by Jenny McKane
At her answer, Eli nodded and seemed appeased. But Sunny didn’t want to let it go so quickly.
“Would it have mattered if I’d said yes?” She knew she was poking a proverbial bear, but it nagged at her and whatever was brewing beneath the surface right now needed to be aired if their training was going to continue the way it was. She needed Eli, that much was certain, but Sunny also didn’t need to put up with a judgmental bastard.
Taking his time to answer her, Eli uncrossed his arms and ran his hand through his dark hair, eyes still in a scowl and lips thin.
“I don’t know.”
He was honest with her, she saw that immediately. The answer wasn’t exactly what she wanted to hear, but he didn’t pull the punch, so to speak.
“Why? What are you telling me, Eli?”
Grabbing a chair and sitting down in it with a breath, he rubbed his jaw with his fingers and stared at the ceiling.
“I left Metatron’s service two years ago,” he said. “We used to be a tight-knit group in our prime. There had been six of us at one point, including my fiancée.”
He hardly looked old enough for a fiancée, but Sunny didn’t say anything.
“We had a contact we were using to track a bigger demon that had been terrorizing Chicago,” he said. “Our guy was a half-breed. Nicest dude you could ever meet.”
The story wasn’t going to end well, that much was obvious.
A sigh escaped his lips and the hard-edged look on his face was fading. Taking its place was emotion--something Sunny hadn’t seen before.
“To make a long story short, this nicest dude sent us into a trap and it got Lacey killed,” he said, his voice finally cracking. The pain must have been so fresh for him. “My best friend, Lacey’s older brother, he and I set out to get revenge. We were going to end that motherfucker with an obsidian blade--the worst way for a demon to die.”
It was coming together too quickly for Sunny to stop now. She knew the ending. It was clear. This whole time, she’d been hoping for Eli’s story and she was finally going to get it. Sunny wasn’t certain she was going to be able to stand it.
“Adrian and I, we both wanted to do the immunity, but only one of us could do it at a time,” Eli said. “He went first--he wanted to avenge his sister so badly. He didn’t make it to five cuts, Sunny. Five measly cuts and his body gave out one night.”
The voice crack nearly did her in and Sunny wanted to comfort Eli with a hug. Except, with the feral look on his face, it didn’t seem like a hug was the best thing to do. He was a broken man, but as with anything broken, Eli’s jagged edges were sharp. The story needed to come out and Sunny needed to give him space.
His eyes rested on hers now.
“So when I told you that it was a stupid risk to try this,” he said quietly, his breathing shallow and rapid. “I knew first hand. I watched my best friend die from it not two weeks after losing the love of my life. And if I seem less than thrilled about you risking all of this to save some half breed, you’ll have to excuse me.”
The anger was roiling off him now, and the temperature in the room dropped. Like some wild, feral animal, Sunny knew she had to be careful with how she approached Eli moving forward.
Delaying the conversation by taking a few, deep breaths, Sunny fought back the emotions welling up within her. Her heart broke for him.
“I am so sorry, Eli,” she began, and he tensed. “I know it doesn’t make anything better and I’m not trying to--but I am just so sorry for you, and Lacey, and her brother. None of you deserved this.”
It seemed to appease him, and he looked back down.
“Gideon isn’t your contact from Chicago,” she said. “He was the first noble creature I met after 18 months of getting the short end of every stick Michael could jab at me. I was the butt of every joke he and his little pack of rat bastard cherubs could come up with and I was the target of every single threat they could dream up, too. I was powerless to say no, and Gideon managed to take my power back and give it to me.”
The truth of it all settled in her bones as she said the words. She hadn’t considered it from that angle until the words were out of her mouth.
“He’s not some double crosser and my emotions and feelings for him have nothing to do with the fact that he saved my life in more ways than one and deserves me returning the favor. Especially now.”
Eli didn’t move for a long moment and Sunny was just about to concede the fact that he hadn’t been listening when his eyes shot up and met hers.
“Okay,” he said with a slow nod, his body coming back to life. “Okay, Sunshine Bonnard. I believe you. And I’ll help you give that second chance to your Gideon. But it won’t be easy. Nothing moving forward is going to be easy and if you think what we’ve already done was difficult, you ain’t seen nothing yet.”
Chapter Ten
Sunny blinked. And then she blinked again. It took a moment for her eyes to focus, as everything was dark around her and she didn't recognize the sounds or the smells that surrounded her. She pushed herself up to a seated position and blinked a few more times, as her eyes adjusted to the low light.
The panic in her chest was instant and squeezed tightly, and it took her a moment to remind herself that this was nothing more than a simulation. Plaxo had taken all of his observations and intelligence that he gathered when he spied on Azrael's Castle, and created a version of it in Sunny's dream.
Her instructions had been clear. Gabriel had told her when she woke up to wait for Plaxo and Selah to find her. Selah, being the daughter of Azrael, and a princess of the Shadow Realm, could walk into her dreams if Sunny gave her permission. Plaxo, being a dream demon, could enter her dream at will. He had never done so, though, so Sunny was not sure what to expect.
“Lady Hunter?”
She heard Plaxo’s small voice in the distance. For being a dream, her body was shaky and uncertain. It was a strange sensation and Sunny hoped it would pass soon. She had had enough of strange sensations lately with all the obsidian immunity she had been trying to build.
“Plaxo?” she called out softly, almost worried that she wouldn’t be heard. It was hard to reconcile the fact that she was in her own dream.
Plaxo’s little body came into view as he trotted towards her.
“This feels weird,” she said as he arrived.
Plaxo nodded sagely. “Humans have zero control over their dreams mostly,” he said. “It's as though the human brain takes the night off. It will take a moment for Lady Hunter to adjust.”
They weren't inside. Instead, they were outside amongst a small copse of trees that had large jagged purple flowers, and thorns growing out of every branch. Plaxo noticed Sunny taking in the vegetation around them.
“Archangel has already warned Lady Hunter,” he began, “but Plaxo will say it, too. Don't touch anything, Lady Hunter. Almost everything in this realm is poisonous to humans.”
Food withstanding, Sunny had been warned off of just about everything. She had to be on her toes and constantly vigilant if she didn't want to end up dead within her first few steps inside of Hell.
“How will I know when Selah has arrived?” she asked Plaxo.
Plaxo glanced around and then met Sunny's gaze.
“Plaxo can sense her,” he said. “But she is not here yet.”
Plaxo used names or nicknames for each person he referenced in a sentence. The fact that he used the pronoun she when referring to Selah made Sunny pause.
“You don't like her either, do you?”
This time, Plaxo’s answer was instant. It was a resounding no. Sunny couldn't help but ask why.
“She is the spawn of our most hated enemy,” Plaxo said.
It was true, and Sunny suddenly felt bad for having Plaxo take part in any of this when he and his people were on the run from Azrael, hoping to avoid being used as a weapon against his enemies. Dream demons were powerful, but they were also vulnerable. Once controlled, they can be turned against anybody and wreak havoc
almost impossible to stop.
“I'm sorry,” was all Sunny said.
Plaxo was looking in the distance, but she didn't miss the nod he gave her. When he had entered her life, Plaxo promised to be her most loyal guardian. And so far, he lived up to that promise. Nobody had taken care of or looked out for Sunny as ardently and faithfully as Plaxo had. And to think, it had all began because she botched a job and inadvertently saved his hide from a seeker demon.
“Whatever happened to that seeker that was after you?”
Plaxo gave a shrug. “Plaxo does not know,” he said. “Plaxo thinks it was sent by the owner of this Castle to scoop us up one at a time. A few of Plaxo’s brothers and sisters disappeared over those months and were not seen again. The dream demons got smarter, though. The dream demons became harder to catch, so the Archduke decided to hunt us as a group.”
Azrael. It always came back to Azrael.
Sunny felt a pull in her mind, and her eyes shot to Plaxo. “I feel something,” she said. Something trying to get into my mind.
Plaxo inhaled slowly, as though gathering his reserves.
“She is here,” he said. “Open your consciousness only to her, using her image in your mind. She'll appear shortly.”
Sunny did as he said. She closed her eyes and conjured an image of Selah just as the tugging sensation began again. When she opened her mind, she felt a relaxing of the pressure that was coming from the other end. Moments later, Selah materialized in front of them both. She didn't miss the small curse that Plaxo gave as he moved further away. She watched as Selah shot the small dream demon a dirty look.
“Look familiar?” Sunny asked. She wanted to make sure she was learning the ins-and-outs of the right place.
Selah’s dark eyes scanned the outside of the keep. She nodded. “Home sweet home,” she said with very little emotion.
She motioned for Plaxo and Sunny to follow her, and they fell in step behind her. The gates were down in Plaxo’s version of Azrael's keep. They walked across a drawbridge, which Sunny noted looked somewhat medieval in the demon realm. From everything she had observed, demons were slick, and materialistic. They preferred luxury over anything else, and this old castle seemed out of place.
Selah must have seen her studying the outside walls.
“What?” she asked then stopped and turned towards Sunny.
“It just caught me off-guard,” Sunny said. “Everything that I had ever seen associated with a demon was of the highest luxury and cost. It just seemed that an Archduke of hell would have more modern furnishings.”
“Normally, yes,” she said. “But there's a lot to this keep that draws my father here. Most of his power comes from this structure.”
She did not elaborate, and Sunny did not question her. Plaxo had made himself scarce, and Sunny looked around to find him. He was nowhere to be seen.
“When you arrive for real,” Selah began. “The halls of the first floor will be teeming with servants and visitors. This place is never without retinues and entourages of demons visiting from every realm in Hell. My father is nothing if not a fantastic host, and it's a privilege to be able to spend time in here for most demons. That said, be quick on your feet and do your best to not be noticed. If anybody in here discovered there was a human in their midst, chaos would break out and I doubt you would survive it.”
“Noted,” Sunny replied. She had already gotten the entire spiel from Gabriel, and then again from Eli. She thought it was ironic coming from Eli, seeing as though he had never been to Hell himself.
“But I've heard stories,” he had warned her.
Once they were inside, Sunny's eyes widened as she took everything in. From the outside she could tell it was a large structure, but it didn't do it justice. She could see more clearly what she was working with once they got inside. They walked straight into a foyer with a tree as large as a house in the center. It stretched up to the third floor of the enclosed foyer. The second and third floors had balconies that circled around the foyer and looked down to where they stood. Hallways shot off in different directions. On the first floor, the hallways that surrounded the trees trunk were numerous.
Selah explained. “I don't know the whole story behind this tree,” she began, “but I do know that it makes this castle somewhat sentient. It's a demon magic, and I believe it's where my father gets some of his powers from, especially when he is here. Now you see the draw to this old, ramshackle place.”
Sunny studied the tree further.
The bark was purple, and instead of looking rough and ragged, it was slimy. And it moved, similar to how snakeskin twitched when it slithered. Sunny took a step back reflexively, never having been a fan of snakes. The branches began around the second floor, and spread out, touching the balconies and certain points. The leaves were giant and fan-shaped. They were bright yellow with purple spots dashed along them. Summer to the trees in the front, there were spikes. And when Sunny asked, she received the same answer. They were poisonous.
“To demons, too?”
Selah nodded. “To some,” she said.
Why is everything in this realm poisonous? It was starting to get ridiculous. The creatures she would come across, she was warned, were poisonous. Most of the vegetation, she was warned, are poisonous. The demons themselves, she was warned, we're poisonous. Literally everything Sunny was going to encounter in the demon realm was poisonous.
“The first floor is where my father conducts his business and his entertainment,” she said. “There are party rooms, meeting rooms, and his throne room. In the back there's also the kitchen, and the servants’ quarters.”
“Is that where I will stay?”
Selah shook her head.
“Gabriel and I decided that it would be best if we did not pose you as a servant while you are here,” she said. “Instead, we are going to give you an identity as a minor demon noble, who serves as one of my ladies-in-waiting.”
Sunny raised her eyebrow at that. Seriously?
“Demon courts are very old-fashioned,” she explained. “I have had anywhere from four to six demon noble women serving me at any time.”
“Nobility, though?” Sunny was beginning to worry. “Don't you think somebody would notice a new noble woman showing up?”
“You don't seem to understand just how many demons reside in this realm,” she said. “Add to that, the amount of demons in Hell itself and you'll understand when nobody could keep track of all of the noble families. It's impossible, there are too many. Gabriel is working on getting you an identity from a realm that has little contact with ours. It should work perfectly.”
Should being the operative word, Sunny thought.
Selah continued her tour.
“The second floor is where family members and guests reside,” she said. She motioned to the second floor, where Sunny saw four separate hallways in each direction. Selah pointed out which hallway contained her rooms, where Sunny would be staying. “My apartments have six rooms, you'll take one of them.”
“Will you have other demons in waiting?” Sunny snickered at the word. It sounded ridiculous.
Selah, however, did not bat an eyelash. “Maybe,” she said.” It depends on how suspicious my father is.”
“The third floor is reserved for my father,” she said. “Nobody goes up there without an invitation. In all my years, I have only been invited to one room, and that was only three times while my mother was still alive. I believe his bedroom, offices, and his war room are up there. There are rumors that my brother now has a room up there also, but I'm not sure.”
There was bitterness in her voice at the last part of that sentence. Sunny also remembered the reference to this brother that Azrael made in the vision that Plaxo shared with her. Sibling rivalry much?
“There's also a floor beneath us,” Selah said. “I don't know what goes on down there, I've never heard anybody speak of it, and I have never seen it. I don't think good things happen below us.”
A dungeon, perh
aps? Sunny imagined. It had to be something like that. She wondered if that was where Gideon was being held and tortured. She'd make sure to find a way down there as soon as she could, once she had arrived.
“You're going to need to know your way around here when you arrive,” Selah said, “as I'm going to be busy with my father for much of the time. You'll have to find Gideon and find a way to free him on your own. So I'll show you the individual rooms and the hidden staircases that you can use to travel between the floors. But I warn you, the third floor and the basement will likely get you killed if you snoop around there.”
Without another word, Selah spend the rest of their time in Sunny’s dream showing her around Azrael’s keep.
Chapter Eleven
Though she’d probably forget everything she learned in her sleep soon enough, Sunny woke up the following morning feeling a little better about the whole thing. She had about a week left to go to finish the obsidian blade torture and she was getting over the sickness, the fever, and the barfing a little quicker each day.
So, when Gabriel sauntered into the training room and announced they were packing up and leaving and headed to Vancouver, Sunny was a little reticent about the whole idea.
“Why?”
She knew she sounded like a child, but she really didn’t feel ready to go just yet.
“Timing is everything right now and we need to be closer to a strong enough portal for you to pass through,” Gabriel explained. “That would be Vancouver. It just so happens that there have been reports of women going missing in one part of town and no sign of angelic activity. There should be angels around when demons are hunting and a lack of them is suspicious.”
It seemed reasonable and Sunny couldn’t argue with the logic. It just meant that things were speeding up and she was going to have to “perform” soon.
*****
They were ready to go in three days. Like before, Sunny rode with Gabriel. Eli opted to come along, too, but he drove his own truck.