The Devil You Need (6 page)

The air beside my father flickered and Emo shifted into the
room. My father turned an angry look toward my friend and partner but Emo just
returned it with a stoic expression. I knew that look. He was dug in. Nobody
would be altering his decision. Whatever that was. I smiled when he turned my
way.

Myra touched my father’s hand as if to say
let it be
then answered my question. “If Dialle is in Hades that would be very bad. We
need to get him out of there. As quickly as possible. He’ll not only lose his
soul if he stays, he’ll most likely die. He’s not built for that kind of
darkness anymore. Not after walking in the light for three years.” Her clear
blue gaze held mine, carefully devoid of accusation. But she didn’t need to say
or even think the words. They were in my mind anyway.

What she meant was, after two years of being tied to me. And
now he was set adrift, an empty vessel with a hole in him the same size as the
one I harbored inside me. By taking himself to Hades he’d made sure only one
thing could fill that void.

Black, oily evil.

I shuddered. Every minute he spent there would take him
further away from the man I knew and loved. Further from the hope of a future
together. “We’ll leave as soon as I’ve recharged my power.”

Darma stepped forward, touching my arm. “Astra, you don’t
have any powers. And we don’t even know if he’s there.”

I glanced at my aunt. No one had told Darma about my
temporary fix. “
You’ll
be my power, Darma.” My sister looked at me as if
I was mad. “Think of me as a battery you need to keep charged. I’ll explain
while Myra gives me what I need to get started. And as for Dialle’s location, I
know he’s there—in my heart—but even if he’s not, we have to check that off the
list of possibilities first because it’s the most dire one. He’s in the
greatest danger in Hades. So that’s where we’ll start our search.”

Gerch nodded. “I’ll return to the court and retrieve as many
of my men as I can gather.”

“Thanks, Gerch.” I touched his arm. “It means a lot to
me…and Dialle…that you stood by him despite everything.”

Gerch stared at me for a long moment, his craggy mouth
thinning slightly. He looked as if he wanted to say something but he didn’t. He
finally just nodded and stepped back.

Slayer’s voice pulled my thoughts away from Gerch. “Do you
want me to go to Olympus and get dragons?”

I thought about this for a minute. It might come in handy to
have them, but it would also make passage into the Hell dimensions more
time-consuming. “I don’t think—”

A horrendous crash sounded in the main part of the office
and, in the blink of an eye, everyone in my office was in battle mode.

Brina and Slayer clutched their swords at the ready, Darma
had a ball of energy fizzing in each pale palm, and my father and Myra were
exponentially larger, their combined glow of power pulsing against my skin.

Gerch was already running for the door, his own sword
clutched in his fist. I grabbed my knives and took off after him.

I stopped in the doorway and gave the place a quick scan. I
didn’t see anybody in the main part of the office, but it appeared to be
raining in the center. Below where the skylight used to be.

The window was currently lying in a shattered pile on the
floor.

Sorry, mother Tweener. My bad.

I rolled my eyes and turned to the assembly still behind me
in my office. “Stand down, everybody. It’s just Glynus.” Walking toward the
watery mess in the center of the office greeting area, I craned my head to look
up. A huge, elegant snout filled the space. Glynus’ head was tilted so she
could fix a bright-turquoise eye on me.

Why is part of the ceiling lying on the floor, Tadpole?

I was just trying to see inside but I might have
accidently stepped on it.

She didn’t mean to do it, dragon fighter.

I smiled. Glynus’ new mate was with her.
Hello, Spence.

Greetings, dragon fighter.

I shook my head. I’d told the young dragon to call me Astra
repeatedly but he insisted on the formal title.
Why are you two here?

I came to help you. You are upset and worried.

But I didn’t—

You didn’t guard your emotions, mother Tweener. I sensed
your turmoil and came right away.

Sighing, I realized she was right. I had assumed our
connection would be broken with the loss of my power. But apparently my
borrowed energy was enough to fuel it.
I’m fine, Tadpole. You and Spence can
go on home.

You’re not fine and I’m not going home.
I clearly
heard the new note of haughtiness in her tone. My Tadpole was quickly assuming
the mantle of royalty she was destined for.

I glanced at Slayer. He’d spent a lot time around the
dragons and knew their ways much better than I did. I knew he would have heard
our telepathic conversation.

He shrugged. “They might as well come with us, Astra. They
could be a big help.”

When I still hesitated, he added, “She’s not going to take
no for an answer anyway. That dragon is more queen than her mother is.”

I knew he was right. “Shit.”

Mother Tweener, do you still have the swear jar?

Glynus’ voice warbled with good humor and I smiled. No
matter how regal my dragon got, some things would never change.
I got rid of
the frunkin’ thing, it was sending me to the poorhouse.

Glynus giggled in my mind.

“All right, you can come with us,” I shouted up to the hole
in the ceiling.

Snoopy’s coming too.

I expelled a frustrated breath.
You really shouldn’t call
him that, Tadpole.

Spence’s elegant white head showed behind Glynus’ in the
opening.
I don’t mind, dragon fighter. It’s a term of endearment.

Let’s see if you still feel that way when your enemies
start calling you Snoopy.

I felt Glynus bristle in my mind.
They wouldn’t dare,
mother Tweener. If they did Snoopy and I would have to kick some major ass.

I laughed, shaking my head.
I’m sure you would. In the
meantime, feel like returning to Dialle’s castle in Hell?

Glynus and I had spent some time there one Christmas, trying
to find out how the green dragons were escaping Hell. She’d made some good
friends among the greens while she was there.

I felt her frown in my mind.
Of course. What will we be
doing there?

We need to find Dialle and bring him home.

It would be an honor to serve you, dragon fighter,
Spence
told me in his usual stoic, careful tone.

Stop sucking up, Snoopy. She already loves you because of
me. You don’t have to kiss her ass.

I grinned.
Now who needs the swear jar, Glynus?

It’s not my fault, the prophet told you not to swear in
front of me when I was a baby.

Yeah, but she didn’t tell me why.

Well, now you know.

Hell no!

Into Hell young miss must go, to save the man she
loves,

But stranger things than she could know, may
bitch-slap her from above.

We entered the Hell dimension through a rift we’d discovered
in the mountains that had once spilled green dragons into Olympus in huge
numbers. The dragons had been trying to escape a steady buildup of sulfur in
the air of Hell that was killing their young.

The result was that Olympus now had several new colonies of
green dragons and Hell had lost most of its transport animals.

Sucketh to be them.

Slayer flew behind Glynus and me on a huge red dragon,
compliments of Queen Persuis, the red queen. He’d been her dragon slayer for a
couple of years and, as Glynus had informed me at the time, he had the queen
wrapped. Apparently she’d still do anything for him because we currently had
ten of her finest warriors flying with us.

Darma rode beside me on Spence and Emo rode an enormous red
on Glynus’ other side.

Myra and my father would meet us inside the castle. They
needed to speak to Hades Corporate before they could enter the Big Red Guy’s
toasty environs, even on a rescue mission. The new regs had something to do
with recent infighting between Heaven and Hell about porous borders.

Politics sucked.

I firmly shoved the niggle of guilt about the porous borders
thing to the back of my mind. I might have had something to do with that.

Glynus headed toward the massive castle Dialle’s father had
built on top of a craggy black mountain in the center of Hell. The castle
seemed much the way it had when I’d been there before. I looked down and
immediately regretted it. The ground beneath us boiled and smoked, like the
inside of a volcano. The fiery liquid that served as the center of Hell’s
foundation flowed around the wide, black mountains dotting its surface. That
was where only the wealthiest and most powerful inhabitants of Hell built their
charred, soaring castles.

Those who had come to Hell without power lived in caves,
which were more like pockmarks on the sides of the mountains than actual
caverns, and did their best not to go mad from the heat and the smell.

Glynus’ wide, black body swayed and dipped as she flew
steadily forward. I felt the tingle of her protective magics as a constant
force against my skin. Without it, I’d have burned to a pile of ashes within
seconds of entering the fiery place.

Despite Glynus’ protective bubble of magic, the heat
throbbed against me like a living thing, pulling moisture from my body like a
succubus and leaving behind a shaky, husk-like feeling.

We couldn’t get to the castle fast enough for my comfort.

A distant shout brought my head snapping around and I felt
Glynus’ big body tighten with tension.
We have company,
mother
Tweener.

I sighed. Arrayed in an arrow formation, a small army of
enormous, winged creatures flew toward us in the distance. They looked like
some kind of dragon-gargoyle hybrid, with massive, brown bodies, wings that
looked too small to be effective, and huge heads sporting oversized, tusk-like
teeth. Each monster had a warrior devil riding its back. The red-and-orange
flash of the fire below glinted off the long, deadly looking blades they held.
Let’s
head them off. We aren’t going to be able to outrun them.

I glanced back at Slayer and he nodded, pulling his dragon
up and turning it as Glynus veered off. Emo shouted back to Gerch, Brina
slipped into place beside Spence, and our small rescue party turned in
lumbering formation to meet what to all appearances was a hostile force.

I fought back concern for Dialle. Every minute in that place
was another moment closer to madness. I only briefly considered ducking out the
back and letting the others fight the approaching army so I could go to him.
But I couldn’t do that to my friends. Even for Dialle.

Badly outnumbered and prepped for speed rather than battle,
our chances of winning against the ugly horde winging its way toward us were
small. I couldn’t make it worse by leaving.

Spence turned his head toward Glynus and the two
love-dragons shared a glance. I added a new worry to my long list of concerns.
If either young dragon was killed—

Stop it, mother Tweener. Spence and I aren’t worried.

I frowned. How the frunk did she always do that?
I don’t
want you to get hurt.

We fight battles like this every day on Olympus. We know
how to fight. Concentrate on making sure you kill riders, Spence and I will
take care of their beasts.

Knowing she was right, I did the only thing I could. I
relayed the information to Darma.

Darma’s face looked a little pale as she viewed the
approaching mass. “What
are
those things?”

I shrugged. “My guess is the Big Red Guy had to come up with
something to replace the green dragons. ‘Goyles thrive in sulfurous air but
they can’t fly for crap. Dragons can fly just fine. It looks like he just
meshed the two.”

She wrinkled her pert nose. “Bleurgh.”

I couldn’t have said it better myself.

“Astra!” At Slayer’s shouted warning I yanked power into my
hands. The air sizzled as an enormous ball of fire dived out of the sky toward
my head. It hit Glynus’ protective bubble and exploded, spraying fire in all
directions. In her surprise, Glynus wobbled sideways a few feet and, just for a
second, her protective magics thinned enough for me to get a furnace-like blast
of unfiltered heat.

I gasped under that heat, and pulled the fiery air into my
lungs. It seared through me, the sulfur making me cough.

Another shout went up and more fireballs dropped from the
sky. I looked up and saw the dark shapes high above our heads, hiding in the
cloaking sulfur smog. “There are more of them.”

Slayer urged his dragon forward with a shout. “Half of you
with me!” They shot skyward, followed by several of Gerch’s men.

Brina glanced at me. “Go with him,” I told her. She nodded,
urging her dragon forward to catch up with Slayer.

Dialle’s Captain of the Guard turned to his remaining men.
“Forward and fan out, protect the queen at all costs.”

I opened my mouth to argue as Emo moved in on the other side
of me, where Slayer had been. “Don’t bother, Astra. Their duty is with you and
Dialle. Right now you’re in the most immediate danger.”

I sighed, knowing he was right. “I guess we’ll need to shake
them then, partner.” I grinned at him and he returned the smile, making my
heart flutter with happiness. For that moment—that tiny slice in time—
my
Emo was back with me.

Emo jerked his head toward a mountaintop coming up fast on
our right. I knew what he was thinking and nodded in agreement.
Tadpole,
we’re splitting off from the rest.

Yes, mother Tweener. Are we going with the surprise flank
attack?

We are.

That’s what I would do.
Glynus and Spence shared a
look and I figured they were communicating on their own wavelength. Glynus
hadn’t just been trying to comfort me. The dragons spent a large part of their
time in battle, enforcing boundaries and fighting off potential usurpers. They
understood battle plans like few did.

As Gerch and his guards flew forward, swords drawn and a
variety of other deadly looking bludgeon-type weapons clutched in their fists,
I gave Emo a nod and we slipped quietly off to the right. We used our forward
guard as a buffer as we flew hard and fast toward the nearby charred peak. We
glided into its shadow just as the sounds of battle ensued in front of us.

I glanced at Emo. “We need to move fast. Gerch and his men
are badly outnumbered.”

“Agreed.” We sliced through the thick, heated air, circling
the black rock peaks with a plan to slide in behind the attacking forces. The
thunderous sound of roaring had me jerking my gaze skyward as Slayer’s forces
met up with the creatures bearing Satan’s guards. I said a silent prayer for
Slayer. He was a damn fine warrior but they were probably as outnumbered as we
were and he didn’t have a flank plan.

I fumbled for the cross around my neck and held it to my
head, thinking Myra’s name.

After a moment, my mental drawers stirred and I heard her
strident, ever-cranky voice in my head.
What is it, Astra?

Where are you? We’re being attacked.

Damn. We’re still in negotiations. Can you hold on for a
while?

If by a while you mean three minutes, then maybe. We’re
pretty much hangin’ by a string here, angel.

Silence throbbed across our mental pathway and then finally
she said,
I’ll get there as soon as I can,
and broke contact.

Darma had apparently seen me use my cross. “Are they
coming?”

I shook my head.

“There,” Emo shouted over the battle sounds. A huge green
dragon, looking exhausted and miserable, flew by a half mile away, pulling some
kind of container behind it. If we were careful, we could all fly behind the
container and dive out to attack once we’d passed Satan’s guards.

“Go!” I squeezed my thighs and expected Glynus to go
shooting forward. She didn’t. I frowned. “Glynus?”

It’s not necessary, mother Tweener. Spence and I have
been working on a special cloaking magic. I can make us invisible.

Are you sure?

We’ve used it several times at home. We’re very good at
it.

I looked at Emo and realized he wouldn’t be able to cloak.

“What’s going on, Astra?” Darma, who’d been suspiciously
quiet since we’d entered Hell, was visibly antsy. I ignored her, knowing I was
quickly running out of time.
If Emo gets behind us will he be hidden?
I
asked Glynus.

Glynus frowned in my mind, seeming to confer with Spence.
I’m
not sure, but we can try it.

Emo was staring at the quickly growing distance between us
and the green, frowning. “Astra? We need to move or we’re gonna lose our
opportunity here.”

I chewed my lip, undecided. It would certainly allow us to
get into the battle more quickly if we could head directly toward it. Seeing
one of Gerch’s soldiers go down, his red dragon screeching in pain as its wing
was nearly severed, I made my decision. “We’re going with Plan B. Glynus and
Spence are going to cloak us. You need to stay between and behind us.”

With years of working together under our belts, Emo didn’t
even argue. He just held his dragon until we’d passed and then fell in behind
us.

Okay, Tadpole. It’s up to you and Snoopy now.

A silver sheen coated the air around us. It seemed to pulse
and quiver, reflecting the smoky sky above and the fiery chasm below. I looked
around, enjoying the way the light diffused into billions of tiny, silvery
squares through the magic.

It’s very pretty, Glynus.

Thank you, mother Tweener. Snoopy and I came up with it
ourselves.

The extra layer of magic also gave me some respite from the
intense heat for a couple of minutes, allowing me to breathe deeply for the
first time since we’d maneuvered through the rift to enter the furnace-like
dimension.

I glanced toward Emo and was relieved to see the
love-dragons had managed to encompass him within their enchantment.

He grinned at me, his dark eyes sparking with good humor.
“Frunkin’ cool.”

Laughing with him, I turned around and blinked. A smallish
flying creature was heading directly toward our bubble. The thing looked to be
about ten feet across, from wing tip to wing tip, and had very few feathers on
its scrawny body. If I didn’t recognize the charcoal-colored scales coating its
body I would have thought its feathers had been burned off. The few it
retained, mostly on the crown of its pointed head and the end of its pointed
butt, were ragged and slightly bent.

The Snape, one of only a very few birds that inhabited the
skies of Hell, was a goofy-looking creature, but I’d heard they had razor-sharp
claws and beak and could be especially aggressive when hungry or scared. The
one heading toward us at that moment had fixed an angry, dark-red gaze on me
and was flexing its claws.

Glynus?

She turned her elegant black head toward the much-smaller
creature and shuddered slightly.
Some creatures are able to see through the
magic, mother Tweener.

Can it pierce the shield?

Doubtful,
Spence offered.
But just in case…
The
big dragon whipped his tail around and smacked it into the Snape, sending the
nasty creature flying through the air in the opposite direction with a husky
squawk.

“Home run,” Emo said with a laugh.

Unfortunately the Snape’s strange flight pattern drew the
attention of one of Satan’s warriors. He turned away from the rest and started
heading our way to investigate.

Watching him come, I started to pull my stored magic
forward. “Remember, aim for the warriors, the dragons will take care of the
things they’re riding.”

Darma leaned down and spoke quietly to Spence then glanced
toward me. “Let me get this one, Astra. You save your magic for when you need
it.”

I bit back an angry retort, unused to letting my sister
fight my battles for me. But I knew she was right. Unfortunately, my magic was
currently finite. While hers was not.

We continued steadily forward, my gaze torn between the
approaching warrior and Gerch, who was standing on the back of his red dragon,
slashing at the devil’s soldiers on either side. He showed an incredible amount
of balance and skill as he continually adjusted his footing to stay upright
while the red twisted and lunged at the nasty creatures surrounding it.

While both of them were covered in blood and showed obvious
battle wear, they seemed to be holding their own. Scanning the boiling mass of
fighters, I was able to spot several more of Gerch’s men still hanging in. That
was good.