by Terry Spear
“I can’t do it,” she whispered to Hunter.
The interrogation, he thought she meant. She couldn’t face any more of it. What if she astral traveled when she was being questioned this time? He didn’t think she could deal with it any further.
But he didn’t want to have to do what he planned, either. He would have done anything else if he could have come up with another idea on the spur of the moment. “We have to go to the demon world,” he said low for her hearing only.
“Stay right there,” one of the police officers said, his hand held up as if he was directing traffic, or telling her not to disappear like she had done before.
“They’ll see the portal,” she whispered back. “They’ll see us vanish into it.”
“I can’t think of any other way.” He glanced back at Celeste and Jared. They’d pulled into a parking lot and were waiting to see what would happen next. “Tell them,” Hunter said to Alana. “Tell Celeste and Jared we’re going to Seplichus for a short jaunt and will return as soon as we can.”
Alana turned to face Celeste and Jared, who were both watching them through the windshield. “We’re going to Seplichus. We’ll be back as soon as we’re able.”
Celeste’s eyes grew huge. No one had probably ever spoken into her mind before. Jared looked just as horrified, but not for the same reason. He started shaking his head and got out of the car.
“No, stay,” she telepathically told him.
As soon as he got out, Celeste hurried to join him.
The police officers probably suspected they were all together in this then and didn’t move, waiting for backup.
The squad cars pulled up on either side of the police officers as a united force. Hunter frowned at Jared and Celeste as they walked toward them.
“Stay. We’ll be back,” he said to Jared. Then Hunter raised his hands as if to show the police he was unarmed, spoke the words to summon the portal, and once the blue-green lights shimmered under the gray skies, he seized Alana’s hand and pulled her through.
***
Torrential cold rain and winds pelted Hunter and Alana as they stood near a bulkhead that was trying to keep a stormy sea at bay. Alana moved closer to him as rain pelted them from the gray sky above. They were again in the demon world. Only this one was a lot wetter than the others he’d visited.
He hesitated to close the portal as local demons hurrying through the stormy weather headed for shelter. A few glanced in their direction, noticing the portal, and a couple of males instantly gave Alana a second look. They considered Hunter again, a Matusa demon, and hurried on their way.
“Close the portal,” Alana said.
He couldn’t. Not when they’d left Jared and Celeste behind, and he was certain the police would arrest them. Then what would they say? They’d have no explanation as to what had happened to Hunter and Alana.
Suddenly Jared and Celeste rushed out of the portal, Jared cursing under his breath as they got slammed by the wind and rain.
Frowning at them, Hunter closed the portal, shutting them off from Earth world.
“Ohmigod,” Celeste said, her hand clinging to Jared’s as she drew even closer to him. “This is it. This is really it.”
“Come on,” Hunter said, heading away from the bulkhead that was trying to hold back a raging wall of ocean water, the gray from above blending with the dark gray waters, the only other color, a frothing white foam stirred up by the relentless wind. “Let’s find a building to wait out the storm.”
The temperature was so cold, he felt Alana shivering in his protective embrace. She looked uncomfortable, and he was certain it was because of the experience she’d had when she’d been here before in a Matusa’s clutches, while he and Jared had been unable to locate her.
“We are in so much trouble,” Celeste said, casting them a half smile.
Seemed as though the Camaran demon was enjoying this adventure. That brought back to mind Jared’s description of their demon type—they loved danger.
“You shouldn’t have left the car,” Alana scolded. “They would never have suspected we were together.” Her teeth chattered as she shivered, their clothes soaking straight through.
“Not true,” Jared said.
Hunter cast a glance at him. Jared was a real asset. In one regard, Hunter had wanted to leave them safely behind, until Jared and Celeste got out of the car, making it obvious they were with Alana and Hunter. He hadn’t wanted them to get involved with the police, although he couldn’t deny he hadn’t really wanted to leave Jared behind, either. In the time they’d been together, watching each other’s backs, protecting each other, they’d been a real team. As for Celeste, he hadn’t wanted to pull her into this world. Best if she had stayed out of it all together.
“Why would they have suspected we were together?” Hunter asked gruffly, annoyed. He was supposed to be in charge. He made the rules.
“Hospital surveillance cameras. I hadn’t thought of that, but once the police saw the two of you, they probably would have discovered the car that you had arrived in. Celeste’s. She would have been implicated anyway.”
Hunter cursed. “All right.”
“What do you think the police are doing now?” Celeste asked, snuggling even tighter to Jared.
To Hunter’s surprise, Jared actually placed his arm around Celeste and held her tightly against his body as they rushed to reach the first apartment-like building located nearby. Gray brick blended with gray pavement and all the windows were dark as if the electricity had been knocked out.
Before anyone could answer her, Celeste said, “I’m certain the police are impounding my car, informing my parents, foster parents, and getting my profile. Trying to learn just how bad I am.”
“How bad are you?” Jared asked, sounding surprised.
She smiled up at him. “I see future visions, remember? That makes me pretty bad.”
Alana groaned as Hunter directed them straight to the closest building. “This is Tarn’s building. The Baltimore Matusa’s,” she said in explanation to Celeste who hadn’t known about the demon shapershifter who could change his demon aura.
“He still lives here?” Celeste asked.
“No, vacated. Permanently.”
“Maybe we could stay at his place,” Celeste offered. “Since he’s vacated it.”
“If he hasn’t paid up his rent, he might have been ‘moved’ out,” Alana warned.
Hunter had to agree it was a good idea, although he noted Alana didn’t seem thrilled with the prospect, and he couldn’t blame her.
They finally managed to get inside the building and found a bank of elevators. No lobby, no management, just a whole lot of elevators. And mirrors. Hunter and the others all looked bedraggled. Sopping wet clothing, straggly wet hair. All of them were shivering.
“Can we operate them?” Celeste asked, wrinkling her nose as she stared at her appearance in a mirror.
“I imagine so,” Alana said. “I only saw Tarn do so, but I’m sure that anyone could.”
Jared was already running his hand over a panel, and the doors to the elevator zipped open.
“Hold onto your stomachs,” Alana warned as they entered the large compartment. “It goes really fast.”
“Floor?” Jared asked.
“Fortieth floor,” she said, and a disembodied female voice said back, “Fortieth floor.”
They all looked up as if some unseen creature would be floating above their heads.
The elevator swished to life, shooting to the requested floor. No music, and the walls were mirrored, making it appear as if twice as many demons were riding the elevator. Above, soft lighting muted the harshness.
“Ohmigod,” Celeste said, her mouth gaping, eyes wide, looking as though she was on a roller coaster ride. And she loved it.
Alana looked a little green.
Tension building in every muscle as he prepared himself for battle, Hunter was concerned about what they would find if they tried to enter the Matusa’s
apartment. What if another had moved in? What if the place was now some other demon’s home? A family even? He didn’t want to crash in on anyone. If they were Matusa, that was really bad news for them.
Worse, what if Tarn had a relative who had taken over the place? And he learned Hunter had killed him?
“I have to warn you,” Alana said, as they left the elevator and entered a hallway, the walls covered in silvery fabric. The indoor-outdoor looking dark gray carpet concealed their footfalls. At the end of the hall, a window looked out on the city, the dark clouds hovering overhead, the rain slanting, pelting the glass as if trying to get in. Dark gray sconces held shimmering candle-like lights that made the hall appear shadowed and gloomy. “Tarn had some nasty poltergeist guards in the apartment. I got rid of the ones that had appeared, but it might not be totally ghost free.”
“You can exorcise ghosts?” Celeste asked with genuine awe.
“Yeah,” Jared said. “You would not believe all the scary things she can do.”
Hunter wasn’t sure how to take Jared’s comment. Was he impressed? Or still feeling uneasy about her abilities, since they weren’t on his chart of Kubiteron powers known to them?
“Yeah, just remember that, Elantus,” Alana warned.
He smiled at her.
Hunter frowned. He hoped Jared didn’t think that he had a chance with Alana. He would have to change his opinion if that was the case.
When they reached the pale gray door to the apartment, he paused to see no doorknob.
“Panel,” Jared said, pointing to the lighted panel on the wall next to the door. “Probably geared to analyze a handprint, so none of us would be able to open it.”
Alana pulled out the demon tracker device and switched it on. For a second, the small screen was filled with demon blips, the color surrounding them, indicating their demon type. But there were so many of them, they appeared to be on top of each other. The screen on the device went black.
Hunter stared at the black screen.
“What happened?” Jared asked.
“Your device is broken,” Alana said, annoyed.
“Not broken,” Jared said. “Probably can’t handle so many demon types in one area.”
“Your laptop worked in the demon swamps,” Alana reminded him.
“Right, because there were so few demons there.”
Hunter cleared his throat. “How do we get into the apartment?”
Jared moved forward and pulled a metal tool out of his pocket, then began to take the panel apart. All kinds of red, black, and yellow wires filled the box, and he began fiddling with them.
“Do you know what you’re doing?” Hunter asked.
“No. Maybe one of these will bypass the panel recognition device and will allow us to open the door.”
“Or?”
“I might accidentally break it.”
Hunter rubbed Alana’s wet sleeve, trying to warm her up. All of them were shivering, the hall feeling as though it was air conditioned.
After several minutes of no success, Hunter looked around them. The carpet was a motley gray, the walls a silver shimmery fabric, and the doors all slate gray. None of the doors had numbers on them. If a demon ever got drunk, how would he find the right apartment?
Hunter moved Alana over to the window to look out at the storm-besieged city and decide where to go next.
“What are we going to do if we can’t get into the apartment?” she asked.
“We need to open another portal, but we’ve got to get a lot farther away or we’ll end up just reappearing near the hospital parking lot. Police will probably be in the area for hours, trying to locate us.”
“They’ll tell Mom. Probably question her again as to what kind of devices we have that are causing me, and you and the others now, to vanish in full view.”
“We could eventually make our way back to Dallas and take a portal to the demon city where the hall of records is,” Jared said, still pulling wires apart and reconnecting them.
“We’re a long ways from there,” Hunter countered.
“The police don’t have a clue as to who we are, yet. We could go to my parent’s home. They’re on another cruise—world this time. I’m always welcome to crash there anytime, my friends included.”
“Friends” meant Hunter as Jared didn’t easily make friends. He didn’t fit in with others his age, partly because of his electronic tinkering. Not to mention the problem with being a full demon and not quite into the regular human scene.
“We could do that,” Hunter conceded. “But we’re still a long ways from Dallas here, and trying to move across the demon world safely to get to a location where we could open a portal to Earth world would probably be impossible.”
“How can you open a portal?” Celeste suddenly asked. “Demons can’t or they’d be on Earth world all over the place.”
“Our human half can do it,” Alana said.
“Oh.”
A door swished open on the other side of the hall and everyone turned to look.
A Matusa. Hunter quickly shoved Alana, the Matusa demon magnet, behind him as he took up a fighting stance. He wondered now if this whole complex wasn’t inhabited by Matusa. In fact, that might be so. Would other demons fear living across the hall from a Matusa?
Unless because of his demon shifting power, Tarn had hidden what he was.
Still, what were the odds that another Matusa would live across the hall otherwise?
“Friends of Tarn?” the man said, his black eyes taking in Jared’s attempt to access the door opener panel, Celeste, standing near him, Hunter, the only real threat to another Matusa, and Alana, a spark igniting in his eyes as he got a glimpse of her.
“Yeah, friends of his,” Alana said, and Hunter wished she’d be quiet and keep in the background as much as possible. Although he should have known she wouldn’t.
“Really.” A dark smile curved the Matusa’s lips.
“Yeah, he had a poltergeist problem, and I helped to get rid of them for him.”
At that, the Matusa gave a sharp bark of laughter. Then he studied her more carefully, his expression one of resolution. “You will do, Kubiteron.”
Jared grabbed Celeste’s arm and yanked her away from the Matusa, moving her quickly in the opposite direction of Hunter and Alana.
Hunter knew Jared did so not because he was afraid. But because he knew Hunter and the Matusa were getting ready to fight, and Hunter needed room to maneuver.
“Hand her over,” the Matusa said smoothly to Hunter, “and I won’t alert Tarn’s brother that you’re here, trying to break into Tarn’s place.”
Tarn would have to have a brother. Sometimes they avenged their family’s deaths. Sometimes they didn’t. So Hunter had no idea whether it would matter or not to Tarn’s brother. Well, and then, too, he probably wouldn’t know that Tarn was dead, had died, on Earth world. Because of them.
Hunter also knew that if the brother had known Tarn wanted Alana, he probably would be happy to take his place.
“We don’t want any trouble,” Hunter said, knowing that any fight he engaged in could have disastrous results for any of them.
“You won’t get any, if you move along and leave the Kubiteron here, with me.”
Alana moved around Hunter and cast a spell to open a portal in the hallway before he could stop her.
The demon looked at it, and then back at her. “How did you…” He glanced back at the portal.
Hunter shook his head. “Now I’ve got to kill him.”
The demon cast him an evil smile. “Bring her to me later.” Then he stepped into the portal, and Alana quickly shut it.
Hunter swore. “I’m the Matusa. I’m in charge. When are you going to ever get that straight?” He grabbed her hand and began hauling her toward the open apartment the Matusa had just vacated.
“Oh, I remember. You are the big, bad Matusa.” When she smiled up at him and wrapped her arm around his waist, what could he do?
But sh
ake his head again.
“Wow,” Celeste said, hurrying to join Hunter and Alana as they entered the apartment, Jared following behind. “I figured there’d be this horrendous fight and we’d all be at risk, and then, what a great solution,” she said to Alana.
The door slid closed.
“Not a great solution,” both Hunter and Alana said at one time.
“The Matusa is now in our world,” Alana said. “I couldn’t think of any other way to get rid of him. It was either fight him and risk the rest of us getting injured, or offer him something he might like even more. A way into Earth world.”
“He didn’t look like he was ready to give you up either,” Celeste said.
“He isn’t,” Hunter said. “Which means when we return to Baltimore, we’ll have to either send him back here, or kill him. Now that makes two of them.”
“We still have to find the portal opener,” Jared said. “So even if we want to avoid returning to Baltimore, we really have no choice.”
“I wonder if he’s got a clothes dryer in here,” Celeste said, wringing out the hem of her dress.
A knock at the door made them all turn around to stare at it as if their movements were choreographed.
Hunter stalked over to the door and looked through a panel that he hadn’t seen on the outside of the doors. Some kind of visitor viewing device that wouldn’t permit the viewee to see the viewer?
The demon standing before the door looked a hell of a lot like Tarn. His brother. Had to be. So, the Matusa living here must have called Tarn’s brother already. Liar. Not that Hunter was all that surprised. Except to see the Matusa already standing before the door.
“Pennel!” the Matusa said, then looked back at the mess Jared had made of the door opener panel to his brother’s apartment. He turned his stormy gray attention to Pennel’s door again and said, “Pennel! Open up.”
It appeared that the demon couldn’t access Pennel’s apartment, though when he stalked over to his brother’s door, it looked like he couldn’t make it work either. He faced Pennel’s apartment, pulled out something that looked like a communication device of some sort, and spoke into it, “Pennel? Where the hell are you? I’m here, at your apartment. The Elantus isn’t here. Nor… what was it that you said the other was? A Camaran demon? Why would they try to break into Tarn’s apartment? They know they would have been killed for it. No other demon types in their right mind would have entered a Matusa living complex even.”