by Sam Cheever
The moment I hit the pile of bodies beneath us, I rolled and flipped back onto my feet. His hand shot toward me but I remembered how he’d disintegrated the demon that had jumped on me earlier and had a lot of incentive to avoid his touch. I sprang upward, achieving a surprising height of more than ten feet and landed again on the altar. I was instantly aware of a new tingling sensation rising up into my legs. Magic, like tiny explosions of vigor in my blood, burst through me and I was jittery with power. I realized that the altar had somehow absorbed an incredible amount of energy and it was making itself available to me.
Hey, I’m not proud. I’ll take all the help I can get. Even from a rock.
There was a pale, fragile corpse lying across one end of the altar. My senses recognized her before my eyes did. Like the other royals I’d seen, Queen Kaline’s body appeared to have been sucked completely dry. I felt a stab of pain looking at her, but I didn’t have time to think about what it all meant.
Nille strode toward the altar, his golden, muscular arms lifted above his head. The blue of his chilling eyes throbbed with energy and something else. I didn’t stay around to find out what he had in mind. I shimmered away and ended up on the ledge above his head with the angels. For a moment Nille lost track of me. Watching his pulsing, blue gaze ripping the cavern apart looking for poor little ol’ me, I shivered. It wouldn’t be good when he found me. He looked royally torqued.
I shrank back into the shadows to think. I knew I had maybe seconds, not much more. For the first time I realized the ledge was littered with bodies in addition to the wide-eyed angels.
Myra and the other angels stood in a semi-circle around a dark mound that had probably once been alive. A jolt of cold dread speared through me as I caught Myra’s eye and I knew. It was Dialle. And the angels were protecting him.
My eyes swung to Nille and he was no longer standing where I’d left him. Cold, raw fear crept through my chest but I knew what I had to do. Running to Dialle, I knelt down beside him. He was lying on his side, crumpled like a broken rag doll. He wasn’t moving even a little bit but something about his face gave me hope. I touched his neck and felt nothing. I dropped my face to his and said a silent prayer that I would feel breath upon my cheeks. Nothing.
Out of the corner of my eye I saw Nille shimmer to a spot about ten feet away. Almost instinctively, the angels closed ranks around us and began to swell with light. A warm nimbus emanated from the encircled angels and vibrated against my skin. The circle of light was filled with an energy that was pure power. They’d covered us with protection. My eyes flew to Myra’s and she frowned.
“For the moment he will not breach our protective wall. The goodness within it would burn his skin like acid. But he is powerful, Astra. He will not be stopped for long.”
“What should I do?”
Myra shrugged. “That is for you and Dialle to determine.”
It was my turn to frown. Dialle was dead. Wasn’t he? In desperation I reached up and touched the mating mark at my throat. It began to throb as I touched it. Almost immediately I felt a shift in my mental drawers. The merest whisper only. He was so weak. Guilt washed over me. I’d let him down when he’d needed me and I’d surely let him die.
Tears ran down my cheeks as I dropped to the ground and placed my forehead against his, thinking his name with everything I had in me. Dialle! I need your help to fight Nille. Don’t leave me...please!
Nothing. I continued to plead with him mentally for several long moments. Sitting back with a frustrated curse, I clenched my fists and let the tears that had been burning my eyes fall. I felt the angels’ eyes on me but I couldn’t look up at them. It was over. I’d failed. Nille would win.
My hand reached out and brushed a long tangle of silky hair from Dialle’s face. He was terrifyingly pale. He looked like a cold, porcelain statue on the dirt floor. So beautiful. So perfect. So cold to the touch.
My hand stopped in mid-caress as I saw, for the first time, the mark on his neck that matched mine. I stared at the pale, red teardrop and my heart started to pump again. Adrenaline coursed like fire through my veins. My fingers were drawn to touch it. I reached out, placing the tips of two of my fingers against the mark and felt it immediately warm under my touch.
My mental drawers shifted and static poured through my mind. Somewhere in the midst of the static was a weak voice. Dialle’s voice. I strained to understand it. It sounded like he was telling me to touch the mark he’d made on my own neck. I shook my head. Somehow I knew that, if I did, my life would change forever. I resisted until I felt him slipping away again and then I panicked. My eyes dropped to the hand that still clutched the knife in my lap and I forced my fingers to unwrap from the warm metal. Although I knew the thing was worthless against my current foe, years of dependence on physical weapons made me incredibly reluctant to give one up when I found myself in a dangerous spot. But I dropped it because I had to.
I moved my fingers to hover over the mark on my neck. It was throbbing wildly. I wasn’t sure I could touch it. Somehow I knew it would close the connection between Dialle and me and permanently bind us. It was the last thing I wanted to do. But my choices had been taken away from me. So I closed my eyes and touched the mark.
Power exploded between us. Dialle’s body surged into a sitting position and one of his hands closed painfully around my wrist, holding us together. His eyes shot open and I was suddenly looking into a pool of ocean blue that registered calm despite the violence of our joining. His sensual mouth opened enough so that I could see the tip of his tongue playing at the sharp, white teeth. His face held the look of a man near orgasm. I’m sure mine held the look of somebody who needed to change her underwear.
The magic wound through us and around us with ravenous energy, locking us together physically as well as mentally. Pictures flew through my mind of things I’d never seen, never experienced. I felt our minds merging and wondered at the thoughts we shared. Would Dialle view the outlines of my life as I seemed to be viewing his?
The power, incredibly, was growing. It felt as if a million volts of electricity poured through my veins. I was burning up from the inside. My skin felt as if it were being ripped off of my body one small, horrifically painful piece at a time.
Somehow Dialle and I had become entwined the full length of our bodies. My arms were wrapped around him, his around me. Each of us had one leg wrapped around the other’s body so that we formed a perfect path for the energy to flow through. Our foreheads touched and I could feel his heated breath against my lips. Our skin felt seared together. I didn’t think we could have separated if we’d wanted to. And, although the joining was painful, I really didn’t want to. The force of our joining was almost sexual, like nothing I’d ever felt before.
As the path formed and the bond was completed, our bodies flew off the ground and hung in the air, twisting manically while the power tossed us around. It plowed through us as if we had somehow created a pathway from the spiritual world to the physical world, allowing it to enter and fill that dim, blood-soaked cavern. It drove back the circle of angels. It drove everything on the ledge away. On some level I became aware that the cavern walls were quaking with it. The ledge was breaking away and falling into the cavern below.
A sudden, bright light filled the cavern and I realized the power had drilled a hole through the miles of rock above our heads and I was looking at the sun, feeling it burn the top of my head. It was crazy. It was wonderful. It was impossible.
Little by little, inch by inch the power eased away from us. Slowly Dialle and I floated toward the floor, still wrapped tightly together. As our feet neared the floor his lips met mine and a new kind of explosion ripped through us. Every pore on my body, every sense I owned, every muscle fiber I had, responded to his hungry kiss. If the power hadn’t convinced me that Dialle and I were joined for good, that kiss certainly would have done it.
We might have stayed that way for hours, days, weeks. I don’t know. I only know that when we surfac
ed we were surrounded by whirring, shimmery things and the cavern was bathed in a soft, golden light that had nothing to do with the encroaching sun.
I pulled away from him guiltily, ashamed and embarrassed. Suddenly I wanted to be anywhere but in that cavern.
Not a new feeling for me I realize but that time it was for totally different reasons.
Dialle was watching me with a knowing look that made me want to hide. I tried not to look directly at him and ended up searching for my angel instead.
She floated down beside me, her usual scowl firmly in place. “You rang?”
“What about Nille?”
She shrugged. “I don’t know. He shimmered away when you and Dialle channeled the power.”
It was my turn to scowl. “He’s gone? Where?”
Dialle’s voice pulled my gaze reluctantly toward his. My heart leapt in my chest as my brain finally registered the blue eyes. “He has not left. He is all around us.”
“What the hell does that mean? Why do you dark world types always talk like you’re stuck in the middle of a bad western wearing eagle feathers on your foreheads...”
I didn’t get much further than that. As I’d been indulging in my screaming tantrum (stress always makes me irrationally cranky), I’d been dimly aware of a rumbling sound growing nearer. It seemed to be coming from beneath the cavern floor. Gradually the rumbling moved from the center of the earth and emerged through cracks in the dirt and rock floor beneath our feet. The ground started to shift and break apart. Myra and Dialle each grabbed one of my hands and we were suddenly airborne. We shot upward at an impossible rate of speed. Even at that pace I felt the hole in the cavern closing rapidly around us. The light of the sun was being reduced by half with every advancing second. Throwing a panicked look upward, I realized we weren’t going to make it out in time. We were going to be buried alive.
Several silvered forms shot past us and I felt a moment of anger as I assumed they were scurrying through the hole before us, leaving us to be buried alive. But as we neared the quickly narrowing hole I realized the angels had formed a tight circle at the opening and were holding it open with a ring of power.
We barely made it through the quickly narrowing hole before it exploded inward. The implosion sucked two of the angels into the hole, covering them with tons of rock and dirt.
Myra cried out and looked toward the imploding earth beneath us with a look of such pain on her face. I followed her gaze and saw a familiar form disappearing into the crumbling earth. I sucked in a horrified breath, my heart twisting painfully.
I suddenly would go to my grave picturing Prevara’s terrified face as she was sucked away. Killed saving me. Shit. I wasn’t worth it.
I closed my eyes as my feet came to ground far away from the spot where the earth still roared and sank away. Myra’s hand released mine and I turned to her. “I’m sorry, angel.”
She threw me a scowl that was even more intense than her usual and shimmered away. I recognized the scowl for what it was. A coping mechanism, an attempt not to show me how upset she was. I sighed, fighting tears myself.
Dialle grabbed my hand and pulled. My nerves had melded together into one, big, raw thing and as he pulled at me I snapped. I yanked my hand away and screamed. “Leave me the hell alone. I’m sick of you pushy, frunking devils. I’m going to see if I can help.” With that I turned and headed back toward the cave, where I hoped Emo was still among the living. Maybe the angels could be saved. Maybe I could dig my way through...
I didn’t get far. Suddenly Dialle was standing in front of me, blocking my escape. I scowled up at him. “Get thee to Hades and bathe in fire.” When I’m upset I revert to halfling-speak, which isn’t the most gentle of languages.
Dialle’s face was a calm, golden mask. He simply stared at me until I screamed in frustration and gave in. “What do you want from me?”
“Our work is not done. Nille lives.”
“I thought you wanted him alive. What was that you said while I was in the cavern—Prince Nille must not be sacrificed?”
He inclined his head, spreading glossy black strands of dusty silk across broad shoulders. “That is true. If Nerul had completed the ceremony Nille’s power would have been increased tenfold. That would have been bad.”
I couldn’t help it, I laughed. “No shit. Talk about your average galactic sized understatement.”
The calm mask didn’t alter. “As you have seen, he is already too powerful.”
I felt the hair on my entire body stand up on end. “Too powerful? Are you telling me he can’t be stopped?”
Dialle grinned at last. I tried not to notice the effect it had on my stomach. “There is one way.”
I threw my hands up between us, palms outward and shook my head. “No. Don’t tell me. Really, I want to guess. Let’s see...I’m sure that I’ll have to have sex with a man sized worm or something.” As Dialle’s grin widened I felt a cold sweat break out on my face. “I was just kidding. Don’t smile at me like that. Oh shit, you dark world types suck. I’m not dating some slimy worm, I don’t care if it does save the world!”
He grabbed one of my hands and turned away, bringing me with him. “Come. There isn’t much time.”
I let him drag me away, what else could I do? “Ok, but we have to get Emo on the way.”
Dialle simply nodded. “He’s already been taken care of.”
My heart kicked up about a thousand beats. Horrified, I couldn’t help asking, “What the hell do you mean...” But I wasn’t to be allowed to finish the question. The air changed around me and the world shifted into fast forward. And then the universe went completely mute and numb.
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
Into the Beast’s Lair
Alas our lady did go hence, into the devil’s lair,
And found the future in its depths, let’s hope she prospers there!
We landed in a familiar room, surrounded by a familiar crowd. Déjà vu hit me right between the eyes and my instincts told me to run like hell. But Dialle kept a firm grip on my hand and, as he pulled me toward the curved table at the front of the huge room, the crowd of lesser devils and demons split away from us and, incredibly, they bowed us through.
As one after another of the dark creatures dropped to one knee and folded into a deep bow that brought their foreheads to the floor, I gaped around me with wide eyes and flapping mouth. I felt like a country mouse visiting the city for the first time. After I’d stumbled over the rug a few times, I decided I’d better pay attention to where I was going and pulled my gaze from the bowing dark worlders around us to refocus on our path.
It seemed we were to address the court, which was seated in their assigned places behind the long, semi-circle of a table. My eyes ran the gamut of their beautiful, golden faces and took note of several empty chairs, including two in the center of the table. Unbidden, my mind jerked back to the evil Rayanne and I wondered if the creatures in that room knew I’d killed her. And if they did, would they want to eat me? They were giving away nothing with their blank, even bored looking expressions. That bothered me more than hostility. I always liked to know where I stood with the enemy. Suddenly I was glad Dialle was there with me.
Speaking of Dialle, he’d started to climb the wide, shallow stairs at the front of the room, pulling me with him. I realized with a jolt that he was moving toward those two empty chairs and I knew I was not going to put my butt into one of them. I tried to jerk my hand away but he tightened his grip and continued to pull me forward.
I wanted to fight him, but at the same time I didn’t want to allow the evil inhabitants of that room to witness even the tiniest crack in our alliance, so I initiated a field trip into his mental drawers. Dialle, I am not going to sit at that table!
Yes you are.
Look asshole...
Astra, we have many battles ahead of us. Let us not fight each other too. We will only survive if we are united in our goals.
I thought about his statement for a minu
te. Maybe I could be united if I knew what our goals were.
I will tell you as soon as I can. For now you’ll need to trust me.
Oh, crashin’, a member of the royal Devil Court is asking me to trust him. I must be losing my frunkin’ mind.
He turned to grin at me as we reached the empty chairs and then stood to one side, ordering me into the evil Rayanne’s chair with only the smallest of nods and a flashing of eyes that were...shit...black as night again. When had that happened?
Realizing that trusting him was my only choice at the moment, I reluctantly lowered my butt onto the soft seat. As I landed, a murmur started around the room and grew in intensity until Dialle turned to glare at the crowd on the other side of the table. The room fell instantly silent.
Then Dialle lowered himself into his own chair and the room erupted in thunderous cheering and applause. The explosion of sound was too much for my jangled nerves. I started to jump up and my hand went to where my knife usually rested in its sheath before I even knew what I was doing. Dialle’s hand shot out and clamped my arm, dragging me back into the chair before I killed somebody. Too bad.
He let them cheer for a while and then turned his midnight gaze on them and, without a word, they fell silent. The silence throbbed around us for a full minute before he spoke. He kept his hand on my arm as if he feared that I would make a run for it. I wasn’t entirely sure the precaution was unnecessary. Never had I felt so sure I didn’t want to be somewhere. Never had I been so sure I shouldn’t be.
Dialle’s voice was pitched low, but somehow it reverberated around the room, effortlessly filling the space. It was drenched with power and the force of it kept everyone in the room rooted to the spot. I watched their faces as his words began to insinuate themselves into the varying depths of their brains. It was the first time I realized how powerful he was. It was a power that he projected effortlessly and seemingly without thought. It was the scariest type of power, because it didn’t feel scary.