by Lynn Hagen
He pulled his phone out of his back pocket and looked at it then decided he could do this on his own. For all he knew, his dad could have simple indigestion.
It wasn’t as if his father was the healthiest eater. He lived off fried foods and sugar-loaded soft drinks.
And alcohol.
Getty went into the hallway and looked around. There were sets of steps leading up and down. It wouldn’t hurt to see what was at the bottom of the stairs.
He was in the demon realm. For all Getty knew there could be a troll down there. But so far Serenity City seemed peaceful and nice, a contradiction to what he’d thought it would be.
As he passed apartment doors, he heard noises on the other side. Music played or a television. He heard someone talking behind one of them, but Getty didn’t tune into the conversation. It wasn’t any of his business.
Shock vibrated in him when he got to the bottom and saw a doorway. But…there hadn’t been one on the outside. Getty waited a few beats and then pushed the door open, stepping onto the sidewalk.
He spun and inhaled sharply when the door disappeared. There was no way to get back inside, even if he wanted to go.
The night seemed darker, less friendly as Getty walked down the street. The Black River wasn’t that far, but it felt like a million miles away as he walked it alone.
Even the air seemed ominous.
He should’ve called Donnchadh. He shouldn’t be going to Maple Grove by himself, not when hellhounds were on the loose. Getty rubbed his neck where his attacker had tried to bite him and shivered thinking about running into another one of them.
The grassy mound wasn’t that far from the building. Getty made it there, passing a few people along the way. He didn’t look at them, too afraid since Donnchadh wasn’t with him.
The dark water glistened under the pale moonlight, but it didn’t move. Not even a tiny ripple. Did he have to throw a coin in or say some kind of chant? Donnchadh had told him it was a doorway, but not how the doorway worked.
Getty scratched his head.
“Need help?”
Getty turned and saw a guy standing on the sidewalk. He had a leash in his hand. On the end of the leash…Getty choked on a breath as he stared at the two-headed dog. Dogs?
The guy smiled and started talking, but all Getty could concentrate on were the fangs in his mouth. Two sharp points that gleamed under the streetlamp.
Fangs.
Getty stumbled backward, terrified of the stranger and his dog. Dogs. He wasn’t sure and didn’t care. Getty just wanted to get away. He wasn’t so sure he liked the demon realm any longer. That had to be a vampire!
His arms wheeled as he felt himself falling backward. A shout ripped from his throat as he hit the water. It didn’t even make a splash. He quickly thought of seeing his father as he was submerged and hit the ground so hard the wind was knocked out of his lungs.
Getty groaned, rolled to his back, and rubbed his chest. There had to be a better mode of transportation between realms or a softer way to land.
After blinking several times, Getty pushed to his elbows.
He wasn’t at the clinic or even his house.
“Who the fuck’re you?” a deep, growling voice asked.
Getty glanced around at the ferocious-looking men as he sucked in a deep breath then passed out.
Chapter Seven
Donny had no clue where they were, but his instincts told him he should get out of there. It was some abandoned building with leaky overhead pipes, wet floors, and flickering lights.
All a setup for some horror movie that he didn’t want to be a part of. But this was where the Black River had led them when they’d gone through. Cadeym should be here, but there were so many levels, hallways, and rooms that Donny had no clue where to begin.
“I still can’t sense him,” Panahasi said. “Split up in pairs and search every inch of this place.”
“Have you ever seen a horror movie?” Hondo asked. “You never split up. That’s how you die.”
“And we’re not clueless humans,” Panahasi pointed out. “Find Cadeym.”
“You’re coming with me,” Donny said to Hondo. Donny had the ability to teleport, but that wouldn’t be helpful if they had to take on multiple bad guys.
As if reading his mind, Hondo said, “If shit gets hinky, we press our Wonder Twin rings together. Form of fire.”
“Form of hauling ass,” Donny said just to play along and ease the worry in his gut.
They took the top floor, left side of the building. From the things he saw in the rooms, this used to be a school. At least it hadn’t been an insane asylum. That really would’ve wigged Donny out.
“It’s a shame when schools close,” Hondo said as he poked his head into rooms then kept walking down the hallway. “The local kids gotta get shipped to other schools, and the teachers become overwhelmed with additional students.”
Donny checked rooms as he moved down the hallway. “It sounds like you’ve given this some thought. I didn’t know you were so passionate about human education.”
Hondo stopped and placed his hands on his hips. “You have to look ten or fifteen years down the road, Donny. What kind of jobs can those kids get? What kind of life will they have?”
“The same as everyone else if they apply themselves,” Donny argued. “Take us for example. If we were statistics from our childhood, we should be anger-filled murdering machines. But we chose a different path. We chose not to give in to societal belief that just because you come from shit means you’re going to be shit.”
“Okay, so you have a point.” Hondo wiggled a finger at Donny. “But what about nature versus nurture?”
“You’ve been watching those science shows with Chris, haven’t you?” Donny started walking again. “I’m not going to get into a philosophical debate with you.”
He stilled when he heard clicking. Lots of it, too. Donny cocked his head and tried to hone in on the sound, to try and decipher what it was. Hondo joined him at his side, and his expression said he was trying to figure it out, too.
As the noise drew closer, fire ignited around Hondo’s hands.
“Should we press our rings together now?” Hondo whispered.
Donny rolled his eyes. “What’s that sound? I swear it sounds like a Newton’s Cradle. A hundred of them.”
“Newton’s what?” Hondo asked.
Only the sound wasn’t going that fast. As if the metal balls had been bewitched and were going at an abnormally slow pace. But Donny seriously doubted that was the cause of the noise.
The flames went out in Hondo’s hands before he grabbed Donny’s upper arm. “Nails. And lots of them.”
Donny took a step back as more than one snarling sound echoed in the hallway. The air was suddenly choking with the smell of brimstone and sulfur.
“Hellhounds,” Hondo whispered. “And from the sound of it, an army of them.”
“This was a trap.” Donny and Hondo spun and took off as the sound of a dozen or more barks crashed through the air. Donny looked over his shoulder and wished he hadn’t. The glowing red eyes, multiple pairs, appeared terrifying.
He stopped running, spun around, and watched as the hellhounds bore down on him. If he and Hondo were bitten by multiple hellhounds, they were completely fucked.
Especially if they had that concoction in their mouths that had nearly killed Donny a month ago.
Donny stood there, frozen with the memories of the pain and suffering he’d endured. It swallowed him down, but it threatened to choke him.
“Move it!” Hondo grabbed Donny’s arm and slung him into the stairwell, slamming the door behind them. “Panahasi!”
They raced down the steps, but the demon leader didn’t come to their rescue. It was as though this building stopped them from communicating with each other.
Maybe that was why they hadn’t been able to pinpoint Cadeym’s location. Some kind of spell or buffer or something that blocked supernatural signals.
&nbs
p; Hondo sent a fiery blaze up the stairwell, and Donny heard yelps as well as smelled singed hair.
“You’re gonna set the building on fire,” Donny said as he nearly lost his footing. “Not that I care, but we haven’t found Cadeym yet.”
He grabbed Hondo and tried to teleport out, but as with calling Panahasi, nothing happened. They were trapped.
“Get us out of here!” Hondo shouted as they flew down the steps.
“I’m trying, but nothing’s happening.” Donny crashed into the door at the bottom of the steps and realized they hadn’t come out on the main floor. They were in some kind of boiler room.
“What did Panahasi say about us not being helpless humans?” Hondo asked. “Because I’m feeling pretty fucking helpless right now. Panahasi isn’t here, your powers aren’t working, and we’ve got over a dozen hellhounds coming down the steps. I can’t set them all on fire before one or two bite us.”
Pull yourself together. Don’t give in to the panic. That was easier thought than done. Donny was dealing with straight-up trauma from facing the hellhounds again.
He hadn’t gone through this on the street when he’d killed the one following Getty. That was because Donny had been too focused on rescuing his mate. But now? Shit. Pull yourself together. Hondo needs your fighting skills, and Getty needs you to come home.
“There’s got to be an exit down here somewhere,” Hondo said. He yanked on Donny’s arm, as if knowing how this was fucking with him, paralyzing him. “Don’t worry. I got your back.”
Just how big was the school boiler room? It felt like they were weaving their way around large obstacles but getting nowhere.
Donny tried to teleport again, and this time, he felt some crackling just under the skin, but he was still in that fucking basement of the school.
“There!” Hondo ran ahead, and Donny raced behind him.
They came to a rusted metal door with large hinges and bolts holding it closed. Donny ripped the bolts away easily. The door groaned under the pressure of Donny trying to shove it open, but it wouldn't budge.
No way should a door defeat him.
“Let me try.”
Donny moved aside, and Hondo rammed his shoulder into the metal. It buckled and groaned again but remained intact and closed.
“I don’t get it,” Hondo said. “I’ve busted through more complicated things than a door.”
“I think someone doesn’t want us to leave.” Donny rolled his shoulders, refusing to go down without a fight. “Someone took Cadeym, and now they want us.”
“But why?” Hondo asked. “I mean I know why. There’re a lot of people who hate us. I mean, who could be this strong to trap a demon warrior in an ordinary building? Panahasi can’t even hear me calling for him.”
“I have no idea,” Donny said. “Maybe the same person who helped that fairy, Lyle.”
Lyle had tried to kill Phoenyx’s mate, Edward. In Donny’s opinion, Lyle hadn’t been all there. He’d loaned Edward money, expected the human to pay him back, and then tried to kill him in the meantime.
But Lyle had done things no unseelie should’ve been able to do, and Panahasi suspected that Lyle had had help. They just hadn’t figured out who’d been backing him.
Now they might have their answers.
Or we’ll die in this shithole building.
The clicking noise started again.
* * * *
Panahasi couldn’t get in touch with any of his warriors. It was as if the building was blocking out all communications. He walked to the nearest wall and pressed his hand against it then jerked it back when he felt a strange sort of buzz climbing through his arm.
The malevolence was almost palpable.
Panahasi closed his eyes and tried to summon Jayden, but once again all he found was a dark void, just like when he’d tried to locate Cadeym.
And now, the warriors. It was a vast, empty plane containing nothing. The only other time Panahasi had ever experienced that was when he and Jaden had been sucked into an actual void by The Keeper. Panahasi was dead certain The Keeper had nothing to do with this. He was also certain Jaden wasn’t involved because he’d lain down his hatred as soon as he’d found his mate.
Panahasi’s gut told him Surkath was behind this. The creature had the ability to use his powers, even from the Underworld. Which begged the question, was he still in the underworld?
Since Panahasi couldn’t get in touch with anyone, he would have to check as soon as he was out of there. He still firmly believed that Surkath was behind Lyle’s powers. That couldn’t have been a coincidence.
Until he was free of this building, none of his questions could be answered. But right now he had other matters on his hands.
It was as if anyone he tried to contact had been wiped from existence. That couldn’t be true, though. If Jaden were dead, Panahasi would be, as well. They were entwined, a balance. One couldn’t exist without the other.
He walked to the side exit and pushed at the door. He might as well have been pushing at a wall. The door refused to budge. He saw past the glass with the chicken wire, saw the outside, the overgrowth of flora, the cracked parking lot, and birds flying from a nearby tree. He slammed his fist into the glass. It cracked in a few places, letting in a breeze, but the glass remained intact.
Something very dark was at play, and instead of this being a rescue, Panahasi feared he’d just walked his men into a trap.
“Trying to leave already?” Phoenyx asked as he exited one of the rooms he’d been checking. He sauntered over to Panahasi, unaware of the danger they were in.
“Call one of the warriors. Any one of them.”
With his red brows knitted together, Phoenyx tilted his head back and shouted for Hondo.
Panahasi waited, looked around, and tried once again to sense Hondo’s presence. Not even a ripple, sizzle, or a pop registered in his mind.
“Why isn’t he here?” Phoenyx glanced up and down the hallway as if Hondo would emerge from one of the rooms at any second. “We’re in the same building. He should’ve been here by now.”
This time when Panahasi closed his eyes, he tilted his head back and thrust his powers outward, sending them speeding forward, but it was as if they’d hit a wall, spiraling back toward him.
“Give a guy some warning,” Phoenyx said. “I felt your powers creeping all over me.”
“We’ve been duped.” Panahasi opened his eyes. His anger mounted as he gnashed his teeth. He inhaled slowly, letting his breath out through his nostrils. It wouldn’t do for him to explode with rage right now. Panahasi had to keep his wits about him. “We were lured here by some dark spell.”
The confusion in Phoenyx’s eyes faded, replaced by concern. “You’re saying Cadeym isn’t here?”
“I’m saying that whoever took Cadeym just ensnared us, too.”
The stairwell door burst open. Panahasi jerked around, ready to fight, when he saw it was Hondo and Donnchadh. They were out of breath and throwing their bodies against the door they’d just run through.
“Hellhounds,” Hondo snarled. “About a dozen of them, and they got a hard-on for warriors. We barely escaped the boiler room. They’re fast, but these ones are pretty dumb. Throwing a piece of metal across the room to redirect them actually worked.”
Panahasi saw the stark terror in Donnchadh’s brown eyes. The warrior had nearly lost his life a month ago to one of them. Now there were a dozen of those hellish beasts after him.
His warriors had come from brutal pasts, had undergone intense training, and yet, against all odds, they still had compassion, vulnerabilities, and the capacity to love. In truth, Panahasi was in awe of them. Even so, this had to be Donnchadh’s worst nightmare, and it pissed Panahasi off that the warrior had to suffer through this. Panahasi would do anything to get Donnchadh out of there.
Panahasi moved swiftly to the door and pressed his hands against the cold steel, using the power inside him to solder the door to the frame. “That won’t hold for long but
long enough to help us find the others,” he said.
They moved down the long corridor and used the east stairwell to get to the other floors. They made it to the last and found Kane and Takeo in one of the far end rooms.
They were struggling to get Cadeym down from the chains he had been hung by.
“Move aside.” Panahasi lifted Cadeym, but the chains were bound too tight, as if that dark, unseen force was keeping him prisoner, refusing to free the chains.
“We’ve been trying,” Kane said. “We can’t loosen or break the chains.”
Cadeym was unconscious, barely breathing, and bloodied. It looked as if the hellhounds had used their claws to rip at his skin.
“I’ll get you out of here,” Panahasi vowed to him.
He would get all his warriors home and then hunt down the one responsible for this.
* * * *
Getty shuffled backward until he hit the wall and then curled his arms around his bent knees. The room smelled like stale cigarettes, beer, and sweat. “Where the hell am I?”
What had he done wrong? He’d thought of his destination, of seeing his dad, so why wasn’t he at the clinic? He had to have screwed up somehow. How far off the mark was he? The next town, the next state, or the next freaking planet? God, he should’ve never left the apartment building. He should’ve called one of those phone numbers for help. Doing this on his own, without Donnchadh, made Getty’s chest hurt.
And fuck, he missed Donnchadh so badly that his gut twisted into knots and he wanted to cry. He missed his warrior, wanted to feel Donnchadh’s arms curled around him and bury his nose into the man’s neck, inhaling his deep, masculine scent.
The snarling men parted for a newcomer. This guy looked twice their size, meaner, and the gruffest of them all. He had a head full of shiny black hair that was gently peppered with gray, blue eyes, and a long beard. If Getty was guessing correctly, he was in some hole-in-the-wall bar surrounded by a motorcycle gang. Most had bandannas on their heads, were tatted up, and wore jeans, chains hanging from their belt loops, and boots on their feet.