Hell Raiser (Hellscourge Book 7)

by Diem, J. C.

  Leo pointed at an area that was alarmingly close to where we were. “They only stopped when another demon appeared and spoke to Vepar,” he said. “They were too far away for me to overhear their conversation, but she looked even more annoyed than usual. She left and her squad followed her.”

  “Perhaps she was called to report in to her master,” Nathan speculated.

  “This would be the perfect time to set a trap,” I said and smiled nastily as an idea came to me. A new rune floated to the center of my mind and I knew it had to have been sent by Sy. I instinctively understood what it was for and how I could use it. “We might not be able to catch Vepar, but we might be able to make her think twice about trying to find us.”

  “That is a disturbingly sly smile,” Sam said in anticipation. “What idea did you just come up with?”

  “Sy’s been showing me a lot of runes. I think it might be time to see how well they work in this dimension.”

  Leo voiced the doubt they were all thinking. “They have all been very destructive, from what you have told us. Once they are activated, they will destroy the buildings long before Vepar and her minions can infiltrate them.”

  “Not if the rune that just came to me works,” I said. “I’m pretty sure it’s designed to put the destructive runes on pause. As soon as it’s broken, they’ll start working again.”

  “How will you be able to ensure that it will be broken?” Sam asked.

  “I’ll draw the rune across the doorframe. Once the door is opened, the rune will automatically be shattered.”

  Leo grinned and rubbed his hands together. “I cannot wait to see if this works.”

  Sophia and Nathan exchanged a glance that said they were less sure about this plan. Unfortunately, we didn’t have any better ideas.

  “We should set up a series of traps like you saw in the palace in the fourth realm,” Sam suggested.

  “That’s exactly what I was thinking,” I agreed. “I don’t know how to set the triggers up, but I can create runes that will be very bad for their health once they’re activated.”

  “We will have to use a vacant building so no humans are accidentally injured,” Sophia said. “Finding one should be our first goal.”

  “That should be relatively easy,” Nathan said and stood. “Wait here, I will be back soon.” He knew the area well and he didn’t take the map with him. Thanks to Leo’s spying, he knew which buildings had already been searched. Now he just had to find a vacant one for me to set the traps.

  ₪₪₪

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Nathan was gone long enough for Sophia to make Sam and me lunch. He returned and took his seat just as I was finishing my sandwich. “I located several buildings that may suit our needs,” he reported. He pulled the map closer and pointed at a few different locations.

  I left the table and walked over to the counter to grab a pen. I returned to my seat and handed it to Nathan. “Can you mark them down for me? I’ve just thought of another way we can mess with Vepar.”

  He took the pen and studied my smirk. “You think we should create more than one trap?”

  “Yep,” I replied with an evil grin. “I think we should set up decoys all over the place. She’ll have to search every building she finds that is guarded by demonic and angelic runes. It should slow her down a bit and hopefully lead her away from here.” This all hinged on whether she could break through the runes to gain entrance in the first place.

  “It will take some time to set these traps up,” he said, but he wasn’t discounting the idea.

  “We have nothing better to do,” Leo pointed out. “We might as well make ourselves useful.”

  Now that we had a plan, I was eager to get started. “We should get to work before they return,” I said and stood.

  “I will gather the supplies that we will need,” Sam offered. He headed to the kitchen to retrieve demon blood from the fridge. He stopped at the counter to grab paintbrushes and a backpack to carry them in. I folded up the map and put it in the backpack so I’d have a reference, just in case I needed it.

  Sophia was curious enough to come along with us when Nathan zapped us to the first building. We appeared inside a foyer of an abandoned apartment building. A dusty set of stairs sat to the left. The banister was worn and the varnish was peeling. The building was so old that it didn’t have an elevator. More dust covered the carpet, obscuring the original color. It just looked dingy and gray now.

  Glad I didn’t have to use my own blood to create the runes, I went to work. Since we were trying to trap demons, I didn’t bother to create the symbol that would debilitate an angel. I just created the ones that would lock the doors and prevent anyone but us from teleporting in and out. I had to mix my friends’ blood in with mine so they wouldn’t be trapped inside the building when I was done.

  Leo and Nathan didn’t stand idly by. They created spells of their own that were designed to debilitate demons. Mine would be scarlet when they were activated, but theirs gave off a faint blue glow. I could only see them if I concentrated. I’d only been able to detect them after I’d ingested Raziel’s essence.

  Vepar would be expecting their spells and she was probably already prepared to deal with them. What she wouldn’t be ready for were the other runes I was going to scatter throughout the building. They would have to search every room and I planned to leave some nasty surprises behind. First, I’d have to test the new rune to make sure it would work the way I hoped it would.

  When Nathan and Leo had finished constructing their spells, I painted the new rune on the front door and activated it. Turning to a fireball rune that I’d already created, I crossed to it and prepared to activate it.

  “How will we know if this new rune is working?” Sam asked as they all moved so they weren’t in the line of fire. It was pointing directly at the door.

  “I’ll guess we’re about to find out,” I replied. “If it starts shooting out fireballs, we know the new rune isn’t working. Get ready to put out a fire,” I warned Nathan and Leo. They nodded in agreement. It would sap their power, but they’d be able to put out any flames that might start.

  Dipping my finger in the blood, I pressed my palm against the symbol and it flared scarlet. Jumping aside, I cringed as I waited for a fireball to be expelled. Ten seconds passed and I let out the breath that I’d unconsciously been holding. The new rune had suspended the spell, just as I’d hoped. “It worked!” I said and turned to hug Nathan.

  “I never doubted you,” he said and winked.

  My breath caught and Leo made a sound of annoyance. “If you two can bear to tear yourselves away from each other, you have more runes to activate.”

  Snapping out of my daze, I hurried to activate the other runes. “The stairs look too dangerous to try to climb,” I said to Leo when I was done. “Can you zap me up to the next floor?” He knew I was trying to put some distance between myself and Nathan and nodded. Sam came with us, but Nathan and Sophia remained behind. They would keep watch to make sure Vepar and her minions weren’t in the area.

  I painted the new symbol across the doorframe before I crafted a few destructive spells. I also created the spell that would lock the door and the anti-teleporting rune. Leo teleported us out so we didn’t have to open the door and break the rune again. Poor Sam and Leo had to donate their blood each time I chose a room at random, but they weren’t going to leave me to do this alone. I needed an angel to be able to shift me in and out of each small trap that I created.

  I’d nearly depleted the container of blood by the time I was finished. It was only a four story building, but it had still taken me several hours to set several traps on each floor.

  “That is enough for today,” Nathan decided. “Leo and I will take turns keeping watch over the area. We will need to make sure Vepar and her squad do not return and search any of the buildings we have earmarked for your traps.”

  Sam put a hand on his stomach and grimaced when it rumbled. “I am starving,” he complai
ned. “I had forgotten how annoying it was to be human.”

  “Welcome to the club,” I said and tried to hide my unease at his rapid transformation. “Let’s stop for burgers on the way home.”

  He made a face at that. Fast food wasn’t high on his list of tasty meals. “I would prefer to eat my shoes than to eat French fries.”

  “You have no taste,” I sniffed in mock condescension.

  “I have only been eating for a short while and I already have a more refined palate than you do.”

  “Maybe you and Zach can get together and eat caviar and lobster,” I suggested snarkily.

  “I would love that!” he said and batted his eyelashes. “What should I wear on our date?”

  I snorted out a laugh and slung my arm over his shoulder. “You’re such a goofball.”

  “So are you. That must be why we are best friends.”

  Leo was watching us with a hint of sadness. He didn’t have the same camaraderie with Brie, but they were still close. He missed being able to hang out with her. I put my other arm around his shoulder and pulled him in close as well. “I guess this means I am your second best friend,” he said ruefully then turned to Nathan. “I wonder what that makes you?”

  Nathan’s smile was hot enough to melt my socks. “I am her guardian. What we have transcends mere friendship.”

  Caught in his snare, I stared at him longingly. The bond that had been forged between us was stronger than ever and it was inexorably drawing me to him. Sam and Leo tightened their hold on me while Sophia stepped in front of him to block his view of me. “Take Violet back to our base,” she instructed Leo. “I wish to speak to Nathanael privately for a moment.”

  “Nathan is in trouble,” Sam chanted almost beneath his breath. Leo broke into a snigger and whisked us back to our lair.

  ₪₪₪

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Only a few minutes passed before Nathan and Sophia arrived. Nathan looked chastened and I knew she’d given him a stern lecture about our forbidden feelings for each other. The glance he sent me was apologetic before he disappeared again.

  “Nathan has decided to take the first watch,” Sophia said.

  I followed her into the kitchen. “You scolded him like he was a five-year-old kid, didn’t you?” I said as she put the kettle on.

  “Yes,” she replied honestly. “I am aware that he has been trapped inside his vessel for several thousand years, but he cannot allow human emotions to cloud his judgement.”

  “How can he have human emotions at all if his vessel’s soul left his body?” I asked.

  She cut a look at me to see if it was a genuine question rather than a sarcastic one. “We are not designed to remain inside living bodies for prolonged periods,” she explained. “Angels are spirits and we do not have solid forms. To be trapped inside a human means we have no choice but to become assimilated with them. His vessel might have expired, but Nathan would have absorbed the man’s thoughts and feelings before this happened. They are entwined with his own thoughts and they are sometimes difficult for him to keep separate.”

  “Is that what happened to you after the Collectors harvested your essence?” I asked as delicately as possible.

  Letting out a sad sigh, she nodded. “My vessel did not die, but she has been pushed to the back of my mind. I can barely hear her now.”

  “I’m sorry I haven’t managed to find your grace yet.”

  “It is not your fault,” she said and put a comforting hand on my shoulder. “Perhaps you were not meant to find it.”

  “I made you a promise and I’m not going to give up on it,” I said stubbornly. She’d done so much for me and restoring her essence was the only way I could repay her. One way or another, I would find her grace and bring it back to her. My plan to trap Vepar could be the only way I’d ever find out where her grace had been taken. She was the one who took the harvested souls to hell. If anyone knew what happened to them, it would be her.

  I kept that thought in the forefront of my mind during the next couple of days. Sam and Sophia quickly grew tired of watching me set the traps and chose to remain at home. We were fairly confident demons wouldn’t find our base now that we’d lured them away.

  Nathan and Leo were with me when I felt something tug in the back of my mind. Drawn to the window of the third story of where I was painting a rune, I looked out to see one of the other empty buildings that I’d set up traps in across the street. The door had been broken open by Vepar and she was sending her minions inside. “Come and watch this,” I said to the guys.

  Leo crowded in beside me and Nathan stood at my back. He was tall enough to look over our heads. We watched as a captain and his six minions entered the building. They didn’t get far before the angelic spells kicked in. They went down screaming and writhing in pain.

  “The fireball rune should kick in any second now,” I said in anticipation. A moment later, a bright orange ball of flame hurtled towards them. Sam had advised me to paint the runes low to the ground since the demons would most likely be driven to their knees. The captain was directly in the path and he took the brunt of it. He shrieked loudly and burst into flames. “Direct hit,” I said happily.

  Vepar turned to sweep the area with her eyes and I saw her triumph even from here.

  “She believes she has found our base,” Nathan said with satisfaction. “It will be interesting to see how long it will take them to realize that it is just a decoy.”

  Showing no signs of nervousness, Vepar waited for another fireball to smash into her minions then stepped inside. Seconds later, her lackeys stopped writhing in pain. I was disappointed when the fireballs stopped. She’d somehow deactivated both my runes and the angelic spells.

  “Did you see the brace on her arm?” Leo said to Nathan.

  He nodded. “There were several runes glowing red.”

  “I guess that means she and Dantanian are still in league with each other,” I said. No one else would have access to runes that could break through Sy’s spells and angels’ spells as well.

  “We now know that they can infiltrate our base,” Leo said. “I hope we can keep them away from Sophia’s store.”

  It took them a couple of hours to search every room and to deactivate the traps that I’d set. I’d been worried that the buildings would be destroyed by my traps, but they didn’t want to draw attention by allowing them to burn to the ground. Apart from an occasional scream of pain when a trap was triggered, their search was fairly quiet.

  When they finally emerged, I sniggered when I saw some of them had been burned by acid and fire. Their flesh would eventually be repaired, but their clothing was ruined. Vepar was the only one who wasn’t showing any signs of injuries. Like any intelligent ruler, she’d sent her minions in first. Her smirk of triumph had been replaced with a scowl of annoyance. She now knew that we were on to her and had realized that we weren’t going to be easy to track down.

  Instead of searching another building, she disappeared with her kill squad. They were far too noticeable in their current states. They would have to heal and change their clothes before they returned.

  “Our decoy worked even better than I had expected,” Leo said with a grin. “I have a new respect for Sytry and his runes.”

  “I’ll be sure to tell him that the next time I see him,” I said. I’d passed on Heather’s message to him and Sam that she was proud of them for defending my honor. Neither had found it disturbing that they could communicate with a dead girl through me. They were well used to my strangeness by now.

  ₪₪₪

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  My plan to set up decoys for Vepar and her death squad had been a good one. I felt it every time she managed to break into one of the abandoned buildings. The new rune that Sy had shown me was multi-purpose. It didn’t just pause every destructive spell in the room where it was created, it also warned me when it was broken. I felt the strange sensation in the back of my mind each time. It helped me to keep track of
where they struck.

  The map where Nathan had circled the empty buildings was kept on the table. I updated it each time the runes were triggered. I knew which decoy had been found without needing to investigate them in person.

  As per Nathan’s suggestion, we’d found more suitable properties further away from our base. Vepar had given up on slaying vessels and sending her kin to me. She seemed certain that we were somewhere in the area. She was systematically searching the neighborhood where the traps were set.

  Sitting down at the table, I checked the map to see how many properties were left. There were a surprising number of vacant buildings that we could choose from. They were usually old and in total disrepair. It would cost far too much to rebuild them. Some were condemned and would have to be demolished.

  Seeing that there was only half a dozen of our decoys left, I frowned. Vepar and her crew were getting faster at springing the traps now. We’d been at this for several days and I was getting tired of painting the runes multiple times in each building we used. Nathan had had to kidnap a demon and siphon his blood when our stocks had grown low.

  “We need to try to catch Vepar,” I said to the room at large. “I’m tired of her hunting us down. With her out of the picture, we’ll be able to relax a little.”

  “She has runes that nullify our spells,” Leo said. “How do you propose we trap her?”

  “She sends her lackeys in first to trigger the spells before she enters and deactivates them. What if we wait in hiding then grab her and teleport her away before she can rescue her soldiers?”

  “Where will we take her?” Sam asked.

  “To one of the buildings they haven’t found yet.”

  We all turned to Nathan to see his reaction. His expression turned thoughtful. “Your idea has merit. I am willing to try this.”

  “You’re not going to wait for her alone,” I said. “I’m going with you.”