by Julia Mills
“Thanks for the vote of confidence there, gramps.” Brann acted offended but Rian could hear the smile in his voice.
“That’s Assassin Gramps to you, young’un.” Drago snickered.
“All right kiddies, cookies for all when we’re topside. Right now, let’s get our people and get out.” Rian was glad everyone was taking their new surroundings in stride, but he couldn’t shake the feeling something wasn’t right.
Touching the amulet around his neck, he reached out to Kyra as planned, “Kyra, we’re here. Everything up there okay?”
“We’re good. How about y’all?”
“Good but weird.”
“Well, it is hell after all.” Kyra laughed and Rian took the first full breath since he’d touched down in the Underworld. Knowing they had ten of the strongest witches and the best doctor in the world waiting to help them any way they could made what they had to do all the easier.
“Hey, you talking to my mate, brother?” Royce laughed.
“I was but she’s all yours now. I will butt the hell out.” Rian chuckled then said to Kyra, “Thank you. Talk soon.”
Rian cut his connection, giving the couple their privacy, and joined the others at the back of the room where they were going over the plan one more time. Brannoc had the maps spread out on a makeshift table made out of broken plywood laid across two stacks of crumbling cement blocks and was leading the briefing.
“Here is Adramelech’s castle. We go north for half a block then east. The big creepy haunted house looking monstrosity at the end of the street is the place.”
“Does anyone but me find it weird that all this info was on the internet? I mean, this is a map of hell, not Schenectady.”
Rian knew Rory was trying to be funny but as usual, his youngest brother had the worst timing. Not wanting to be a jerk but needing to get Rory to shut up, the Dragon Leader responded with, “Does anyone but me think Rory should keep his comments to himself?”
The group tried to contain their laughter but it was impossible when Maddox added, “And this round goes to Rian.”
“Whatever,” Rory grumbled under his breath.
“Aww,” Lance teased. “Don’t take it personally. Roy is always kicking my ass too.”
“Only when you need it, you big pain in the ass, only when you need it.” Royce, who had just joined the group, teased then turning serious he added, “Now, let’s get to getting. Sitting still is making me itchy.”
“Roy’s right. Let me see if Calysta has found Audrey yet.”
Rian touched his amulet. It was like his good luck charm. The Grand Priestess had assured all the Guardsmen they didn’t need to touch it to talk to those still topside, but it just made Rian feel better. He’d given the Grand Priestess all the time he could to get them an exact location on his mate. The last time he’d talked to her, Audrey was still being kept in Adramelech’s castle. But by all accounts, that place was massive and searching for his mate like a needle in a haystack wasn’t something they had time for, so he’d given Calysta a shirt of his that still bore Audrey’s scent so that the Priestess could scry for his mate.
“Calysta, you found anything yet?”
“I have but I have Kyra verifying what I see.” Calysta sounded worried, which was never a good sign.
“And that means...” Rian asked, trying to mask his growing concern.
“It means that Audrey is no longer in Adramelech’s castle. She’s not even in that realm,” Kyra answered, practically spitting as she explained. “The bastard has moved her into a lower level. From the map Brann left that’s only good because it puts her closer to Kayne’s location, or where we think he’s buried. But that means your girl is in with the nasty beasties. My guess is the Chancellor is still pissed and this is her punishment.”
“Son of a bitch!” Rian cursed aloud. Pacing the floor as he tried to calm down, his thoughts were chaotic. His panic was rising. If that bastard had hurt her again...
“Rian. Rian!” Kellan yelled into his mind cutting off Rian’s next thought, then stepped in front of the Dragon Leader and grabbed him by the shoulders. “Calm down. You’re spinning out. Nothing’s changed.”
“Nothing’s changed? How the hell has nothing changed?”
Rian tried to slide past to continue pacing and thinking, but the scarred dragon simply stepped in front of him again and this time, he looked pissed.
“You still gonna save your mate?”
“Hell yeah.”
“You still gonna save Kayne?”
“Yes, Kell. What’s with the twenty questions?” Rian was getting angrier by the minute.
“Not twenty, two, and they prove nothing’s changed. We’re still here to do a job and that’s what we’re gonna do. So pull your oversized head out of your ass and lead this group.”
Without another word, Kellan returned to where he’d been standing beside Declan at the back of the group and acted as if nothing had happened. Rian knew Kellan was right, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t embarrassing to have his brethren hand him his ass for the second time in as many days.
The silence in the room was almost as annoying as everyone staring at him was. Ignoring the thoughts his brethren weren’t even trying to block, the Dragon Leader took a deep breath and forged ahead. “Sorry...again. As usual, Kell’s right. Time to go.” Looking to Brannoc he asked, “You get the info you needed from Kyra to find Audrey?”
“I did. We’re good to go,” Brannoc answered while rolling up his maps and stuffing them into his backpack.
“All right, you heard the man. Let’s head out.” Rian motioned for Brannoc to take the lead. As planned, the Guardsmen spread out on both sides of the dilapidated asphalt that at one time had been a road.
They walked for three blocks before turning west then another two blocks before turning into the eeriest graveyard Rian had ever seen. It was straight out of an Alfred Hitchcock movie, complete with broken headstones, disrupted graves, and crying stone angels outside crumbling mausoleums.
“I know I’m gonna get bitch-slapped for this, but why is there a cemetery in hell? I mean, aren’t these people dead when they get here?” Rory asked from the back of their formation.
“You’re right...” Lennox snorted.
“See?” Rory butted in with pride in his voice.
“You’re gonna get bitch-slapped.” The whole group chuckled at Lennox’s comment.
Ignoring his youngest brother but promising both himself and his dragon to kick his butt later, Rian commanded, “Look alive, people. There’s a shitload of hiding places in this creep show.”
Brannoc raised his fist—the military signal for stop—looked over his shoulder at Rian, and pointed ahead. “The entrance to the lower levels is inside the chapel just ahead.”
A single nod and Rian barked, “You heard the man. Heads up.”
The hair on the back of his neck stood on end. His dragon’s growl—a low, continuous rumble of anger with their present situation—rolled around and around in his head. Rian spread his enhanced senses as far as they could go, and could feel his brethren doing the same thing, all making sure no one and nothing could sneak up on them.
Outside the chapel, the two lines of Guardsmen split, one going left, the other right, leaving Brannoc and Rian to watch the front door. One by one, his brethren called in their okay. Mere seconds later, all but Maddox and Kellan had returned.
“Where are you?” Rian snarled.
“Going through the back door, kid. See you at the altar,” Maddox answered, completely ignoring Rian’s frustration.
Deciding it was not a battle he was willing to fight, Rian ignored his oldest friend and said, “Watch yourselves. We’re going in.”
Carefully pushing open the one remaining door attached by a single hinge with the end of his broadsword, Rian held his breath as the scent of mold, mildew, rot, and raw sewage assaulted his senses. The Dragon Leader could only imagine what had caused such a stench and thanked the Heavens for his enhanc
ed senses so he didn’t step in it.
The wooden floor groaned under the weight of the eleven huge men as they slowly approached the pulpit at the front of the sanctuary. Brannoc stepped up on the podium, immediately kneeling and searching for the symbol Calysta had told them would be carved into the floorboard just about the entrance to the Lower Realms of hell.
Counting to sixty while listening to the sounds of the group’s navigator brushing dirt, debris, and only the Heavens knew what else from the floor in search of the glyph, Rian listened to the thoughts of his brethren. They all agreed that something was up. It had been way easier than any of them had imagined...too easy.
It wasn’t that he doubted his abilities or those of his brethren; it was the simple fact that they were in hell, about to go up against Satan’s right hand man, and not a soul had so much as said boo to them. Except for the insects roaming every available inch of the landscape, they hadn’t seen anyone at all.
“Found it,” Brann shouted, immediately followed by the low scraping groan of rusted metal being moved against its will.
“All right, let’s move,” Rian commanded.
One by one, he watched the men he’d pledged loyalty, fealty, and brotherhood to disappear into the smoke-filled darkness. The last one down, Rian pulled the metal door closed and climbed down the ladder straight into his worst nightmare.
His brethren were being detained by rabid hellhounds, all salivating to eat each and every one of them until nothing remained but a few little gooey bits. Behind the Guardsmen, blocking the only escape Rian could see, were at least fifty undead soldiers dressed in every imaginable uniform since the beginning of time, armed and ready for battle.
The scent of Bellflowers cut through the sulfur and brimstone a second before a seven-foot monstrosity of unknown origin made his way through the parting sea of zombies. The iron chain wrapped around his meaty, talon-tipped paw rattled and scraped against the ground as he walked toward Rian, a look of utter superiority etched upon his reptilian face.
Searching for Audrey while attempting to look bored with the production before him, Rian sighed and said, “Adramelech, I presume?”
Nodding like a king to his loyal subject, the Chancellor said, “Rian and the dragons, how nice of you to drop in. I’m so glad to finally make your acquaintance.”
“The pleasure is all...”
The words froze in Rian’s throat. A red haze fell across his vision and his dragon roared so loudly the confines of the Dragon Leader’s mind rattled. Utter rage filled every cell in his body as one jerk of Adramelech’s chain brought Audrey stumbling to the forefront with a heavy iron collar around her neck and shackles on her wrists and ankles.
His body shook with a fury he’d never imagined possible in all his hundred and sixty-five years. Audrey’s gorgeous porcelain skin was marred with bruises, welts, and open sores. Even the tops of her feet and the back of her hands bore proof of the Chancellor’s cruelty.
Dried blood, Rian knew was her own by scent, and bits of straw matted her long ebony hair. Her usually vibrant violet eyes were bloodshot, despondent, and swollen from crying, the tears having left tracks in the dirt on her cheeks. Her lips were so puffy, cracked, and bleeding that when she tried to give him the smallest of smiles, she winced in pain and tears filled her eyes.
Taking in the ripped and frayed white cotton frock so threadbare that only small pieces of it had not already become a hole that the Chancellor had dressed Audrey in, Rian knew it was just another form of torture. Adramelech had resorted to shaming the princess to try to break her spirit. But even that had not stolen the fire inside her soul.
Looking deep into her eyes, Rian focused on their mating bond and pushed the words directly into her mind. “I will get us out here, but not before I make that sorry sack of shit pay for everything he’s done to you.”
Recognition shone bright in her eyes. She could hear him, and after just a single heartbeat answered, “I know you will. I tried to give up. I tried to force him to kill me but through it all, I never lost faith in you. I lo...”
Before she could finish, Adramelech yanked on the chain attached to Audrey’s collar, causing her to stumble forward and then spin around to stay upright. The site of the raw and beaten flesh of her back pushed Rian over the edge. Lunging forward, he flew toward the Chancellor. The poison-tipped silver-bladed athame Calysta had given him before the descent into the Abyss appeared in his hand. Raising the blade over his head, the Dragon Leader aimed for the Demon Lord’s heart.
Audrey screamed.
The Guardsmen roared.
And Rian’s world went instantly and tragically black as Adramelech shouted, “Stad! Titim! Codladh!”
I knew it was all too easy...
Chapter Eleven
“Ri? Rian? DAMMIT RIAN! WAKE UP!”
Waking with a start, the Dragon Leader attempted to move toward his brother’s voice, only to find himself restrained and hanging from the ceiling. The events of the recent past came rushing back as he looked at the thick iron shackles and chain holding his wrists together over his head.
Head pounding from the magically induced sleep Adramelech had slapped on him, Rian immediately thought of his mate and yelled, “Audrey? Are you there? Audrey!”
“I’m here.” Her muffle response came almost immediately.
Rian looked through the darkness but could only see his brethren hanging just as he was, each one pissed and vowing revenge.
“Where are you?”
It took a few seconds for her to answer, during which Rian feared the worst. Struggling with his bonds, he pulled at his shackles with all the strength of both man and dragon. The loud pop of his wrists dislocating echoed through the large stone room where they were being detained.
Ignoring the pain, the Dragon Leader stretched until the tips of his toes touched the floor, making it possible for him to rotate his body. Slowly turning, ignoring the excruciating pain down his arms, Rian finally caught a glimpse of Audrey.
His heart soared when she finally answered, “Here I am.”
Her weak smile and battered body nearly broke his heart, but the fact that the piece of shit Chancellor had her chained to the floor of a three-foot by three-foot cage made him growl low in his throat. Holding is temper the best he could, he reassured her, “I’m going to get you out of here. I promise.”
Tears shown in her violet eyes as she nodded, “I know you will try, my love.”
“I will do more than try. Don’t give up now. I have a few tricks up my sleeve.” He winked, pushing love and reassurance through their mating bond. There was no way he was going to fail now that he had her in his sights. “I love you, Audrey Dobresou, and have every intention of making you mine forever. Now, sit tight while I figure this out.”
“I love you too, but please be careful. You don’t know what Adramelech’s capable of.”
“No, mo chroi’, it is he who does not know what we are capable of.”
Opening his mind up to his brethren, Rian joked, “So, fancy meeting y’all here.”
“Shut the hell up, kid, and tell us what you need us to do,” Maddox grumbled, but Rian could hear the smile in his voice, only proving exactly how crazy the old dragon truly was.
“Royce, can you still communicate with that little mate of yours?” Rian was careful not to say Kyra’s name lest Adramelech use it to harm her or any of those they’d left topside.
“Just barely. Seems like the bastard has put some sort of dampening on us.”
“Yeah, it’s the same between Sam and me,” Lance answered along with Liam and Jace about their mates.
“Calysta said I could use the Rose Quartz to contact her, but I have to be touching it and it’s in my pocket.”
Trying to think of a way for the pendant Calysta had given him to touch his bare skin, Rian’s thoughts were interrupted when Rory said, “I have an idea.”
Praying his younger brother wasn’t joking as usual, Rian asked, “And?”
&nb
sp; “You and Kell are gonna have to do a little acrobatics, but since you’re already pirouetting over there it should be easy.”
Trying to contain his irritation that even hung up like a side of beef in the lower levels of hell his youngest brother could joke, Rian sighed, “Go on.”
“You’re gonna need to turn yourself to the left and face Kell.”
Turning on his toes, Rian stopped as he faced his scarred friend who had done the same. Rory then instructed, “Now, Kellan, take off your boot.”
“What the...? Exactly why do you want me to take off my boot, cause if this is one of your practical jokes, the Demon Lord will be the least of your worries.”
Laughing aloud, Rory continued with the sound of their hellhound guards snarling behind them. “You really have to learn to trust, man. You have to take off your shoe to be able to push the Rose Quartz in Rian’s pocket hard enough to tear through the lining and touch his skin underneath.”
“Oh, all right.” Kellan sounded surprised.
“Wait, Kell. I think you’ll be able to push harder with your boots on.” Then admitting something he’d never thought he would, Rian said to Rory, “Good job, bro.”
“I knew the O’Reilly brain was in there somewhere,” Royce quickly added.
“Yeah, screw you too, Roy,” Rory chuckled.
“Only the O’Reilly brothers could joke around in hell,” Lennox sighed.
“All right boys, you can blow sunshine up each other’s butts when we get outta here alive,” Drago grumbled. “Just hurry the hell up. From the little bit I can make out from Alicia, she says they have a plan, but Calysta has to talk to you, Ri, to make it happen.”
Kellan immediately took charge, “Lift your feet, Rian. I’m gonna swing your way and push your back against the wall then hold you there. We’ll have enough stability for me to push that stone through your pocket and for you talk to the Priestess and get us out of here. Sound good?”
Nodding his head, Rian was once again amazed by his friend’s ingenuity and willingness to do whatever it took to get them out of whatever situation they landed in. Kellan was a good man and a good friend, and had the scars to prove it.