I picked it up and opened it. The box was empty. On the top was the symbol of a snake with some Latin writing. My heart skipped a beat, then began racing again. I stood in Matilda’s spare bedroom realising very fast that Alexis had gotten what she needed. A special present from Lucifer himself: a Rubella necklace that allowed her to travel to different parts of the underworld. That only meant one thing: she was more out of reach than I ever thought.
Chapter 24
“In all of Hell, through every murky ring,
I saw no spirit facing God so proud,
even that king flung down from Theban walls.”
―Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy
I tossed the box away, angry that Alexis had tricked me. The wolf was supposed to keep us away from the cottage. I should have looked through Matilda’s things as soon I got there, then all the drama could have been avoided. Summer was alone. Alexis still had no idea how to wake her up, but she had a Rubella necklace, and that changed everything. Her demonic soul was falling apart, which meant that she was desperate enough to arrange the healing ritual quicker than she planned.
By the time I got downstairs, my head was banging loudly. Zach was standing by the window. There was stack of demonic books on the table.
“We have to go back to London. Alexis has a Rubella necklace, which means she can travel down to Hell without being noticed,” I said, rushing outside and taking a deep breath in order to calm my nerves. I had to keep going no matter what. Zachary needed to find a way to bring Zara back and reunite her with Cornelia. It couldn’t end like this. There were still other options worth pursuing.
“We won’t stay here, that’s for sure, but maybe we should head out in the morning?”
“No, the last train leaves soon. I don’t want to waste any more time.”
“Whatever, Flower, I’m with you a hundred percent, but maybe it’s time to get help,” he advised, thinking that we were slowly losing this battle. Alexis hadn’t won yet. She was still dying.
“No, I’ll have a new plan by the time we get back to Victoria,” I said. Zach didn’t know that I was already getting help from the demon who would take my soul in the end. There was also Arthur. I made him a promise that I couldn’t even keep. The question remained—how much time would he be willing to give me to bring Summer to him?
In the end we agreed to head out in the morning. We were both exhausted and walking through the dark forest in the middle of the night wasn’t the wisest of choices. Zachary slept, but I kept tossing and turning, unable to sleep, going over what happened earlier. In the morning we walked back to the train station. The detective had damaged a muscle in his leg. He was in pain but refused a trip to the hospital. I treated my injuries with potions.
“Please, save it, Flower. I’ll recover at home,” he told me as we boarded the train.
The trip back was exhausting. The train was filled with too many humans and I was overloaded with their emotions. A few demons were staring bluntly at me when we approached London Victoria station. Ricky’s situation was still pretty much unresolved, too, and I had no news for Emma. I kept rubbing my head, considering other options, pushing myself not to give up just yet. Morpheus had to stick to his word and help me. I needed to get in touch with him again.
“Max, I think we have a problem,” Zach said when we were approaching the exit gate on the platform. I was too distracted to worry about demons around me. I felt under pressure, unable to understand why I kept failing.
“They keep staring, they always do.” I sighed, knowing Zach was referring to humans who were probably noticing us more than usual. Sometimes after an outburst of my power, I brought a lot more attention to myself than anyone else.
“Maxine Brodeur?” someone asked, blocking my path. I finally lifted my eyes and realised that at least three Watchers were blocking my way off the platform. Zach was quickly surrounded by others, too. A tall Watcher with long dark hair shoved a badge into his face. I looked around, considering running, but there were too many humans standing in the way. To them, Watchers appeared to be part of the police task force, so no one would dare interfere with them. After all the time that Zach had spent with me, he knew that it was just a cover. That’s why he was making so much noise. Internally they dealt with demons who were in violation of protocol and, as far as I was concerned, I had done nothing wrong.
“Yes, what the fuck do you want?” I asked, wondering if maybe Ricky’s condition had worsened, and they showed up here acting as the messengers of bad news. Watchers didn’t normally arrest demons in public places. They were very vigilant about security, so this seemed very strange.
The three Watchers looked very believable: they all were very muscular, hairy, and their extensive magic told me that I wouldn’t stand a chance fighting them. Besides, I would have been silly even attempting to use my energy in such a busy place filled with hundreds of humans.
“You’re arrested on suspicion of conspiring against Lucifer,” one of them said, locking me with the binding spell, so I couldn’t even tap into my source. My jaw dropped. Zach was trying to get to me, but two other Watchers were blocking him. He was shouting, threatening that they had no right touching me. I admired him, but this deal was done.
I didn’t even have a chance to find out what the charges were, because they began dragging me across the station. Members of the public were staring; Zach was shouting at me that he would take care of it, but I knew that they were taking me somewhere where no one would be able to find me. My demonic magic was blocked, and my hands were handcuffed shortly after we left the platform. I glanced around and spotted a familiar face looking at me from a distance. I would recognise that nasty smile anywhere.
“You bastard,” I whispered, looking back at Rodriguez, who was staring back at me with complete composure. I should have suspected that he might make such a move. After his humiliation in the pub, he needed to re-assert himself. Coward.
“Where the hell are you taking me? I have a right to know,” I shouted, trying to stop, but the taller Watcher kept pushing me forward toward the exit. His energy was weakening my already damaged wards.
“Somewhere to carry out judgement. Don’t make this difficult for yourself,” the Watcher snarled and twisted my arm so painfully that I thought he broke my bones.
I had no clue what the hell happened to Zachary, and how Rodriguez had convinced Watchers from the higher department to pin me down for something that wasn’t under the jurisdiction of the palace. Mentally, I urged Morpheus to show his face and get me out of here. He was supposed to be everywhere.
A second later, a van pulled up on the street, next to group of Asian students. I was shoved inside, a pair of large hands pulled a seat belt over me, and off we went to the place where no one would ever find me. I sat between two Watchers, feeling numb. All the windows were shaded, so I had no idea where they were taking me. My ankle was still a bit swollen from yesterday. I was ready to scream with frustration, but that wouldn’t change a thing. Those fuckers had me and they weren’t going to let me go now.
“You have no right, you morons. I have done nothing wrong!” I started, but then a black bag was shoved over my face, and someone hit me. Everything faded away in an instant, my mind turned into a sponge, and I rolled over to the side, passing out.
This was the third time in the past twenty-four hours that I woke up in an unknown place, almost frozen to death, with achy muscles and completely alone. I sat up on something that was meant to imitate a bed, cursing the entire faction off, filled with bitter anger. In the past several days, I had been pulled into a world of deceit, a world where the rules meant nothing anymore.
Rubbing my eyes and trying to figure out where I was, I discovered a large lump on the back of my head. Once my eyesight began working, a cold shiver moved down my spine. All around me were metal bars, and I was in a cage. I suspected that Rodriguez wanted to keep me away, probably somewhere on the outskirts of London, but I could have been anywhere. The Watcher
s were guarding the way out, and I sensed one or two outside. My abilities were still blocked by the binding spell, and I had a feeling that I had been stuck here for hours.
Rodriguez wanted to nail me the moment I stepped into the palace causing trouble with Arthur. He wanted to reassert his position of power, letting me know that I wasn’t going to get away with anything. No one apart from Emma and Morpheus knew that I was heading to Langston, but his pit bulls were waiting on the platform. I had no idea who had betrayed me.
I got up and paced around the cage for a bit, waiting for someone to show up. After half an hour I started screaming, knowing that they had to get their lazy arses in here and tell me what they intended to do with me.
I attempted to tamper with the binding spell, calling up my source. Morpheus assured me that my energy could break even the toughest of spells, but not this time. I suspected that the cage had been charmed, too. Rodriguez needed me; he was hoping to use me as a bargaining tool for his election campaign. My arrest was political, but with everything that was currently going on I couldn’t be sure. My connection to the prince had always made him uneasy, and he knew that in some ways, I was valuable.
Finally, after about an hour of banging my bed against the metal bars, screaming my head off and swearing, two Watchers showed up.
“Hey, aresholes, call your boss or read me the list of charges. You have no right locking me in here,” I shouted, knowing that if I provoked them enough, maybe they’d get their boss over here.
I doubted very much that Morpheus could interfere. Lucifer sent him over to me with a deal. Our agreement was strictly confidential, but Rodriguez kept pushing his authority. I had no idea what to expect this time.
One of the Watchers was blond, with crazy blue eyes and sharp features, the other dark skinned.
Neither said anything to me. The blond one took out a bunch of keys and opened the cage.
“Right, finally. I was getting—”
He gagged me before I could finish the sentence, then violently pushed me over to the other side of the cage. I went down, my back slammed hard, hitting the bars. He started pushing his large body over me, squashing me slowly. Suddenly the air wasn’t getting into my lungs. The Watcher quickly wrapped his fat fingers around my neck and began suffocating me.
“Stupid mongrel girl, do you think you will be alive in the morning? You’re here to die, so do us a favour and stop disturbing our peace!” he snarled, spraying me with spit. My vision had gone slightly blurry, and I tried to grab him, but couldn’t reach far enough with my fingers.
I tapped into my power, releasing some useless sparks. That bastard couldn’t kill me yet. I wanted to believe that I was too valuable. His grip was getting tighter and tighter, and my pulse began to slow down. The world around me was slowly disappearing. I tried to hold on to my hope that this wasn’t my end yet, but I was already drifting away. Life beyond death. I always wondered what happened to people after they died. Would Hell claim them or Heaven?
“Now listen to us very carefully—stay quiet, or I’ll end your miserable life here in the cage,” the Watcher snarled again, finally releasing his grip. I hit the floor, straining for air, and didn’t get up again. The Watcher kicked me a few times in my stomach, and I cried out with agonising pain. I didn’t know what happened later. They must have left me there, injured, and barely conscious, locking the cage behind them.
I couldn’t move for some time, but I kept hearing their laughs and snippets of conversation. I must have passed out again, this time for longer, because when I flickered my eyes it was already dark outside.
My breathing sped up when I attempted to lift myself. My muscles refused to obey me, and I was dehydrated and hungry. I hadn’t eaten anything since this morning. There wasn’t any other way to say this, but I was fucked, mentally and physically. It took me another half hour to get back on the bed. Maybe the Watchers wanted to starve me to death. Either way they would come back to finish me off at some point.
“Hey, Max, how are you holding up?” someone asked. I lifted my head, suddenly startled by a familiar voice.
A second later, I saw Paul and Cyril. They were both standing by the cage, staring back at me. I told myself that I was hallucinating. The Watchers had battered me pretty hard. No one was supposed to know where I was.
“Are you for real?” I asked.
Paul exchanged a concerned look with Cyril.
“I can assure you, Maxine, we are very real,” Cyril answered, walking around the cage, looking up and down with a determined expression on his face.
“All right, so tell me—how did you get in here?” I asked, partly relieved and partly on the verge of breaking down. I thought that I would die in here. Paul’s energy was back, and I was suddenly sensing it everywhere. I had no idea which question I was supposed to ask first. Cyril was wearing the usual kimono, still assessing the binding spell that kept me disabled since I arrived here.
“Don’t trouble yourself with questions right now. We need to know if you’re okay to walk, Maxine, because you look like hell,” Paul said, and then I was suddenly blinded by the gold sword that he carried with him. He couldn’t have gotten his Watcher sword back. I was imagining stuff now.
“I have a couple of broken ribs, some cuts, broken ankle, and probably arm, too, but I guess I could try walking,” I said, knowing that they would have to carry me from here to the car.
“Well, that complicates matters, because we’ve come to get you out of here,” Paul said, giving me a smile. “Move aside, I haven’t tried this spell in years.”
Chapter 25
“Our paths had brought us, turning to the right, to reach the final twist of punishment, and we were now intent on new concerns.”
―Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy
I was baffled but also grateful that they were risking their lives to get me out of here. The problem was that Watchers were guarding the exit, and I wasn’t going to be much use to Paul and Cyril.
Maybe Paul was hoping that I would forget about his lies. These two were the last people I expected to come to my rescue. Besides, Cyril was part of faction security, so he was compromising his own position.
“I wasn’t supposed to be alive in the morning,” I told them, lifting myself on my feet. The sharp pain made me instantly dizzy, but I tried to act like my disability didn’t faze me. Elixirs or potions could take care of my injuries later on. Now all I wanted was to get the hell out of here.
“Rodriguez paid Watchers to snap you up from Victoria. He brainwashed Emma. He must have realised that she was aware of your plans,” Cyril explained, sounding concerned that someone like Rodriguez was still in power.
“Is she all right? Please tell me that the bastard didn’t damage her in any way?” I asked, panicking that my friend would never be the same again. I was suddenly done with playing by the rules, and Lucifer could kiss my arse. As far as I was concerned, the deal that I had made with Morpheus was off.
“She doesn’t remember much of what happened, but she should be all right,” Paul explained, giving me a warm smile. I hoped he wasn’t lying to me. I could never forgive myself if something happened to Emma. She had gone through enough in her life as it was.
I exhaled sharply, telling myself that I could destroy Rodriguez. I had to report him, that was all. Lucifer hated demons who went over his head. The old demon was doing everything he could to eliminate me. Maybe he believed I knew too much. It was a valid reason, but there were other possibilities, too. I remembered meeting him for the first time; even then, he was using his abilities, attempting to break through my wards. Morpheus could back me up but, getting tangled up with politics wasn’t something I intended to do. Ricky was dying, and Alexis had my daughter. These were my priorities for now. It looked like everyone around me had been playing by their own rules. The faction system was shaky, but I had only just begun seeing it.
“The Watchers—they are guarding the exit. How are we going to pass them?” I asked, thi
nking that the blond one was a nasty piece of work.
“Don’t worry about them. We’ve already taken care of them,” Paul said unexpectedly. “Move away.”
I opened my mouth to ask him what he was planning to do, but a bright green light blinded me. Several seconds later, warmth licked my wounds and the pain in my foot eased off.
“Good job, messenger,” Cyril muttered, sounding amused.
I stopped rubbing my eyes and noticed that some of the bars vanished completely. Paul was standing in the cell now, looking pleased with himself. The light freaked me out a little. He was supposed to be my friend, not the ex-angel who was sent from Heaven.
“How the hell did you do this?” I asked him, tapping into my own source. The binding spell had been broken, and I felt sudden relief. Paul put my arm around his and gave me a cheeky smile.
“There’s a lot you don’t know about me,” he muttered, helping me to get out.
“Hold on a minute; you guys said the Watchers were eliminated, but how? You can’t kill a Watcher, that’s punishable by death,” I said, remembering the protocol in detail.
“No one is going to die, trust me. Those two were corrupted, and I’m glad that they were eliminated,” Cyril assured me, and I could have sworn that he winked at me at the same time. Last time I remembered, he wanted me to back away from working on certain cases. He even warned me that the faction was keeping a close eye on me. I wondered what or who changed his mind.
“Rodriguez is behind all this,” I said through gritted teeth, thinking that I really needed to get some potions into my system. Even though Paul’s spell helped my foot, my ribs were shattered, and every move was agony, although I was masking it as well as I could.
“That old demon is corrupt. He was told to take care of any scandals or skeletons that might involve royals. Apparently, the dark lord wasn’t too happy with the way he was running things in the palace,” Cyril explained. We were moving through the old warehouse. The Watchers were either silent, or they were truly dead. I had a feeling that Paul had something to do with it.
Doomed Cases Box Set: The Complete Collection Books 1- 4 & Prequel Page 66