Gates of Demons: A New Adult Paranormal Romance (Keepers of the Grail Book 1)

by Tamar Sloan

  Arielle glances around the hallway they’re in. “At David’s house?”

  “Yes, I remembered how close he and Sierra were when we were young. She used to tell him everything.” She twists her hands as she looks at the three teens. “I think I know why Sierra was abducted.”

  “So do we. Angels and demons are looking for the Grail.”

  Aunt Shell’s hands flutter restlessly as she hears exactly how much Arielle knows. She frowns, shaking her head. “No. I’ve discovered these abductions have happened before.”

  “This has nothing to do with the Grail?” Reign asks quietly.

  “I’m not sure. All I know is that forty-five years ago seven women were abducted.” Her eyes fill with tears. “It was a ritualistic sacrifice so a dark witch could resurrect her mother.”

  “That’s just wrong,” mutters Mac.

  Aunt Shell nods. “The sacrifice required the murder of seven women with similar features and same age.”

  Reign shifts a little closer to Arielle. “And Sierra?”

  “She and the other women who were abducted are blonde and the same age. I did some digging and it turns out they’re all distantly related.”

  Arielle’s head is reeling. “They’re relatives?”

  “Yes, descending from the same bloodline,” Aunt Shell says, her voice trembling. “And according to the text I read, they will all bear a mark on their shoulder in the shape of a star. Apparently it cannot be seen by men.”

  Arielle’s knees go weak. “Like the one Mom has.”

  Aunt Shell nods. “Yes.” Her face scrunches up. “It always looked familiar, but I could never place it.”

  Suddenly, anger shoots through Arielle, strengthening her. “Were you going to tell me any of this?”

  Aunt Shell’s face turns fierce. “This is why Sierra never wanted you involved in this. She was protecting you.” Her anger dissolves as quickly as it flared. “Please Ari, let this go.”

  “I can’t do that,” Arielle says quietly. Firmly.

  And those four words feel good. They feel like the truth.

  Aunt Shell’s shoulders sag. “Well, I’ve told you all I know.” She glances over her shoulder. “You should get going.”

  “We came here to talk to David,” Arielle says stubbornly.

  “Please,” Reign adds with a smile.

  Aunt Shell’s face crumples. “Oh Ari, David’s—”

  There’s a knock on the door behind them. Aunt Shell glances at the three of them. “Is Gabby joining us?”

  Arielle frowns, glancing at Reign and Mac. “Maybe they couldn’t find him?”

  Aunt Shell gasps. “Who? Who were they looking for?” She marches to the door and yanks it open. “Gabrielle Hartley, I’d like to have a word with you—”

  The hooded man standing on the porch snaps an arm out and grabs Aunt Shell, yanking her toward him.

  “No!” screams Arielle.

  She launches forward, but Reign is faster. Just as he leaps, the hooded man raises his other hand, pointing it at them, palm out.

  Reign is propelled backward by a blast of crimson energy a split second before the explosion hits Arielle then Mac. Arielle slams into the wall, watching in horror as Reign crashes into the hallway cabinet, timber splintering everywhere.

  Arielle slides to the floor, gasping for breath as pain ricochets through her. Blackness overwhelms her, stealing the consciousness she’s desperately trying to hold onto.

  Aunt Shell.

  Mac.

  Reig—

  35

  Reign

  Reign feels like a freight train has tap danced on his head. For a split second he figures he must be hungover.

  And then he remembers.

  He shoots into a sitting position, and his surroundings tilt at crazy angles. Clasping his head, he wills it to stop. There was a man. He took Aunt Shell.

  And Mac and Arielle were blasted with the same explosion of energy that had Reign doing a Superman into the cabinet.

  Reign stumbles to his feet, holding his head with one hand. He needs to make sure they’re okay. He’s taken two staggering steps when he realizes there’s another woman here. She’s kneeling over Ari and Mac as they start to stir.

  “Get away from them!” Reign hurls through numb lips, the words not coming out nearly loud enough.

  The woman looks up. “It’s okay, I’m David’s wife. My name’s Mikki.”

  Reign falls to his knees, still trying to get his bearing before he decides whether he can trust this woman.

  Arielle sits up, holding her head. “What happened?”

  Mac props herself up on her elbows. “We got smashed by a power ball,” she mutters. “A freaking big one.”

  Arielle shoots to her feet. “Aunt Shell!” she cries, panicked. “We need to find Aunt Shell!”

  She stumbles and Reign quickly catches her. She grips his shirt, looking up at him. “They took her, Reign.”

  Reign’s heart constricts and his arms instinctively tighten. “I know. We’ll do everything we can to find her.”

  Arielle tugs on him. “We need to go. Now.”

  “We will, but I think you should call Gabby and Colt first.”

  Mac stands up, too. “He’s right. That was some pretty powerful magic.”

  Arielle chews on her lip then nods. She pulls out her cell phone and calls Gabby. “You need to come to the address Nim gave us. I’ll explain when you get here.”

  She hangs up, her flame blue eyes flickering with pain. “Now her mother’s been taken, too.”

  As the shock of the energy ball or whatever it was wears off, anger starts to simmer in Reign’s veins. Not only has Arielle’s mother been taken, but now her aunt, right as they stood here. Gabby is going to be devastated. That’s two good souls who have been hurt by whatever it is that’s going on.

  Mikki steps forward, and Reign notices she’s shaking. A small woman with her brunette hair in a stylish bob, he wonders if she’s some kind of supernatural, too. “Did Shell have the mark, too?”

  Arielle’s eyes widen as the question hits her. Her brow quickly furrows as she sifts through her memories. “No, I don’t think so. Well, I never saw one.”

  Mikki nods, looking relieved. “You’re Sierra’s daughter?”

  “Yes. I’m trying to find her.”

  “We all are,” Reign adds.

  Mikki turns to him. “And you are?”

  “Reign. I’m, ah, sorry about your hallway thingy.”

  Mikki shakes her head. “David hated it, anyway.”

  “Is he here?” Arielle asks. “Could we talk to him?”

  Mikki’s arms wrap around herself. “David died seventeen years ago.”

  “Oh,” says Arielle. “I’m so sorry for your loss.”

  Waving away the apology, Mikki smiles. “I used to be so jealous of David and your mother. They were very close.” She shakes her head. “I thought they were crazy, chasing after the Holy Grail.”

  Reign’s stomach contracts as if he was just punched. This wasn’t supposed to be about the Grail anymore.

  “David said they got close,” Mikki continues. According to some book called Infernal Damasicus they learned that the Grail was buried somewhere. Somewhere deep. They tried a location spell to find it.”

  Her arms tighten around her midriff.

  “Something happened, he never told me what. They parted ways.” She shrugs and her soft features turn wistful. “And in the end, he chose family.”

  Reign suspects Mikki didn’t ask too many questions after that. She had the guy she loved and that would’ve been enough.

  Arielle mirrors Mikki, her arms wrapping around herself. “I think my mom did, too.”

  There’s a knock on the door and Reign instinctively leaps in front of the others. His trust in that innocuous sound is forever fractured.

  “Ari? It’s me, Gabby.”

  Arielle steps around Reign and opens the door. Gabby frowns the moment she sees her cousin. She opens her
arms and engulfs her in a hug. “What’s happened?”

  Arielle pulls back and lets Gabby and Colt in, shutting the door behind them. Their gazes dart around the four still-stunned faces and the smashed furniture.

  “What happened?” Colt asks grimly.

  “Gabby,” Arielle says, her voice strained. “Your mom was here. She was telling us what she discovered when a man appeared.” She grips her cousin’s hands. “He took her and then knocked us out with some sort of magic.”

  Gabby blinks, then blinks again. “Mom’s been taken?”

  Colt steps closer, wrapping an arm around her shoulder. “What color was the energy?”

  “Red.”

  “Demon magic,” he growls. “Kane must’ve taken her.”

  Reign rubs his head, trying to untangle everything that’s happened. Is this about the mythical Grail? Or something else?

  “That’s not all,” Arielle says. “Whoever’s doing this is planning a ritualistic sacrifice.”

  Gabby goes stiller and progressively paler as Arielle outlines what they’ve learned. The hand gripping Colt tightens more and more.

  There’s a flicker out of the corner of his eye and Reign stiffens. Joseph materializes at the end of the hallway, extending his hand as if he’s reaching out to him.

  Reign’s breath is pushed out of his too-tight chest. He was hoping he’d gone. He was hoping that keeping busy would keep Joseph away. So far, that had been working.

  “She’s an Innocent,” Joseph says gravely.

  Reign turns away. He’s not going to ask who Joseph is talking about in front of all these people. Sierra? Shell? Heck, is he talking about Mac or Gabby or Arielle?

  “You cannot save her without the Grail.”

  Reign focuses on Gabby. She’s the picture of a composed daughter. If she can hold her shit together after learning her mother was just abducted by a demon with plans of ritualistic sacrifice, then he can ignore an annoying hallucination.

  Gabby clears her throat. “We need to find Kane.”

  “Did you find any clues?” asks Mac.

  Colt shakes his head. “He’s disappeared. Without a trace. Even the precinct hasn’t seen him.”

  Mac’s frown is ferocious. “We don’t have time to chase all over Mercy City, looking for him.”

  “We could try a location spell,” says Colt, although he doesn’t sound like that’s much of a solution.

  “Of course we could,” Reign mutters. “Let me guess, it’s filed under L at Veritas?”

  “As much as I’d love to build my forever home among those shelves,” says Mac. “We don’t have time to do that. It could take days.”

  Mikki raises her hand as if she’s in a classroom. “I can help you with that.”

  “You’re a witch?” Colt asks, hope unmistakable in his voice.

  But she shakes her head. “No, but I know someone who is. She’s the one who helped Sierra and David all those years ago.”

  Mikki disappears and returns a moment later with a slip of paper. “Her name is Blaise. She doesn’t live too far away from here.”

  Arielle takes it. “Thank you, Mikki. This is very helpful.”

  They all glance at each other, the sense that things are getting real hanging heavily in the air.

  Seven women are fated to be sacrificed. Sierra and Shell are probably two of them.

  And somehow, they have to find them before it’s too late.

  36

  Arielle

  Arielle knocks on the faded door of the dilapidated brick house they’re standing in front of, conscious there’s no time for hesitation or worries or doubts. Two words have been a drumbeat pounding through her from the moment they left Mikki’s house.

  Ritualistic.

  Sacrifice.

  Out of all the words Arielle has heard—abduction, angel, demon, Grail, Hell, magic, supernatural—those two are the most terrifying. Especially when in the context of her mother and aunt.

  There’s no answer, so Arielle knocks louder. Unlike David’s house, it hasn’t occurred to her that no one would be home.

  “We don’t have time for this,” she mutters.

  Mac strides past her and thumps on the door. The pounding almost makes the aging porch rattle.

  “Great,” Reign sighs. “Now the witch is going to think the feds are after her.”

  Except there’s no answer. No one opens the door.

  “What do we do now?” Arielle asks quietly.

  Colt crosses his arms. “We wait.”

  Except they don’t have time… Her mother is slated to be sacrificed, Aunt Shell, too!

  Reign steps back, craning his neck as he surveys the second floor. “There’s a window up there. And it’s open.”

  Arielle looks up, realizing he’s right, but the flare of hope is short-lived. “It’s the second floor.” She glances at Gabby and Colt. “And no, those two are not flying up there.”

  Colt looks over his shoulder as a car drives past. “Too risky. We can’t afford to be seen.”

  Reign rolls his eyes. “I wasn’t talking about those two getting those oversized wings of theirs out.”

  He jogs back several steps, assessing the front of the house. Arielle frowns. The sagging porch has a gabled roof, but the posts holding it up look like they might be built out of cardboard. The house itself is brick, a second floor with two windows, one of which is open.

  “You can’t climb this porch, Reign,” she says sternly.

  “Wasn’t planning to,” he responds cheerily. “That porch is about as stable as my sanity.”

  A few more steps backwards and Reign breaks into a sprint, running straight for the brick wall.

  “He’s not…” Arielle breathes.

  “He most certainly is,” says Mac, her voice alive with anticipation.

  Reign leaps and hits the wall with one foot, instantly using it to launch upwards. He lands a few feet up and does it again, his arms reaching high. His fingertips hook into a barely noticeable ledge on the first floor and he draws himself higher.

  Arielle holds her breath as she watches, worried he’s going to fall…impressed with the play of muscles across his shoulders.

  “Reign has been running all his life,” says Mac. “He’s been determined nothing will get in his way.”

  Not even a two-story house.

  Dragging his bodyweight up with nothing but his hands and arms, Reign swings his leg up and hooks it on the porch. Arielle takes an involuntary step forward, conscious of how flimsy the structure is. Reign keeps close to the wall as he slowly pushes to his feet. He reaches right and jimmies the window open the rest of the way.

  With a grin and a wave, he slips inside.

  Mac turns to the others. “You should see him climb apartment blocks.”

  The images that come to mind terrify and exhilarate Arielle.

  Suddenly, a high-pitched scream echoes from within the house.

  Arielle’s heart jolts with alarm. “Someone’s home.”

  “He’ll be fine,” Mac says complacently. “That scream was female, for one.”

  There’s a crash as something heavy falls. Arielle shoots forward and knocks on the door. “He could be in trouble.”

  Mac crosses her arms with a sigh. “I’m telling you, he’s fine.”

  Colt frowns. “This is a witch, Mac. I suspect a powerful one.”

  She rolls her eyes. “Even as a toad, Reign will be hot.”

  Arielle knocks again, desperation climbing through her chest. Mac is being far too relaxed about this, even if she’s right and Reign could pull off handsome amphibian.

  The door opens just as she’s about to rap again, a tall woman on the other side. Her sleek violet hair cascades down her shoulders and torso, flowing over her purple boho dress. “Can I help you?”

  “Where’s Reign?” Arielle demands. “What have you done to him?”

  The willowy witch steps back to show Reign right behind her. He grins. “I hope purple is your favorite color,
too,” he says cheerily.

  “Which is the color of what?” the witch says.

  Reign lifts up his hand, ticking off each finger. “Psychic powers. Opening of the third eye. Wisdom. And spiritual knowledge. All qualities I recognized in you the moment we met, Blaise.”

  The witch snorts. “As you climbed into my bedroom.”

  “Sorry, Blaise.” Reign rubs the back of his head. “I explained why.”

  Arielle watches as Blaise’s lips twitch with humor. First Aunt Shell, and now the witch—Reign has managed to charm them both. He broke into Blaise’s house, for poppycock’s sake! And yet, he’s been a human Oscar the Grouch with Arielle. What does that even mean?

  Blaise turns back to Arielle and the others. “You require a location spell. To find your mothers.”

  Arielle nods, her stomach tangling in knots. “And five other women. If we don’t, they’ll die.”

  Blaise opens the door wider. “Come in.”

  The inside of the house is dark and old and smells like incense. It opens straight into a living room unlike any Arielle has seen before. The floor is covered in Oriental rugs, while cushions are scattered in lieu of chairs or a couch. A large altar is at the opposite side of the room and covered in purple velvet, adorned with a multitude of candles flickering among jars and herbs and crystals.

  “Cool,” says Mac.

  Blaise stands in the center of the room. “Reign tells me Sierra is missing.”

  Arielle’s heart jolts. “You knew my mother.”

  “Your mother and I are good friends. We have been for a long time.”

  Arielle knows she shouldn’t be surprised by this new information. She knows she shouldn’t feel betrayed. But both emotions slice through her whether she likes it or not. Her mother led a whole other life she never told her about.

  Shoving away the thoughts, Arielle focuses on Blaise. Everything hinges on the next question. “Can you find her?”

  “Location spells can be…obstreperous. But it will be made easier by the fact I am close to Sierra.” She narrows her eyes. “I will need a drop of your blood. It will make the spell stronger.”