The Rhyn Trilogy

by Lizzy Ford

  “You know the Council needs you,” Gabriel said. “Kris can’t keep everyone together. He needs your … charm.”

  “I don’t give a shit, Gabe.”

  “You should, Rhyn. If you get Katie back and the world goes to shit, all you’ve done is given her an Immortality of hell on earth.”

  “I can do both. I can protect her and the rest of humanity. I think … no, I know that’s what I’m meant to do. I never knew that until I found Katie and I started to realize –“

  “- you can use your demon powers for good.”

  “I wouldn’t call killing things good,” Rhyn said. “But I’d only kill things that threatened those who couldn’t protect themselves.”

  “You’d do what Andre did.”

  “I suppose.”

  “And your father. Almost like you’re making up for your mother killing him and then Andre killing her,” Gabe said. “You’d almost be making things right, assuming you chose this role.”

  . “All I care about is finding Katie, kicking Death’s ass and then going home, wherever Katie wants that to be. Whatever happens then - happens.” Rhyn said with a glance over his shoulder

  “What if Death has her already, Rhyn?” Gabe asked. “What if you do succeed in forcing Death’s hand and she brings Katie back from the dead? You’d tear the fabric of the universe and invite the demons to take control. She’s all that stands between us and them.”

  “Gods, Gabe. You’ve spent too much time with Death. When did you learn to think?”

  “Would you do it? Would you kill Death or risk destroying the worlds for Katie?”

  Rhyn froze. The voice was Gabriel’s, but the assassin’s argument was unlike Gabe, who would know exactly what Rhyn would do after their conversation in Hell. In fact, the whole conversation seemed … off.

  “Why?” he asked.

  “I want to know what you’re getting us into.”

  “You already know that.” He turned.

  Gabriel was gone. No one followed him, let alone spoke to him. Rhyn looked around uneasily, wondering who – or what – he’d been speaking to. He started back to the spot where they’d stopped for water. A few minutes later, Gabriel reappeared.

  “Follow the stream. We should reach the fortress in the morning. It looks like she’s there,” Gabe reported.

  Rhyn stared at him, looking for any sign the death-dealer wasn’t his friend.

  “What, Rhyn?” Gabe asked.

  “I just had a five minute talk with you. But you weren’t here.”

  Gabe frowned.

  “Something about this place is fucked up.”

  “It wasn’t just my voice? You saw me?” Gabe asked.

  “Like I do now.”

  A troubled look crossed the death-dealer’s features.

  “What is it?” Rhyn asked, suspicion rising.

  “Katie said something similar about seeing someone who wasn’t there. From now on, we don’t separate.”

  “Agreed. Let’s walk.” Rhyn sensed there was more to Gabriel’s thought, but he wasn’t about to stand around talking when Katie was out there somewhere, being stalked by Death.

  “What did the other me ask you?”

  “If I’d kill Death to get Katie back.”

  “And you said?”

  “I turned around to look at you, and you were gone,” Rhyn said.

  “That’s probably a good thing. The last thing you want is Death’s spies telling her you’re coming to kill her.”

  Gabe sounded more relieved than Rhyn thought the encounter warranted. He looked closely at his friend, wondering what might be bothering him.

  “Let’s get going,” Gabe said, avoiding his gaze.

  “Lead on.”

  Chapter Nine

  Kris glanced up, expecting Kiki to enter his tent; however, it was one of his Immortal messengers who approached. The messenger held out a small thumb drive with what Kris hoped contained a report identifying the two shapeshifter demons. He left, and Kris plugged the thumb drive into his small PDA. A single file was on the drive, and he opened it.

  It was blank. Puzzled, he pulled the drive free of his PDA and reinserted it. The single file within was still empty. Kris tossed it on a table.

  “You’re a difficult creature to find.”

  He lowered the PDA at the voice. The temperature of his tent seemed to drop by ten degrees. Rather than feel privileged by her visit, he felt his sense of foreboding grew stronger. The petite woman who materialized out of the shadows wasn’t what he expected. Her flawless features were unremarkable, her large eyes turning colors faster than his. She wore white and smiled, more like a nursemaid than the woman whose job was to collect souls.

  “It’s a pleasure, my lady,” he said, at once thrilled and uneasy that she’d finally acknowledged the leader of the Council That Was Seven.

  “You’re getting ready to raid my underworld,” Death said, her glance falling to the rucksack beside his feet.

  “Raid is a bit of an overstatement.”

  “Trespass?”

  He wasn’t sure what to say. Andre had never spoken well of Death, but the woman in his tent seemed harmless. It was enough that she came to see him.

  “It’s not a good idea,” she chided him. “Though lately, I’m surrounded by fools with bad ideas.”

  “Is that why you’re here?” he asked. “To talk about my potential trespass?”

  “As troubling as I find the latest trend of people entering my domain uninvited, I feel able to handle it. What I came to discuss with you was a dream you had.”

  Kris drew a sharp breath, unaware that the deity could enter his dreams.

  “The one where you died,” she added.

  “I haven’t had that dream,” he said.

  “Maybe you don’t remember it.”

  “I would remember a dream where I died.”

  “Humor me, Kris. Let’s pretend you had a dream where you died,” Death said. “It was a noble death for a good cause.”

  The eerily familiar words – the same he’d spoken to Rhyn before sending him on the suicide mission – sapped Kris’s enthusiasm at Death’s visit.

  “You will go down as legend among your people,” she continued. “That would please you, wouldn’t it? Your legacy has been of concern to you.”

  “No one wants a bad one,” he said carefully. “My reputation is important.”

  “Which is why you hope to keep the Council together.”

  “I hope to keep the Council together because it will do the most good.”

  “Of course. It has nothing to do with living in Andre’s shadow your whole life and now having the chance to prove yourself,” she said with a faint smile. “Only you can’t do what Andre did, what Rhyn can do.”

  “I’ve done it so far.” He bristled at the mention of Rhyn in the same sentence as Andre. One half-brother had been noble, courageous, honorable, willing to sacrifice himself for their cause. Rhyn was the opposite.

  “Andre has only been dead-dead for what? A few weeks? And the Council has broken up at least once.”

  “What are you saying?” Kris crossed his arms, looking hard at the deity.

  “I think I said it.”

  “You want me to let the Council break apart.”

  “That’s not quite what I’m saying. I know you understand that great sacrifice is sometimes warranted for a greater good. And what you might be learning is that the greater good also sometimes requires doing what might be called evil,” she said.

  “Evil cannot be done in the name of good.”

  “You buy assassinations from my death-dealers. Maybe your definition of evil is different than mine.”

  “I don’t have time for philosophy,” he said, growing irritated with her word play. “Are you here for any other purpose than to discuss my definition of good and evil?”

  “I guess not. Except … “ She trailed off, gazing around the tent.

  “Except what?” he asked after a long pause.
<
br />   “Several weeks ago, you bought two assignations from Gabriel. Do you remember?”

  Kris blinked, trying to figure out what the deity wanted. He thought for a moment, remembering. He’d paid in advance for two assignations after he began to suspect there was a traitor in his organization. The second had been for Katie, in case she couldn’t be reasoned with. She was a risk for revealing the Immortal society to the human world or alerting the demons as to where Kris’s strongholds were.

  “You remember,” Death said, reading his features. “You paid for two deaths. Gabe came to collect, and those two lives … disappeared. They’re in my underworld right now, running from me.”

  “One was for Katie. But who was the second? Rhyn killed Jade when he attacked me. He was the traitor operating beneath my nose.”

  “What a broken heart will make a person do.”

  “So he wasn’t the second,” Kris said, ignoring her mocking reference to his former lover, Jade.

  “Rhyn’s daughter was the second.”

  “Rhyn’s … “ Kris’s thoughts flew from Katie to another woman, Lilith, who long ago had been pregnant with his own son. She – and the child – had died at Rhyn’s hands, which was the catalyst for Andre sending Rhyn to Hell.

  Death’s words made the air in the room feel heavy. Kris sat down at the table.

  “Think about that when you enter my domain,” Death said.

  “I settled an old debt and didn’t even know it.”

  “That’s one way of looking at things,” she said. “Kris, what if I said you could have anything in the world from me? A favor. A wish granted. Whatever you want to call it. What would you ask for?”

  Her bizarre changes of subject made him understand why Andre hadn’t liked dealing with her. Was there hidden meaning in her words? Or was she a bored deity there to mess with him?

  “I don’t have time for this,” he said and rose.

  “Answer me, Kris. What is your deepest desire?”

  “To be more powerful, so I can wipe out my enemies and force my brothers to stay in the Council.”

  “I can’t help you there.”

  As suddenly as she appeared, Death was gone. Anger rising, Kris looked around to make sure she really was gone then cursed. He no longer felt slighted by her exclusion. Instead, he was grateful he hadn’t had to deal with her before.

  “Kris, I –“

  “What, Kiki?” he snarled.

  Kiki froze halfway through the doorway, frowning. Kris breathed a sigh, wondering how one tiny woman could make him tense enough he wanted to raze the beach.

  “Sorry, Kiki,” he said. “I’m ready if you are.”

  “It’s okay.”

  “Did you have something for me?”

  “It’s nothing. I’ll open a portal.” Kiki left, and Kris felt he’d frustrated the one brother willing to help him.

  Instead of following, Kris dwelt a moment longer on Death’s words. He hadn’t realized Katie was dead because of him. He hadn’t believed her death inevitable, and only bought contracts on those he perceived as potential threats. He had every right to feel vindicated after losing his own potential mate and son so long ago. As much as he’d loved Lilith, Andre had told him she wasn’t meant to be his mate and encouraged him to focus on his duty rather than the woman.

  Kris’s memories stirred stronger than he liked. He remembered Lilith, a beautiful Immortal whose laugh had filled him with happiness. Their love had been intense and brief, lasting less than a human year in total. One day, she was just … gone. Slaughtered by Rhyn, who had taken her head the same way his brothers took the head of Rhyn’s demoness mother.

  Even if Lilith wasn’t meant to be his mate, she didn’t deserve such a brutal death. She didn’t deserve death at all. Instead of mourning a son, Kris could’ve spent the past few thousand years raising a successor.

  Yet he didn’t feel vindicated. He’d unknowingly killed a woman and her child. Was this what Death meant about doing evil for the greater good? It couldn’t be. Katie had stabilized Rhyn, allowed the half-demon to use his power and join the rest of the Immortals. Without her, Rhyn was a hazard to everything and everyone. Maybe Death meant he would have to kill Rhyn to keep the peace. Not attacking one of their brothers had been Andre’s sacred rule. Perhaps this had been the evil of which Death spoke.

  The alternative – that Death might see Rhyn as a viable leader for the Council – was inconceivable. No self-serving, reckless, half-evil being could be entrusted with the fate of humanity!

  Baffled by the deity’s bizarre visit, Kris pushed the memories out of his mind. He had to find Rhyn. He picked up his rucksack and joined Kiki outside the tent. Kiki stood before a portal on the dark beach. Of all the things Death had told Kris, she hadn’t seemed in the least concerned about trespassers in her domain.

  “Rough night?” Kiki asked as they stepped into the shadow world.

  “Let’s get this over with. We’re going to find Rhyn. Then what?” Kris asked. “We try to talk some sense into him? Kill him?”

  “Kill?” Kiki snorted. “We wouldn’t have a chance.”

  “We would if we had Andre’s dagger. It was fashioned by Death. He’d die-dead if we – “

  “You’re serious.” Kiki stopped walking.

  “Come on, Kiki,” Kris said, continuing onward. “I’m sure it won’t come to that.”

  “You don’t sound convinced.”

  “I’ll do whatever I must to protect the Council and Immortals. If Rhyn tries to kill Death or something stupid … “

  “Rhyn is the only one who has half a chance of keeping the Council together,” Kiki replied. “If you’re serious about not splitting, you need him.”

  His words were an echo of Death’s assertion. They struck Kris bone-deep. Kiki’s doubt was apparent for the second time that day. Kris watched Kiki pass him and disappear through the portal to the underworld. Kris stepped through, distracted from his dark thoughts by the new world. They stood on a small rise overlooking a jungle-like forest edged in the distance by an ocean of black water.

  “So this is the underworld,” Kiki said. “Where the fuck do we start?”

  Kris caught a glimpse of what looked like a shopping mall west of them. His gaze lingered. As far as he knew, no Immortal voluntarily came to Death’s underworld.

  “That way,” he said, pointing. “I don’t know what it is, but it’s a place to start.”

  “Do you feel that?”

  “Feel what?”

  “Feels like our power is gone. I tried to open a portal and couldn’t.”

  Kris attempted to summon a portal. Nothing happened.

  “You think Death knows we’re here?” Kiki asked.

  “It wouldn’t surprise me.”

  “At some point, we’ll have to ask her to help us out of here.”

  Kris didn’t answer, not wanting to think of how that conversation would go with the deity. He tested his power again. Kiki was right; they had none.

  “Kris?”

  Both of them spun at Hannah’s timid voice. Kiki was the first to regain himself.

  “What the fuck are you doing here?” he demanded.

  Hannah looked to Kris, her blue eyes watering. “I overheard you talking. You’re coming to save Katie. I’m going, too.”

  “Hannah, you shouldn’t have followed us,” Kris said. “I have no powers here. I can’t send you back, and I can’t guarantee any of us will live through this.”

  “She’s my sister.”

  Kris pursed his lips, wanting to release the curses coiled on his tongue. He looked her over. She’d at least worn sturdy shoes, long pants and shirt. She was in decent shape, slender and toned from Pilates and the gym.

  “If you have any problem keeping up, you have to tell me,” he said.

  “Seriously, Kris?” Kiki demanded. “She can’t –“

  “What alternative do we have?”

  Kiki shook his head and stalked off into the brush. Kris held out his h
and to Hannah, unable to shake the small part of him that was grateful he had one ally, even if she shouldn’t have come.

  In Hell, Hannah had been crying since Toby started to tell her the truth. He was an angel, and he wasn’t her real nephew. Oh, and they were in Hell. From there, things had gone downhill, and Toby no longer knew what to say.

  “But Rhyn is coming back for us,” he told her again. “You shouldn’t worry.”

  “What … is wrong with this world?” she sobbed.

  “Mama took it a little better. She didn’t cry. She just drank a lot of vodka.”

  “Katie knew?”

  “Yeah. She’s immune to us.”

  “Why didn’t she tell me?” Hannah demanded, looking up at Toby through tear-swollen eyes.

  “I don’t know,” he mumbled. “She tried to tell you she didn’t remember me.”

  “Not remembering and getting sent to Hell are two different things!”

  Baffled, Toby shrugged and moved to the bars of his cell, looking to Ully for help. Ully rolled his eyes.

  “Hannah, try to be a bit calmer, in case that creepy demon comes back,” he said.

  “Demon?” she echoed and burst into a new round of crying. “What did I do to deserve this?”

  “Rhyn’s coming back,” Toby said helplessly. “He’s a half-demon. They’re not that bad. Well, he’s not. The rest of them will eat you.”

  “Katie married a half-demon? Is she going to Hell?”

  “She’s already been.”

  Toby felt almost as distraught at having to stay in the cell while his human was lost in the underworld. Not that he didn’t trust Rhyn or Gabe, just that, he might be able to find her first. He knew about Death’s domain from the angel memories.

  “Hey, Toby,” Ully said in a quieter voice. “I’ve been playing with this. I think I got it.” He held out a hand that contained a small talisman. As Toby watched, Ully stuck his hand out of the cell and placed it on the wall.

  His cell door clicked open. Toby bounced to his feet.

  “Me, too!” he exclaimed.

  “Ok, but let me talk to the demon first. We have to get past him to leave Hell.”

  Toby held his breath as Ully disappeared through the door to where Jared sat. When the mad scientist wasn’t sent sailing back through the door, Toby sat down to put on his shoes. He glanced at Hannah. She was in no shape to walk, but she’d have to. He couldn’t help thinking his mama had been a little tougher when she found out about the Immortals.