Hell’s Key: Siblings of the Underworld, Book 1

by Baxter, Linzi

  “The homeless guy in the back alley.” Ryker’s eyes flashed yellow. “He needs to find a different alley to hang out in. I see the way he looks at you.”

  I shoved Ryker’s shoulder.

  “Ouch,” he said and laughed.

  “Out of all of that—setting her shop on fire, my magic going through wards Marilyn thought were unbreakable, damaging a cat’s tail, and finding out my sisters are the seven deadly sins—you picked out some homeless guy in the back alley. I almost killed him, Ryker. If Marilyn didn’t have healing abilities, he would be dead.”

  “I’m not so sure about that,” Ryker grumbled. “As for your sisters, they are more bite than anything. Wrath can be protective when it comes to family. Lucifer probably mentioned you, and she’s worried. Tomorrow, we will look into the three women Marilyn mentioned, but if we can’t find anything, we will have to go to your old pack and research. I know you mentioned no one spoke up for you. How about the family that raised you?”

  “Joseph found me next to his second’s dead body and took me to the pack house. He placed me in a room while the members voted on my sentence. He came back and said they banished me, then he took me away that moment, and when we reached the edge of town, he marked my face.”

  I closed my eyes, and Ryker ran a hand down the side of my face. When he reached where my scar had been, he traced the line that was no longer there.

  “Go to sleep, Paldon. We will figure out everything tomorrow. Remember I’m here for you. No more ruling the world on your own.” Ryker pulled away from me and climbed out of bed.

  “Don’t leave.” I didn’t care if I sounded weak. The day had been crazy, and Ryker’s presence calmed my wolf and made the world seem less dark.

  He leaned back down and kissed my forehead. “I need to check on a few things. Sean went out to recheck the forest to see if he could find any trail of Mary’s daughter.”

  Guilt overwhelmed me. Ryker had a pack to look out for. Hell, I was part of the pack and should be doing my share. They had a missing pack mate, and there I lay in bed and taking time to play with my magic. I should have spent my time looking for the girl, not off with someone new and playing with my magic.

  As if he’d read my mind, Ryker said, “Paldon, you have a lot going on. When we figure out what is going on with the demons, you can help with the pack. But right now we have enough people looking for Sasha. You need to sleep so tomorrow we can start again and find out where Sasha is and who is after you. Wrath might be as annoying as fuck, but she will help us find your mom faster.” He squeezed my hand before he left the room.

  Why can’t my father help more with narrowing down the choices? When I find one of the three women, what will I do? Walk up and say, “Hey, you might be my mother. Do you remember abandoning a young girl with a pack and never looking back until you worked with some demon to open the underworld?”

  Though so many scenarios were running through my head, I finally couldn’t keep my eyes open, and sleep took over. I dreamed of a pale woman in a garden, her long black hair making her look even paler. But it was the red eyes and how she looked straight at me as if the dream were real life that stood out to me.

  “You will be the end of the world. You must die before you destroy everyone.” The woman raised her hands and chanted in a language I’d never heard before. I felt pain, like my body was on fire, and I kept trying to open my eyes. How is this woman killing me in my dream? No matter how hard I worked to wake up, I couldn’t. I opened my mouth to scream, and nothing came out. The evil smile on her face was the last thing I saw before everything went dark.

  Chapter 8

  When I opened my eyes to the morning light shining through the French doors in Ryker’s room, the dream from the previous night came crashing back. I could picture the woman from the garden as clear as day. Something about the garden seemed familiar, but I couldn’t put my finger on it. Taking a deep breath, I took a moment to look around. Ryker’s room was bare. No pictures hung on the white walls. Someone had pulled the dark-blue curtains back, letting in more light. The rocking chair in the corner seemed out of place. I hadn’t noticed it the night before when Archer sat in it with Michelle. Not that it was strange to have a chair, but it reminded me of something handed down from generation to generation.

  I could faintly hear murmurs downstairs, so I pulled the dark-blue covers off and padded toward the bathroom. The massive walk-in shower with a rainfall showerhead was calling my name. I stripped down and climbed in. The water felt good on my sore muscles. Though my wolf healed all of my cuts and bruises from the night before, I felt stiff and achy.

  Reluctantly, I reached up and turned the water off. A blue towel hung on the rack, and I grabbed it and dried off. Not wanting to put what I’d worn to bed back on, I pulled open the top dresser drawer in Ryker’s bedroom and grabbed a new shirt and sweats. I had to roll the sweats over so they would stay up.

  My next mission was to find coffee. Hopefully, it would help with the pounding headache. When I walked down the wood staircase, the living room was empty. Hearing voices in the kitchen, I followed the sounds. When I entered the room, Ryker handed me a cup of coffee and placed a kiss on my cheek.

  “Good morning,” I mumbled before taking a sip. When I looked around the kitchen, I saw that we were the only ones there. “I thought I heard voices.” Well, that came out wrong.

  Ryker didn’t even try to hide his laugh. “Paldon, we have a lot on our plates. I don’t know if we can deal with adding your hearing voices.”

  “That’s not what I meant, and you know it. Who were you talking to, and where did they go?” I asked as I climbed onto the bar stool and placed my cup down on the marble countertop. Ryker’s kitchen was any chef’s dream. He’d had it remodeled less than a year ago with white cabinets, but it was the high-end appliances I wanted to cook on. When my eyes roamed to the microwave, I had to take a double-check at the clock. “Is it really afternoon?”

  “Yes.”

  “Why did you let me sleep so late?”

  Ryker turned his cup in his hands. “You didn’t sleep well. I had to wake you up numerous times because you were yelling and thrashing in the bed.”

  A chill went down my spine as the dream I’d had over and over came to the forefront of my mind. “Yeah, bad dream.”

  He leveled his eyes at me. “What was the dream about?”

  “Nothing.” I wasn’t ready to talk about dying over and over again. “I see my sister went home.”

  Ryker’s lips twisted into a smirk. “Nope. Follow me.”

  I jumped off the stool and followed Ryker to the back patio. The scene before me was crazy—every supernatural in the neighborhood was sitting in a lawn chair, watching the fight taking place in the middle of their circle. Yep, my sister was battling six wolves at the same time. She didn’t even look like she was breaking a sweat. Over to the side lay six more wolves, who were bleeding and watching the fight.

  “You need to stop her.”

  Ryker pulled me to his side as Wrath swung her sword at two more wolves. Her laughter rang through the backyard, and a few of the elves clapped with joy.

  “Do you know how excited the pack is to train with Wrath? She is one of Lucifer’s top warriors.”

  At a closer look, Wrath was telling each of the wolves what to do, and they wouldn’t listen. Each time she would take them down, she told them what they did wrong. I sat down on one of the lawn chairs and watched another wolf go after Wrath.

  Thirty minutes later, over half of the pack lay on the grass, healing their wounds. Wrath frowned when it looked like nobody else was going to fight her.

  Ryker placed a kiss on my hand. “Be back in a few.”

  He grabbed a long sword lying on the deck and walked toward Wrath. Her face lit up. Even from the deck, I could see the gleam in her eyes. Ryker swirled the sword before he charged at her. The blades clanged, the sound reverberating. Wrath pulled back and swung at Ryker’s side, but he quickly rolled to the si
de and swiped at her legs. She promptly jumped and missed Ryker’s swipe. I cringed every time Wrath brought her sword toward Ryker. In all the years I’d known him, I had never seen him fight.

  The shifters on the lawn were on their feet, cheering on their alpha, who moved with grace and speed. I screamed when Wrath pulled on her magic, and a red glitter ball formed in her hand. Ryker was concentrating on the sword and didn’t see the red ball leave Wrath’s hand. It was quick, and I didn’t have time to get close before the ball hit him with so much force he flew back and hit the tree. The old oak tree split from the impact.

  I started to run to his side, but someone wrapped their arms around me. My magic swarmed through my body. Mary’s voice stopped me from blasting her with my magic. “Paldon, Ryker is alpha. You can’t go out there. He entered the fight with Wrath.”

  Mary was right, but my magic burned to break free. Wrath wasn’t fighting fairly. Ryker had jumped up from the ground and swung his sword in a circle then walked back toward her. I couldn’t hear what he said, but Wrath let her head fall back and laughed. The Mystic Ash pack was still standing in a circle around the fight. Wrath jumped forward with so much speed that she was a blur. Ryker sidestepped a second late, and I could smell his blood. I was about to forget not helping when he flipped and swung and hit Wrath in the back, and she fell to the ground. The crowd cheered, and Wrath lay on the ground, cursing Ryker’s name. It was the first time all night I had seen anyone touch Wrath.

  When Ryker walked over and pulled me into a hug, my hand came back wet with blood. “You’re hurt. Let me see.” I ignored the crowd of pack members wanting to congratulate their alpha on the fight and pulled him into the kitchen.

  “Sit.” I pointed to the stool. “Where is the first aid kit?”

  Being shifters and always getting hurt, they usually kept a first aid kit in each room. He pointed to the cabinet near the sink. When I pulled out the kit, Wrath walked in and grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge. I wanted to send her across the room or make her disappear into the night, but my wolf whined to fix Ryker. He had removed his shirt, and the wound had already healed. His wolf treated him fast. Still needing to do something, I grabbed a rag and whipped the blood away.

  “You’re getting slow, Ryker,” Wrath said.

  He didn’t move as I ran my hand over the wounded area. “It’s been a while since I had a worthy opponent, but I’m not the only one who has gotten slow. Thank you for working with my pack. They will talk about it for weeks.”

  Wrath grabbed another bottle out of the fridge and tossed it to Ryker. “Nobody wants to fight me anymore. If you want, I can train your pack. We could take up your training again. It’s been years since I could hit you with my magic.”

  “I will take you up on that after we make sure Paldon doesn’t end the world. Can you come by monthly and train?”

  Wrath glanced out the backyard, where the pack was training on the techniques she’d shown them. “I kind of like this neighborhood full of supernaturals—not only dogs.” She smirked. “I might look at moving here.”

  Ryker groaned. “That might be a little too much, but we have other things to figure out first. Paldon mentioned last night about the three options for her mother. What do you think?”

  She tapped a red nail on the counter. “Well, I would look for the crazy bitch last,” she said, looking over her shoulder.

  “Oh em gee, it’s like if we say the word Kali, she’ll appear. She can’t be that bad.”

  Ryker looked around the room next. “You really don’t understand. She can hear her name and appear when she wants. The last time I saw her, she caused thirty feet of snow in New York because the chef overcooked her steak. That woman is crazy.”

  I sat down in the seat next to Ryker. “Okay, I will stop saying her name, but Marilyn said the gods moved her to another realm.”

  “Yes, ten years ago, but she could’ve escaped. Now, Aphrodite, I have Lust looking into her. She’s still mad at me for standing up her brother. I don’t want a man.” Wrath’s eyes dimmed at the mention of not needing a man. “So that leaves us with the human. I don’t see Dad ever sleeping with a human, and how could she be smart enough to hide her kid from Lucifer?”

  “Jarod is looking into the human. Once he gets her location, we can go find out. If that doesn’t work, we can pay the North American alpha a visit.”

  Smiling, Wrath said, “I think we should pay him a visit either way.”

  It felt good to have people in my corner, but I didn’t want either of them getting in trouble with the council. “Maybe I should call Atieno. He might have an idea who my mom is.”

  Wrath shook her head. “Let’s not get the council involved. They have to follow the rules. Also, the last person we should ever listen to is Atieno.”

  Ryker’s stomach growled. That was my chance to use the state-of-the-art stove, so I opened the fridge and pulled out food. Time to make carbonara. Wrath and Ryker started talking about their days of training together.

  “Do all alphas train with you, Wrath?”

  “No, only the future N—”

  “Some do.” Ryker cut Wrath’s words off and shook his head.

  I had too much to worry about to add their secret to the list at the moment. The water came to a boil, so I put the pasta in and started on the sauce. Cooking was peaceful to me. It took away my stress. While I worked on dinner, Wrath and Ryker formulated a plan. We needed to find Donna first, and Ryker was sure his pack would find her. If they didn’t, all I had to do was fire up my laptop, and I could probably find her.

  The carbonara was a hit with the pack. I forgot what it was like to be part of a pack, and after one night around the Mystic Ash pack, I didn’t want to go back to being a rogue. The chatter around the table was still about how they’d gotten to fight Wrath, and she gave the pack members tips. My phone vibrated in my pocket, and when I looked down, I saw it was Michelle. I mouthed to Ryker that I would take the call in the other room.

  “Hey, girl,” I said as I walked out of the kitchen, heading toward Ryker’s office on the other side of the living room. When I got there, I sat down in Ryker’s desk chair. I took in a deep breath, and I was surrounded by the scent of him.

  “Why didn’t you tell me about your life before?”

  Sadness came over me. Michelle’s voice held hurt. “There are rules, and if I’d told you, it would have been your burden to keep a secret.”

  Michelle didn’t answer right away. Eventually, she said, “I understand, but I really like Archer.”

  I wanted my friend to find happiness, but Archer was wild, and I worried he might hurt her. Before I had time to say anything, the door to the den flew open, and Tyler, Sasha’s boyfriend, walked in. But his eyes weren’t brown like the previous night—they were red.

  “Key, key, key,” he chanted.

  “Michelle, I want you to be happy, but I need to let you go.” I didn’t wait for an answer before I hung up the phone.

  Tyler had moved from the door to the side of the desk. I needed to get out. Though I didn’t want to kill the young man, whoever had done that to him would pay. I jumped over the desk and sidestepped his reach, then I made it through the door and closed it behind me just as he reached for it. His hand burst through and wrapped around my neck.

  I squeaked out, “Ryker,” as the edges of my vision went black.

  Chapter 9

  Tyler’s hand had started to change, and his claws dug into my neck. I tried to pry his fingers off. He was too young to die, and I didn’t want to kill any more innocent people. Ryker came running through the kitchen door with Wrath on his heels. Wrath raised her hands, and a red magic ball circled them.

  “No!” I screamed, but it came out more like a whisper.

  Ryker was by my side in seconds and helped remove Tyler’s fingers. When I was free, I took a huge gasp of air.

  “He’s possessed,” I choked out.

  “Open the door,” Wrath commanded.

  Ry
ker looked at me, and I could tell he was worried about me.

  “Do it,” I said.

  When he opened the door, the young man charged out. Wrath waved her hands, and he froze in place, continuing to chant, “Key, key, key.” As Wrath started to speak a language I didn’t understand, Tyler struggled, and he let out a bloodcurdling scream right before red smoke came out of his mouth. He fell to the ground, and a red translucent demon appeared.

  Wrath had it floating frozen in the air above us. She walked up to the demon and asked, “Who sent you?”

  But the demon didn’t answer. He let out a screech so loud my ears rang when he finished, but by then he wasn’t in the air anymore. He’d disappeared.

  “Well, that’s new,” Wrath said as she looked at where the demon used to be.

  The scene had drawn a crowd, and Mary rushed to Tyler’s side. Ryker was running his hands along the wound on my neck, his wolf growling and causing the air in the room to become thick, making it hard to breathe.

  “Ryker, settle down. I’m okay. And what do you mean, ‘that’s new’? You seemed to know how to do an exorcism.”

  Wrath’s gaze never left where the demon had disappeared. “Exorcisms happen a lot. That is nothing new. But he shouldn’t have been able to leave. I had a magical hold on him. Whoever the demons are working with is strong.”

  “Kali strong?”

  Ryker and Wrath both searched the room before glaring at me.

  “Sorry.” I still thought it was bullshit that she would appear.

  “This doesn’t seem flashy enough for her taste. Burning or flooding a city, now, that I would think was her. Having control over a demon isn’t easy, and the person would need to have a connection to the underworld.”

  Mary had moved Tyler to the couch, and she asked if he remembered anything. The last thing he remembered was leaving the pack house.

  “Since we keep getting inundated with demons, maybe it’s someone we haven’t thought about,” I said.