To Hell And Back (The Lily Harper #3)

by H. P. Mallory

  Tallis looked completely unconcerned with the girl. Instead, he bent down to his right side and retrieved a quaich, which was a traditional, two-handled drinking cup of Scottish origin. I watched Tallis bring the quaich to his lips, but he didn’t drink from it. Instead, he continued to chant something that didn’t sound like English, so I figured it was Gaelic. He closed his eyes and tipped the quaich up, swallowing the contents. That done, he dropped the cup and suddenly bent over, gripping his stomach as if he were in the throes of intense anguish.

  I was reminded of the time Tallis told me how Donnchadh had assumed residency inside his body. The possession had taken place in Scotland, only it was such a long time ago that Scotland had been comprised of various warring tribes and it had been known as Alba. During the Samhain festival, Tallis had drunk some sort of tea brewed from the spores of the rye fungus. Apparently, after drinking the spores, Tallis could separate his body from his soul, and become one with the spiritual world which is exactly what he’d done. I could only imagine that same moment was now playing itself out behind my eyelids.

  I watched the vision of Tallis wail out a horrible sound, like his insides were melting. He rocked back and forth as he clutched his stomach and shouted words and phrases I didn’t understand. The whimpers of the woman who was tied to the tree became cries of terror. But it wasn’t her cries that grabbed my attention. Instead, I swore I could hear the soft sounds of chanting. But aside from Tallis and the woman, no one else was present. As soon as I doubted whether or not I’d heard the other voices, the chanting began to grow louder. But, still, I couldn’t see anyone besides Tallis and the woman. It was almost as if the voices belonged to the spirits who joined the earthly plane during Samhain.

  The visionary Tallis lifted his head. He was panting and sweat beaded on his forehead but it was his eyes that held me captive. They were entirely black, the surest sign that Donnchadh had entered his body. Tallis started chanting again, his voice coming out rough, and pained. For some reason, I could now understand the words even though they weren’t in English. He welcomed the spirit of the great warrior into his body, and celebrated the idea that this spirit would help him prevail against the Roman threat. I watched Tallis turn to face the woman who was tied to the tree. Understanding immediately dawned on me. She was intended as an offering to Donnchadh, a sexual one. Seeing as how Donnchadh had been trapped in the spiritual plane for thousands of years, I supposed it made sense that the first thing he would want to do upon inhabiting a human body again was have sex.

  Seeing Tallis’s eyes which were now eclipsed black, the woman began shaking her head and screaming. I watched him approach her until he stood directly in front of her. He reached forward, gripped her gown in his large hands and tore it in two, straight down the middle. Her smallish breasts bounced as she struggled against the ropes that bound her to the tree. Even though I knew what was happening—that Tallis, with Donnchadh at the helm, was about to rape the poor girl—I couldn’t reconcile this man as the Tallis Black that I’d come to know so well. Yes, Tallis had admitted he’d been far less than a morally decent person in the past. He’d allied himself with the Romans after they’d bribed him with riches and power. In allying himself with his enemies, he’d ended up backstabbing his own people and in the process, the Romans had massacred them.

  While I was fully aware that Tallis had a terrible past in which he’d committed unspeakable crimes, he’d also spent a long time in penance, atoning for his past sins and wrongdoings. And it was that repentance that allowed me to look beyond his past transgressions and accept him for the person he now was. It was his inordinate sense of responsibility and regret that enabled me to care so deeply for him.

  Luckily I was spared having to watch Donnchadh rape the girl. Instead, the vision faded and I found myself facing Tallis, the real Tallis. It took me a second or two to shake off the vision but when I did, I glanced down at my arms and noticed I was still holding him captive with my sword. He was pinned against the log wall of his home. As soon as I made eye contact with him, the blackness of his eyes yielded to the midnight blue I’d come to know so well.

  “Tallis?” I asked in a breathless, hopeful voice.

  He didn’t respond, but instead, passed out.

  “Loitering is forbidden”

  – Dante’s Inferno

  THREE

  When Tallis lost consciousness, I couldn’t catch him because it would have been like trying to stop a boulder from falling off a mountain. I did, however, manage to push him against the wall, so he wouldn’t do a face-plant on the dirt floor. Once his butt hit the ground and he was in a hunched-over position, leaning against the wall, I could finally take a breath. I inhaled and exhaled deeply, straining to convince my heartbeat to regulate. When it began to slow down, I considered what I needed to do next. I propped my sword against the wall beside Tallis before grabbing Bill’s phone with the flashlight app. Crouching down on my knees, I shined the flashlight on the sleeping giant.

  I wanted to make sure he was still breathing and alive. The gentle rise and fall of his chest assuaged my fears and I sighed long and hard. Now able to catch my breath and consider everything that had just happened, I shook my head as I thought about how close I’d come to having sex with Tallis. While that very topic had played through my mind more than once (okay, on numerous occasions), what I’d just been through wasn’t exactly how I’d imagined it.

  “I hope you’re okay, Tallis,” I said as I ran my index finger down the side of his face and noticed how clammy his skin was. I figured Donnchadh must’ve short-circuited once his spirit encountered my sword. Then, maybe, Tallis’s body just shut down—like a system overload or something. Who knew? Maybe the spirits of Tallis and Donnchadh were still fighting it out behind Tallis’s otherwise calm exterior.

  I glanced down at myself and sighed again, once I saw the state of my yoga pants. Even though I’d tried to yank them back up to my waist, Donnchadh had done a damn good job of slicing them in half, all the way to my crotch. I stood up, trying again to hike them up as high as I could, but my female parts were still fully exposed. But my dilemma would have to wait. For now, my prime concern was to make sure Tallis was really Tallis when he woke up. If he were still Donnchadh, I’d have one hell of another battle on my hands.

  “Tallis, Tallis, Tallis,” I tsked as I shook my head, relief still suffusing me. Holding the top of my hand to his forehead, I tried to determine if he had a fever. His forehead was covered in sweat, but he felt cold, rather than hot, which I figured was a good sign. I brought my fingers down the side of his face again, loving the rough texture of his stubble. He still reeked of alcohol, but I no longer cared. All that concerned me now was making sure that Tallis was in full control of his body; and that this fainting episode wasn’t a sign of something worse going on inside him. As far as ascertaining whether or not he was okay, I wasn’t sure what to do, or how long to wait for him to wake up.

  Don’t worry about that now, Lily, I reprimanded myself. Just restrain him so if he does wake up and he’s still Donnchadh, at least, you won’t have to worry about protecting yourself.

  “I have no idea how, or why, Donnchadh took control of you, but you’ve got to keep him at bay, Tallis,” I continued as thoughts of Donnchadh making a return appearance began to plague me.

  Yes, I definitely needed to restrain Tallis so when he did wake up, he’d be slightly more controllable. I glanced around the small house, but didn’t find anything capable of holding back a Titan. Then I remembered the long lengths of fiber rope that Tallis kept outside the back of his house. He used the rope to tie up his demon pets, the Grevels, when he didn’t want them trailing him through the Dark Wood.

  Thinking the rope was exactly what I needed, I immediately started for the front door. Then I thought better of it after I pictured Tallis waking up with Donnchadh still at the helm of his body while I was outside. Since my sword had done a pretty damn good job of immobilizing him earlier, I figured it couldn�
��t hurt to try it out again. Holding up my shredded pants, I went to retrieve my sword and then leaned it against Tallis’s chest, between both of his legs. Just as I started to pull away, something on his chest grabbed my attention.

  I held the flashlight-phone over him and noticed a reddish, triangular mark in the shape of a blade staining the skin between both of his nipples. It was the outline of my sword from where I’d pushed it up against him earlier, right before he’d passed out. It looked as if the blade had somehow branded him even though it hadn’t been hot. “Interesting,” I said to no one in particular, secretly wondering if, somehow, my sword might have forced Donnchadh back into the deeper recesses of Tallis’s psyche.

  Tallis and I should only have been so lucky …

  “You stay put,” I said to the sleeping man who looked, in repose, about as threatening as a baby. But in this case, looks were absolutely deceiving. Using one hand to grab Bill’s phone in order to light my way, I used my other hand to hold up my pants as I started for the front door. Upon opening it, the darkness that engulfed the entire wood surrounded me. But Tallis lived on the periphery of the Dark Wood, which meant the sun rose every morning and set every night. “Then it must be evening right now,” I said to myself, sighing with frustration. I could hear the sounds of the Grevels as they shuffled through the foliage; but the sounds were lost on me. I suddenly became livid with the darkness. The intense desire to see the sun again, and feel its warmth on my back was so overwhelming, it manifested itself as bitter anger that started in the pit of my stomach and climbed up to my throat.

  Don’t lose yourself, Lily, I warned myself. Just focus on the task at hand. You’ll see the sunlight soon enough.

  With a renewed sense of purpose, I hurried out the front door, being careful to close it behind me. Then I set off for the rear of the house, searching for as much rope as I could find. I could hear the Grevels behind me, but figured they weren’t any threat. They knew who I was by now. Once I made it to the back of Tallis’s home, I ran the flashlight back and forth in front of me until I saw the rope. It was looped around a large nail, sticking out at the top of the wall. Straining on my tiptoes, I reached for the rope with the hand that wasn’t holding Bill’s phone and yanked it off the rusty nail.

  I could hear the Grevels dispersing into the undergrowth, no doubt figuring I was about to tie them up. “You’re safe this time, guys,” I said with a slight laugh as I started for the front door again, needing to yank up my pants when they started to sag.

  I opened the door and went inside, immediately shining the flashlight beam onto the still form of Tallis where he leaned against the wall. I exhaled a relieved breath, seeing as how he was exactly where I’d left him and appeared to still be sleeping. Closing the door behind me, I approached him carefully and checked to be sure he was, in fact, still alive. He was.

  “Looks like I’m going to have to tie you to your bed,” I announced, only after realizing I had no other alternative. He was closest to the bed and there wasn’t really anything else large enough to keep him immobilized once he decided to wake up. He was still a few feet from the bed though, which meant I had to move him, a feat in and of itself.

  I grumbled something unintelligible even to my own ears, and placed Bill’s phone on the edge of the straw mattress so that it lit up the two log posts at the end of the bed. I figured I could tie each of Tallis’s hands to the posts. Yes, it would have been lots better, not to mention much more comfortable for Tallis, if I could manage to get him on top of the bed, but there was no way in hell I could lift him.

  I inhaled and exhaled quickly as I shook my head and approached the enormous man. I reached down and gripped him beneath his armpits, shifting him so that his back was facing the bed. Then I pulled him toward the bed, but didn’t get very far. He was so awkward and heavy, it felt like I was trying to move a three-hundred-pound bag of sand. Trying to get a better grip underneath his arms, I pulled him again, but only managed to move him maybe another two inches. I stood up and looked behind myself, measuring another two feet or so before he’d be close enough to tie him to the bedposts. Facing Tallis again, I suddenly wanted to cry. It also didn’t help that the waistline of my pants had migrated down to the top of my butt.

  Come on, Lily, you can do this! I cheered myself on.

  He’s impossible to move! There’s no way …

  You have to do this! I interrupted myself. Because if you don’t and Donnchadh is still in charge of Tallis’s body, he’s going to attempt to rape you again as soon as he wakes up!

  Apparently, that thought was enough to motivate me, because before I knew what I was doing, my hands were back beneath Tallis’s armpits. I began hefting and heaving with all my might. Releasing him again, we managed to move another six inches or so. I breathed out a pent-up breath of frustration and anxiety. Meanwhile, I tried to ignore my pants which were now hanging around the center of my butt, which meant I had plumber’s crack, and then some. I gripped Tallis’s arms and yanked him backwards with every ounce of strength I still possessed. Feeling the burn in my arms, I released him, and looking back at the bed, realized I had maybe a foot or so left to go.

  “You can do this, Lily Harper,” I said out loud as I gripped my pants and yanked them back up to my waist. “Come on, you’re almost there!”

  I grabbed his arms again and pulled him backwards as hard as I could. In response, his body skidded along with me, his head bumping into the crossbeam that held his bed together. I immediately glanced down at him, afraid that ramming his head into the bed might have woken him up, but was relieved to find it hadn’t. “Sorry,” I said with a slight laugh, even though I figured he couldn’t hear me.

  I didn’t give myself long to rest because I was too concerned that the head-ramming incident and all the jostling while moving him might have woken him up. Instead, I immediately went for the rope. I decided to use the two-column tie in order to bind each of his arms to the bedposts. Going for his left wrist, I brought the rope over his head and allowed his arm to lean against the log post of the bed which was closest to the wall. Lifting my sword from his chest, I measured about eight feet of the rope before severing it with the blade.

  Thank God for my peasant training, I thought, referring to my previous life, when I’d belonged to a medieval reenactment club. As a newbie, I’d been elected into the peasant class where I’d had to learn lots of things, including how to make a fire from nothing but pieces of wood, as well as the basics in knot-tying. How ironic that back then I’d never thought any of this information would have come in handy.

  How wrong I’d been …

  Folding the rope in half evenly, I wrapped it over and under Tallis’s left wrist, and around the bedpost. I did the same thing another two times, making sure there was enough rope to hold him in place. Then I crossed both ropes and wrapped them around the middle of his wrist and the bedpost, cinching them tightly.

  “Hmm, not bad,” I said to myself once I finished tying the knot. I glanced at Tallis’s unbelievably muscular arms and thought I should tie another knot or two on top of the two-column tie. I wanted to make sure the knot was as secure as possible. The last thing I needed was an irate Donnchadh breaking free and taking out his revenge on me. After binding Tallis’s left arm to the bedpost, I followed suit with his right wrist and the other post of the bed.

  As far as his legs were concerned, I couldn’t find anything to tie them to, so I just settled on another two-column tie to fasten them together. I figured he wouldn’t be able to get very far if he couldn’t move his feet. When I finished binding Tallis’s legs, preventing him from doing much of anything, I turned to the problem of my pants. They were now hanging halfway down my butt again. Seeing as how Tallis was very much at home with making his own clothing and shoes, I was convinced he had to have a needle and something close to thread somewhere.

  I replaced my sword against his chest, figuring it was the safest place, before going to the opposite side of the room. Tallis di
dn’t have a lot of possessions, which made searching through them relatively easy and painless. After a few minutes, I found a large needle and some narrow pieces of leather in a wooden box beneath his table. I threaded the large hole of the needle with the leather ribbons before setting to work on fixing the damage inflicted by Donnchadh on my pants.

  It took me about ten minutes to sew up the rip, and once I finished that chore, I turned to my fanny pack, which Donnchadh had also severed. A few minutes later, I’d sewed the belt of the fanny pack back together as best I could.

  My tasks completed, I faced Tallis and reached down, wiping the cold sweat from his brow. “Come on, Tallis, be okay,” I whispered to him. “I need for you to be okay.”

  Of course, there was no response, but his even breathing continued to hint to the fact that from a medical standpoint, he was probably all right. As far as his mental health was concerned, however, I couldn’t be sure.

  With nothing more to do for Tallis, I faced the problem of how cold and dark it was in his house. I decided to light a fire in the hearth. Collecting all the broken wood from his couch and chair, I piled them into the fireplace and found the pack of matches Tallis kept in a small iron bowl beside the fireplace. He also kept a wooden box full of aged moss, which he used for kindling. I reached inside and grabbed a few fistfuls of the stuff, tucking it between the pieces of wood I’d already piled in the fireplace. Then I lit the match and watched the moss catch fire until the entire heap of wood burned brightly.