Deliver Me from Chaos

by Tes Hilaire

  “As long as I’m touching it, you can go through,” she told them. Only no one jumped forward and shouted me, me, me first!

  Shit, he hated being first. First often meant being the sacrifice. But this whole gathering of super powers kind of had been Gabby and his idea, so…seeing how she was kinda busy, guess that left the rest up to him.

  He grit his teeth and stepped through, and holy fuck that hurt! For a split second it felt like he was burning, but at the same time it was like there was some sort of dark vise clamping down on him, and then he was popping free on the other side.

  He gasped, the scent of sulfur all but choking him as his hand immediately closed around his knife, his senses stretched out as he waited for his eyes to adjust to the dim lighting. And, okay, no one jumped out to kill him, which was really fucking good.

  After a few seconds of blinky-blinky he was able to discern he was in another tunnel, this one gutted out in a way that suggested highly primitive tools, or at least a lack of planning. And, wonder of wonders, he was almost alone, except for the damn hound of hell that was chained up in the nearby enclave and growling at him.

  He took a step toward it, trying to decide if he should kill it or leave it. Chances were if it was smart enough to pass on a message that there were intruders, it had done so already, but if he killed it, well, Valin could bet that little blip of soul snuff would be noticed.

  Behind him someone swore in long fluent, heavily accented British fashion. He turned to see Bennett pop through the wall.

  “I have to write some of those down, they’re good,” he told the blond warrior who had stumbled forward another few steps and was panting with his hands on his knees.

  “Bugger-off.”

  And okay, Bennett wasn’t back to his happy place yet.

  “Can’t you make that thing stop?” Bennett asked.

  Valin didn’t get a chance to answer. He was interrupted by another string of curses, this one much more American and feminine in nature. And man, that old cop mouth of Jessica’s was colorful. Logan came through right on Jessica’s heels. He took it as he took everything: like a hard-ass. All he did was grit his teeth and sweat a bit, then pull his mate into his arms and start rubbing her back.

  And then Gabby was there. Slightly green, but all business as she brushed by the frozen warriors with barely a hitch in her stride. Of course, she’d crossed this barrier before so she’d known what to expect.

  he told her.

  She kept on walking so he fell into line, followed closely by Logan and Jessica.

  “The mutt?” Bennett asked from the back of the line.

  “Leave it, Ganelon or Lucifer might notice if it dies.”

  “Brilliant.”

  They made their way down the tunnel, the dim glow growing along with the vile scent of sulfur the closer they made it towards the end.

  “What is that?” Logan asked.

  “Sinkhole. I don’t suggest exploring how deep it is. Pretty sure it runs right into the center of hell.”

  “Sounds bloody lovely. This might just top the last hellhole you led us into, Gabs. Hope this is as much a giggle as the last.”

  And wasn’t Bennett just full of his typical happy-happy, joy-joy attitude? Gabby exchanged a quick glance with Valin, not even having to speak with him telepathically to communicate her thoughts. Bennett was getting worse, not better. And damn, Valin had hoped he wasn’t right in his assessment back at the vampire coven. But no, the fucking warrior was bonded. Yet both he and his mate were too stubborn and stupid to realize that their dual acts of martyrdom were killing them slowly.

  Valin hung back, letting Logan and Jessica pass him. Bennett slowed, meeting his gaze. “We going to have a problem?” Valin asked.

  Bennett closed his eyes, blew out a deep breath. “No. Sorry, mate. I just…”

  “You should stop in and see her. She’s healed, the scarring wasn’t nearly as bad as we feared.”

  “How about the scars on the inside? She all better there, too?”

  Honesty was the best policy, so… “No. She’s not.”

  Bennett cursed, his agony slamming into Valin like a hammer. British bloke was always good at projecting when he was pissed.

  “Seems to me that would be the type of healing that a mate would be able to help her with,” Valin said, putting a clog in the spiral of shit swirling going on.

  Bennett ran his hands through his oh-so-perfect hair. “I rejected her. I drove her away and that bastard got her. If I hadn’t—”

  Valin didn’t let him complete that shit storm of ifs, cutting him off by speaking right over him. “If I hadn’t been a possessive shit that night ninety-four years ago, then maybe Angelina wouldn’t have gone to the women’s gathering to get away from me and let me have my cool down time. Maybe she and my child would have lived. If I hadn’t been denying what I felt for Gabby and stopped her from taking off in those caves, maybe she would have never poisoned herself with merker blood. If I hadn’t let my doubts plague me, and been there when she needed me, maybe Gabby would never have gone into that coven after Annie all alone. And if I hadn’t gotten the guts to love her with all I had, I would never have been able to bring her back after Christos fucked with her so bad she was all but gone.”

  He was breathing heavily, his anger at Bennett’s stupidity finally breaking. Shit happened, you moved on and did the best you could with the hand you had left.

  “Don’t be a stupid fuck like I was and live in the if this, if I only crap. There is only here and now. And right now she needs you to man up.”

  Bennett stared at him, rolling emotions hitting Valin left and right, the greatest of which was anger. Probably because he didn’t like having his face rubbed in the shit he’d been defecating. Valin was about to push the idiot, give him a little physical outlet for those emotions when Gabby’s voice broke through their little bubble of manly angst.

  “You boys coming?”

  “Shit.” He rolled his neck, snapping the tension out of it. “Come on, Benny boy. We can go a round later if you still want to.”

  Bennett jerked his head affirmative, and broke in a jog to catch up with the others who were waiting at their turn off maybe a couple hundred meters away. Valin fell into step beside him, cursing himself at getting so distracted. Not that Bennett hadn’t needed the push, but now had not been the time.

  Yeah, but when is there ever a good time?

  Ahead of him, Gabby gasped, her arm coming out to slam into the wall. Logan and Jessica went next, only Logan tried to catch Jessica and they both ended up going down.

  “Blimey!” Bennett bolted, Valin clipping his heels, but then, fuck, whatever hit Gabby and the others hit them, making them both stagger.

  Bennett went down on all fours, Valin would have, too, but he turned the entire thing into a roll. He came up on his feet, knife in hand. Beside him Bennett was already dragging himself up, knife in hand. A quick glance showed him okay beyond shaken.

  Really, the blast hadn’t hurt, just knocked him off his feet, but then again, he suspected they were a decent distance from the source and the power was pretty spent.

  Down the tunnel Jessica was up and helping Logan to his feet. Gabby was already moving further down the hall toward the glowing light.

  “Gabby?” Valin called.

  She spun around.

  “Was that Ganelon?” he asked.

  She shook her head. “That didn’t have his signature taste. It seemed more like…” She trailed off.

  “More like it came from whoever called for help earlier?” Logan finished for her.

  She nodded, moving up the hall some more and stopped before a second opening on the right. “It came from this way. Fuck.”

  “What?” Logan asked, his arm tight on Jessica’s waist as they moved to join Gabby.

  “This leads to his torture chambers.”

  Well fuck indeed. Not like they had a choice though. Not if that
blast had come from the same person who’d been calling for help earlier. No way was that a trick. You didn’t expend that sort of power unless you were really in dire straits.

  He and Bennett hadn’t taken more than a half dozen steps toward the narrower tunnel when the ground beneath their feet began to shake.

  “Shittin’ell!” Bennett swore, trying to stabilize himself on the tunnel wall.

  Yup, that about summed it up: As if their night hadn’t been going shitty enough, now it had also gone to hell.

  Chapter Twenty-five

  Mike tried to stand, even as the ground shook under his feet. Blood dripped from multiple wounds, his ears rang from hitting the wall after that last blast, but he was alive and standing…kind of. And even if he needed the wall to do so, that was better than he could say for the majority of the others who’d been in the tunnel with him.

  Holy crap! Where had they gone? One minute they were there, the next, all but a handful had vanished. Unfortunately that handful happened to be all merker. And though they seemed to have been hit harder with that blast than he, they were starting to come around.

  Time to get out of here.

  Half stumbling, half running, he made his way over the few dead bodies that remained and scooped up Katrina.

  “Mia?” she asked, even as she tried to put her feet back on the ground.

  “Not sure,” he told her. The last he’d seen of the kid was when the merker who’d grabbed her had disappeared around the corner. Mia had been screaming, and then the blast had erupted, and then, nothing. And shit, as he rounded the corner, there she was, in a puddle of pink at the feet of the unconscious merker.

  “Mike…” Katrina gripped his shirt, her fear shredding him. He set her down. She fell to her knees immediately, her fingers pressing into Mia’s neck. Relief swept over him. “She’s alive.”

  “I don’t know if I can carry you both.”

  “I can walk if I have something to lean on.”

  “Kat you could barely make it up that one tunnel.”

  She looked away, color flooding her cheeks. “I, uh, tried to feed from some of the emotional power going on during the fight. It helped some, but…” She looked back up at him, her chin tipped up in that determined jut. “Will you kiss me?”

  He didn’t bother to answer, but pulled her into his arms, devouring her as if it were the last kiss they would ever share. Which, frankly, unless he could get her mobile, it very well might be.

  She gasped, her mouth yielding to his as he deepened the kiss, swiping his tongue across hers. And, Christ, she tasted so sweet. How could it be in the midst of all the horror around them, that she could taste so much like heaven?

  There was another rumble, his legs trembled like a newborn colt as he pulled her tighter to him, kissing her with all he had, letting no barriers ride between them. She returned the kiss in kind, her love pouring over him in wave after wave as she clung to his shirt, as if she could pull him closer.

  He thought he could kiss her forever. Just forget all the shit and live in her essence, but then another rumble shook the ground beneath them. And this time it was definitely not the power of the kiss that made his knees week.

  They broke apart. She laughed.

  “What?”

  “That just seems wrong. Kissing at a time like this.”

  Seemed pretty fucking perfect to him. “Did it help?”

  “Yeah, um…” she pulled back from him somewhat, wincing as the majority of her weight returned to her feet. “Definitely better, but still.”

  “Hold on.” He bent down, scooping up Mia in a fireman’s carry and linked his other arm around Katrina’s waist. “Lean into me.”

  And so she did. And though he itched at the slow pace, they were at least making progress. Now if the tunnel would just hold up. The rumbling had continued, getting closer and closer together. And then it happened. There was a loud roar; the ground shaking so bad Mike went down to his knees, inadvertently pulling Katrina with him.

  Behind them the rumbling continued, the ground shaking so hard there was no way he could pull them all up. A second later there was a loud crash, and screaming, and a wave of air followed by a wave of dust that sandblasted them from behind.

  “Shit. Must have caved in back there.” He pulled Katrina to her feet, scooping up Mia again. The ground was still shaking, which given the close proximity to that collapse, made him very, very nervous. “How far are we?”

  “Not far. Down this passageway then a left hand turn. We’re less than a mile from the exit.”

  A mile at their pace could be too long. With no time to waste, he tucked her into his side, urging her on. They hadn’t made it more than a hundred feet when the sound of thudding footfalls rose above the now constant rumble.

  “Damn it!” He tried to pull her faster, knowing in his gut it was too late. Someone back there had survived. Six guesses on who.

  “Going somewhere?”

  Beside him Katrina drew up short, forcing him to stop.

  “Tsk, tsk, Kaitarina. Ganelon will be disappointed to find you running away again,” the same voice purred. “Come on, turn around and say hello to an old friend.”

  And for some reason she did. Only Mike did too. God knew why, imminent fight or not, his best bet was to get Kat and Mia as close to the exit as he could, yet he couldn’t seem to stop himself from jerking around to face the way they’d come.

  And sure enough, there were the six merker who’d passed out back in the other passage after the first explosion. They had obviously woken and followed their trail. Only they weren’t alone. There was another dozen or more demon, each one more hideous than the last, except the one who stood in the position of leadership. He was the most beautiful man Mike had ever seen. He was so beautiful Mike’s breath caught in his throat, and for a second he wanted to go down on his knees and worship the bastard. Which was so wrong since Mike so did not swing that way.

  “Si’ane,” Katrina whispered, her body going into full fledge tremble mode. Only she wasn’t trembling with the need to bow down before this fucker, but because she was positively terrified. It was that terror that started the synapses in his brain firing again.

  That name was familiar, something of a memory.

  Mike narrowed his eyes, looking past the chiseled body and pretty face and seductive power of the demon’s gaze and saw what he’d missed before.

  This was the bastard who’d taught his Katrina what it meant to lose all hope. The incubus that her father had given her to in order for her to be “taught” their ways. The man who was second, only to her father, on Mike’s very long list of demon’s who had to die.

  Today seemed like a damn good day to check one off. In fact, given the kind of backup the dude had, it might be the only day Mike had a chance. Besides, if Mike were lucky, really lucky, he’d take the rest of these bastards out with him and live to tell the tale…not that he figured he’d remember it, but still.

  “Remember our deal,” he told Katrina, depositing Mia in her arms. Then with one last smile for the woman he loved with all his heart, he stepped forward and snapped the chains on the beast.

  ***

  Kat was shell-shocked. Unable to move as she watched Mike tear into Si’ane and the demon’s surrounding him. Only it wasn’t Mike tearing into them, but Mike’s beast. It was surreal. She could still see Mike, but he was hazy, his edges superimposed by the legendary monster that rode his soul.

  Why? Why now?

  Mike had held onto his control the entire time he’d been down here. Yes, he’d pulled on the beast’s power, even allowed it to ride alongside him at times, but not once had he given it total control. Until now.

  Their deal. What did he mean by that?

  Live. She would take Mia and run and he’d try to live long enough for her to come back to his rescue.

  And you’re breaking your end of the bargain.

  Crap. She didn’t want to leave Mike behind, but really, what choice did she have? She wa
sn’t in any condition to fight. And Mia was too vulnerable. She had to get her safe. Find some backup… She just hoped that Mike would still be alive for them to save.

  He will be. His beast is strong.

  Swallowing down the tears she spun around. Mia lay limp in her arms, and though the weight should have been a burden, the thought of what those monsters would do if they got ahold of her powered Kat through the first steps of pain. By the time she’d rounded the next curve, the dim light of the glowing sinkhole a speck in the distance, Kat was running.

  “This way!”

  Katrina skidded to a stop, adrenaline flooding her system. What new threat was in front of her now? There was no way she can defend Mia on her own. And Mike, he was still in that unstable tunnel, fighting for his life and with no way out unless she went back for him.

  Five forms split from the dimness of the passageway, running toward her. She started to pull back into the shadows when a glint of the backlight caught on someone’s blade, revealing the woman in front. Short, compact, red hair. Gabby. Katrina’s heart stuttered back into rhythm. Gabby had come and brought help.

  “Gabby!” She stumbled forward, nearly face planted at the shock of pain that ran up her legs. Mike’s kiss had helped when her adrenaline was high, but with the relief of seeing potential aid, it seemed her tolerance had waned.

  It was okay though, because they were already there, Gabby’s hand closing on her elbow to steady her.

  “Where’s Mike?” This came from the dark haired woman with the blue eyes. No, not a woman, a Paladin. And there was no way she wouldn’t recognize that face: Jessica. Mike’s old partner.

  Shame slammed into her. Even though she knew there was nothing going on between them, Kat couldn’t help but feel judged and found lacking. Which she was. “The passageways were filled with merker and demon. He stayed behind to pull them off our tail.”

  Jessica mouth pinched with worry as she looked to the tall warrior beside her. And yep, Katrina knew who this man was, too. There were legends written about Logan Calhoun.

  “How far?”