaked sweater and nicked her arm.  She set down the knife and squeezed out a few drops of blood, watching as they landed on the roots. Then she sat back and held her breath.

“What are you doing?” Deidre asked.

Katie was quiet, willing the tree roots to be vulnerable to her immunity blood.  She hacked at the root again and paused.  The area where she’d dripped blood stayed cut while the area around it healed.

“I’m getting you out of here,” she said, thrilled.  With a grimace, she sliced the palm of her hand and smeared the blood on the root. 

“You’re insane,” Deidre breathed. “How are you doing that?”

“I don’t know.  It’s my curse and sometimes, my blessing.  I’m immune to young magic,” Katie explained.  “I assume this tree isn’t that old.”

“Doesn’t it hurt?”

Katie nodded and sawed at the root, dripped more blood, then sawed again.  She forced herself to continue even as she grew tired.  Sticky blood covered the hilt of the dagger, her pants, the root, Deidre’s shoe and pants leg.  Katie kept on, uncertain what might happen if she stopped for a break.

“You don’t even know me,” Deidre said, her surprise clear.

“I’m going to be like Rhyn.  I’m going to take care of you, because it’s the honorable thing to do,” Katie said.

“Maybe you should become the protector of humanity.”

“Not a job I want.  I’d be happy living with Rhyn in some cave like hermits.  We could raise our …” Katie’s hands faltered with her voice.  She cleared her throat and focused hard on cutting her newfound ally free.

“I hope we’re not dead,” Deidre said. “You deserve better.”

“Rhyn deserves better.  I think I got what was coming to me for being as selfish as my bitchy sister.”

The roots around Deidre’s left foot snapped free.  Katie shoved it aside before it could change its mind and started on the roots around her right foot.  Deidre moved her foot with a look of pain.  She rubbed her ankle, and Katie cut her arm again.

By midmorning, Deidre was free.  Katie grimaced as she wrapped the dismembered sleeves of her sweater around her wounds.  Blood soaked the sweater quickly, and she held it over her head.  Even before she stood, she felt woozy.  Deidre tested herself and limped a few feet.  Katie steadied her breathing to keep from dropping to her knees.

“Where were you headed when you found me?” Deidre asked.

“I’m not sure.  I had a guide, but he … they left me,” Katie said. “I was told to walk in an eastern direction.”

“I came from the east.  There’s a fortress that way.”

“Then that’s where we’re going.”

“Seriously?”

“Yes.  I think that’s where Death is.  I think that’s my way out,” Katie said, not fully convinced but unwilling to admit it. She had no other option. “You in?”

Deidre smiled faintly and nodded.

“Is it far?”

“Maybe a day away.”

Katie’s mind went to Gabe’s words about needing to leave before the seventh day.  It was day six.  She wasn’t sure they’d make his timeline – or even why it still mattered that she reached wherever he was taking her.  There had to be something to what he told her, and she wished once more he’d told her why.

She was done being at the mercy of Immortals.  The first Immortal, Death, she’d tell that would probably be the last, but she was done with this game.

Chapter Eleven

The entire fortress was empty.  Rhyn ducked his head into a salon the size of half Kris’s castle.  He and Gabe had reached the gleaming marble palace at the center of the underworld just after dawn only to find it unguarded and missing its key occupant.

“This is just weird,” Gabe said again from down the hall. “She’s planning something.”

“A trap for her least favorite demon and assassin?”

“Trust me, if she wasn’t curious about you, you’d be dead-dead. She probably finds all this entertaining.”

Rhyn heard the note of pain in the death-dealer’s voice.  In a week’s time, Gabe had gone from quietly confident to troubled to lost.  The death-dealer was struggling with himself, a feeling Rhyn knew well.

“If she’s not here, where is she?” he asked.

“Out tormenting others.”

“In the underworld?”

“Yeah.” Gabriel fell quiet for a moment, looking around with a frown.  Death’s palace felt much like Hell had to Rhyn.  Something about it tugged at his power.

“At the stream … “ Rhyn started, watching Gabe carefully.

The death-dealer grimaced. “That was her.  Toying with you.  Testing you.”

“Could she be fighting demons?”

“Her guards are gone, which means they’re off tracking demons.  Death is unpredictable, but if I were to guess, she’s somewhere in the underworld.”

“Hiding?”

“No.  Toying with someone else.”

“Not Katie.  She’d have to kill her,” Rhyn said.

“Not us, not Katie, not the demons.  That leaves other Immortals.  Looks like we’re not the only ones here.”

Rhyn thought of Kiki, suspecting his brother went to Kris.  He wondered who Kris sent after him to make sure he didn’t follow through on his threat to confront Death. 

“We only have today,” he said. “Let’s find them.”

“You go.  I’ll wait here for her.  She always comes home,” Gabe said.

“Gabe, it’s not safe for you here.”

“My fate is sealed, Rhyn.  I’ve got nothing to lose now.  If she comes back, I can distract her, give you until midnight.”

Rhyn looked hard at his friend, sensing what the death-dealer didn’t say. He’d known Gabe was likely going to suffer worse than any of them, once he faced Death’s wrath.  There was regret mixed in with Gabriel’s resignation.  They’d known each other long enough for Rhyn to suspect Death would finally succeed in what she’d been doing to Gabe all these years: She was about to win the battle to crush his soul.

“There’s always hope, Gabe,” Rhyn said. “I’ll find a way to help you.  I swear it.”

“I’m beyond help, Rhyn.  I’ve always believed you could be all that Kris and Andre and your father were not.  Your half-demon nature makes you better prepared than all of them combined. I think that’s your fate, to follow in your father’s footsteps.”

“Kris might disagree.  Oh, and probably every other Immortal out there.”

“Katie knows it.  I know it.  I’m ready for my fate.  Do what you were born to do, Rhyn, and don’t think twice about me.”

“I spent years in Hell for a brother who hates me.  I’ll do whatever it takes to free my only friend from Death, Gabe,” Rhyn said firmly. He slapped Gabe on the arm. “You need to shave.  You look like shit.”

The death-dealer smiled faintly.  Rhyn trotted away from him, out of the palace and into the jungle.  He suspected freeing Katie from Death would be easier than freeing Gabe from Death.  There was more at stake for her if she lost Gabe.

Thunder cracked overhead.  Rhyn had ignored the rain, accustomed to being miserable.  Hell was either broiling or freezing, and the Alps were just as cold.  The underworld’s chilled rain didn’t compare.