bedeviled & beyond 02 - bedeviled & bedazzled

by Sam Cheever

  I reached under my sweater and pulled out my cross. Placing it on my forehead I called Myra and my father to me. They appeared with twin pops and I ran gratefully into my father’s arms. “I don’t have time to tell you everything but we need to take this human with us to release the king. Then we need to sit down and have a really long talk.”

  My father returned my hug and kissed me on the forehead. “It’s okay, Astra. We know about Enoch.”

  I searched his face carefully, shocked that he appeared ready to accept his friend’s duplicity. But there was no time for that discussion at the moment. I shook my head. “No, you only know half of it. But right now we need to release King Dialle and get Raoul to safety.”

  The three of us turned to Raoul and I almost smiled at the look on his face. The fear that had swamped his features just moments earlier had fled to make room for a new and stronger emotion.

  His mouth hung open and his features were locked in a look of what could only be described as awe. Except for the fish lips, it was the look you’d expect to see on those who were being ushered through the pearly gates for the first time.

  “Raoul?”

  His gaze flew to me and he forced his lips shut. Then he bent slightly in what I assumed was meant to be a bow. “I’m honored, Seraphim James, Archangel Myra.”

  My father smiled, placing a hand on Raoul’s shoulder. I watched as my friend’s face softened into a peaceful expression. Then my father turned to me. “Where are they holding King Dialle?”

  “Castle Gregg, the dungeon.”

  He nodded and offered me his other hand. I held up a finger for him to wait and shuffled my mental drawers.

  Dialle?

  I waited for a second and finally got a crackly response, as if he were trying to talk on satellite and had a weak signal.

  Astra.

  I have backup. It’s time to free your father. Meet us there.

  Are you sure we cannot leave him just a bit longer, my love? I find my butt fits rather nicely in his throne.

  I wanted to chuckle but figured it wasn’t the time. Har. I need you to meet us there as soon as possible.

  A sigh drifted through my mind, followed by a very sexy thought that caused parts of my body located in the restricted territories to tingle.

  Hold that thought. I told him.

  I found myself smiling as I took my father’s still outstretched hand.

  Raoul looked a little pale when we returned to the physical plane. I clapped him on the back. “Welcome to my world, pal.”

  He surprised me with a wide grin that transformed his face. “That was frunkin’ cool, Astra.”

  I chuckled and took his arm.

  King Dialle was looking a little squashed. Apparently his lessons in anger management hadn’t been particularly successful.

  “It’s about time you came back you little bitch. Let me out of here so I can melt you.”

  My father frowned at him. “King Dialle, you touch one hair on this girl’s head and you will be sent back to the fiery pits so fast you won’t have time to take a breath first. Do we understand each other?” Seraphim James gave the king his best celestial rock star look and Dialle the First, though hardly looking mollified, finally gave a slight nod of acknowledgement.

  “You have my sincerest apologies Seraphim James. I’m sure you can understand that my temper has been strained by my current circumstances.”

  My father turned and winked at me. “I think you have it backwards, King Dialle. It looks to me like your temper has done much to strain your current circumstances.”

  King Dialle’s face darkened in anger again but he forced himself to give a tight nod in agreement.

  My father looked to Myra, who’d been busy assessing the king’s magical prison.

  She met his gaze with her usual poker face. But I could see the concern in her clear blue gaze. “It is a unique structure, James. I’ve not seen its like.”

  My father glanced at me.

  “It’s made up of exactly the same amounts of dark and light magic, Father. Forged under two powers of exactly the same strength. I’ll admit I don’t know how we’ll break it.

  Raoul stepped forward and tentatively placed his hands on the cage. King Dialle, being a devil, took advantage of Raoul’s obvious fear and jumped toward him, as much as he could in the womblike prison, growling menacingly. Raoul jumped back with a less than manly yelp and then scowled.

  “Childish antics will not get you out of this cage, King Dialle.” Raoul said with as much dignity as he could pull back around himself. “But I can if you’ll stop being difficult.”

  Dialle the First chuckled meanly. “You? A mere witch? And a human one at that? I think not.”

  Ignoring the cranky twitterfly in the cage my father turned to Raoul. “Do you know how to break it, young man?”

  Raoul shook his head. “Not break it no. But I know how to open it.” He glanced at me before returning his earnest gaze to my father. “It has a seam.”

  “I couldn’t find one,” I piped in.

  Myra shook her blonde head. “There is no seam, human. I’ve searched carefully.”

  Raoul turned to Myra, ignoring me. “You wouldn’t see it because you are of the light, Archangel Myra. It’s visible only through dark magic. And only then if you have some idea of the magical components in it.”

  “But I have dark magic, Raoul and I can’t see it.” I argued.

  He nodded without looking at me. He’d begun to run his hands over the entire surface of the cage, murmuring something that sounded like an incantation. “Your mother placed a special protection on the lock so you couldn’t see it, Astra. She knows of your relationship with Dialle the Second.”

  As if on cue my Dialle popped into the room.

  He strode toward us a bit arrogantly. Looking at his father he chuckled. “I see you’ve managed to make your life even more of a living hell.”

  Dialle the father scowled at him. “Stop jabbering boy and get this thing open.”

  My Dialle looked at me and his gaze grew heated. I cleared my throat and swung my eyes meaningfully toward my father. My devil grinned mischievously so I shuffled his mental drawers and said, Redeep.

  How long will you hold that over my head, Astra?

  Until I find something better, Dialle.

  He glared at me for a beat but then his lips twitched. Remind me to kiss your ass later, Astra.

  I frowned. Don’t you mean kick my ass?

  No. I said exactly what I mean, halfling.

  I forced the grin off my face and gave my Dialle the highlights of the situation. He nodded and looked at Raoul. “Can you release my father, human?”

  Raoul’s gaze when it slid to Prince Dialle was not friendly. I couldn’t help remembering the animosity he’d shown toward my Dialle when we’d been discussing the demon’s first victim that day in the church. When he’d seemed determined to blame the royals for the murders. I wondered what was going on between them and made a mental note to find out later.

  “I can.” Then he turned back to the cage and resumed his searching and quiet chanting. Finally he stopped and placed his hands over a specific area. His chanting grew louder and I could feel the distinct tang of black magic rising in the air.

  Gooseflesh pebbled my arms and I rubbed them.

  The angels stepped back from the rising black tide. When confronted with black magic it was an angel’s duty and inclination to remove it. They were no doubt fighting that inclination mightily.

  I watched Raoul’s hands carefully. Very slowly something started to appear beneath them. After about a half hour of solid chanting, the lock to the cage was finally visible.

  Raoul stepped away, clearly drained.

  I walked to the lock and reached for it.

  Raoul grabbed my hand. “No!”

  I looked at him in surprise.

  “You must not touch it. It needs to be deactivated first.”

  My father stepped forward. “How?”

>   Raoul looked at him. “That’s why I need you and Archangel Myra. We need really powerful light magic to counter the dark magic Prince Dialle and I will be adding to the mix.

  I frowned, “What about me?”

  Raoul and my Dialle both said, “You stand back.”

  My pulse spiked. “Excuse me?”

  Raoul expelled a breath and took my hands, though I almost snatched them away because I was seriously pissed off at the idea that they were trying to exclude me.

  “Look, Astra. Every time I use dark magic it leaves a stain on my soul. It’s why I’m such a mess right now. I’ve had to use a lot of dark magic over the last few weeks and I’m feeling the effects. I don’t want that to happen to you.”

  Myra, damn her soul, chimed in, “He’s right, child. Your soul doesn’t need to get any blacker.”

  My Dialle snorted and I glared at him. “I don’t care. I’m doing this.”

  Prince Dialle’s eyes met my father’s and I knew what they were going to do but I couldn’t move fast enough to stop it.

  My father waved a hand toward me and I was suddenly encased in a hard bubble of air, standing a dozen yards away. I commenced to pounding on the clear bubble and sharing my vast knowledge of unacceptable language with everyone in the room.

  My father glared at me like a father and shook his head at my language. But then he turned his back and ignored me. I wound down after a few minutes of being ignored and stomped my foot. It didn’t help but I did it again anyway.

  Damned fools.

  My mental drawers suddenly shuffled and Emo’s voice greeted me. Hey, boss. Where are you? I’ve been looking all over for you.

  I’m at Castle Gregg. We’re trying to release the king.

  That’s good because all Hades is breakin’ out here.

  I frowned, momentarily distracted from the fact that I was being excluded from the goings on across the room. What’s up?

  I’ll tell you when I get there. You on the main floor?

  Dungeon.

  A heartbeat later Emo popped into the room. He stood looking at the gathering around King Dialle for a moment and then, looking confused, glanced around looking for me. He didn’t even try to hide his start of surprise when he saw me in my shiny prison.

  All by myself.

  To his credit he did quickly squash the smirk that tried to climb onto his face.

  Almost before I saw it.

  I bristled as he sauntered over to me.

  “Don’t say it!” I glared at him.

  He drew a zipper across his lips and then grinned at me. “Always on the outside looking in aren’t you, Astra?”

  I scowled in a very unattractive way. “Bite me. Get over there and find out what they’re doing and then come back and tell me.”

  He saluted cockily and sauntered back across the room.

  I tried not to notice the way his jeans molded over a very round and muscular backside as he went.

  I really did.

  I mean...it’s not like I had anything else to do in that damned bubble.

  He joined the circle and received a pat on the back from my father. Then he bent his dark head as they continued planning. Whatever it was they were going to do seemed complex because there was much discussion and head shaking going on.

  The only bright spot to the whole damnable situation was the way it was truly and thoroughly pissing off the king to have to stand there in his cage and wait patiently.

  Finally there was sustained and uniform head bobbing and they broke up to circle the cage.

  Emo started to turn away and walk back toward me but Myra grabbed his hand and yanked him around to the back of the cage. He threw me a glance over his shoulder and shrugged.

  “Son of a flaming gargoyle bitch!” I screamed into the room at large. “What about his soul? Doesn’t anybody care about that?”

  Other than a brief, guilty glance from Emo, nobody paid any attention to the pissed off little halfling with the long auburn hair which was currently, I was fairly certain, standing straight up in the air like the needles on an agitated porcupine.

  I could only watch helplessly as the group extended their respective arms so that their fingers just touched in a circle around the cage. Raoul began to chant and, even through my bubble, I could feel the air beginning to change.

  Black magic pulsed and throbbed around me, bringing my devil out in a big way even from across the room.

  The air inside the flesh and blood circle started to thicken and grow substance and light. Pinpricks of color and flashes of light pulsed in time to Raoul’s chanting and wrapped the clear cage in a throbbing layer of power.

  Inside the cage King Dialle was visibly affected. His eyes were closed and his head thrown back to rest against the clear wall of the cage behind him. He’d placed his hands flat against the cage, his fingers twitching.

  My gaze ran around the circle and saw that Dialle and Emo were having the same reaction. But my father and Myra looked as if they’d lost ten years of their lives. Their faces were grey and pinched, as if they were in severe pain.

  I figured they probably were.

  I suddenly realized that they were seriously outnumbered. Yes, Emo had light magic in him but he also had dark. Raoul was using pure black magic to close and ignite the circle of power and Dialle was pure black.

  I sent my sensing power out and was surprised to find it could move beyond the power bubble. I concentrated on assessing the circle of power and saw that it was a dark, pewter-like grey.

  It needed to be much lighter if they were going to achieve the perfect mix that would open the lock. Not to mention that it was killing the angels in the circle.

  When Myra’s knees started to buckle I cried out and my hands flew to the power bubble in frustration. I had to get out of there somehow. Something wasn’t right.

  Drawing all of my reserves of power I concentrated it into a pinpoint area and drilled it into the bubble, I focused on that pinpoint spot for several minutes.

  Nothing happened. The bubble didn’t weaken even the tiniest little bit.

  I gave up and leaned back against the bubble panting. My mind worked frantically for a solution. Finally, in desperation I shuffled my mental drawers and called Dialle.

  Dialle, the black magic is too strong, pull back your power. Now!

  In response I got the telepathic equivalent of static and forced myself not to make snide comparisons to dead air space and Dialle’s mind. But after a few beats he said in a fairly strained voice in my head, I’ll try.

  He pulled his power back and the effect was nearly instantaneous. Raoul dropped to his knees and Emo doubled over at the waist. My sensing power showed me a power circle that was way too light, nearly white.

  Dialle, rejoin the circle, hurry!

  Make up your damn mind, Astra!

  Why was everybody always saying that to me?

  He threw his power back into the circle and the Angels looked like they’d taken a jolt. Myra wavered on her feet.

  Plan B. I screamed to Dialle in my mind. I’m going to try to add some light magic to the circle through you. I briefly considered the effect it might have on him to be a conduit for my light magic but I didn’t have any choice. Myra had dropped to her knees and my father looked decidedly wobbly.

  This could get ugly. I told him.

  Just do what you need to do.

  All righty then.

  I closed my eyes and concentrated on my link with Dialle. I knew I’d tapped into it when the daemon hickey on my neck started to throb.

  Pulling my power forward, I channeled it through the open connection. I opened my eyes to see the effect and knew it had hit the circle when I saw Myra jerk and then look at my father. His eyes widened and his gaze flew to me.

  Myra stood up and followed his gaze. I expected her to glare at me but she gave me a slow smile instead.

  I was so shocked I almost lost my concentration.

  The circle had grown a bit too light so I pulled
back a little until it was the right mix of dark and light.

  There was a small explosion on the clear prison, indicating the lock had finally been breached. With the lock no longer active, the king’s prison dissolved into mist around him.

  Raoul stopped chanting immediately and everyone in the circle stepped back, their heads drooping in complete exhaustion.

  My bubble disappeared with a pop.

  I strode toward the exhausted group a little cockily, fighting to keep the grin off my face because I like to believe I’m not that much of a jerk. Pretty darn close though. It was all I could do not to remind them that the weak little halfling they’d thought wasn’t man enough to help out had saved their sorry asses in the end.

  Okay, I might have been experiencing one of those less stellar moments in my life the Big Guy had been talking about.

  Sigh.

  I reached down into my vast stores of maturity and managed to pull myself together enough to ask if everybody was okay. Everyone except Raoul nodded. I peered carefully at him and decided the experience hadn’t improved his sickly appearance at all. In fact he looked decidedly worse.

  “You gonna make it, Raoul?”

  His head, which had nearly been resting on his chest, lifted slowly and he fixed pain filled brown eyes on me. His face was literally grey and he looked like he’d aged twenty years since he’d come to Castle Gregg. His lips twitched as if he was trying hard to give me a smile but he couldn’t pull it off.

  “I need to go,” he said in a raspy voice.

  Myra reached a hand toward him but he jerked away. “No more magic. I need to go the old fashioned way.”

  I opened my mouth to argue that he was in no condition to leave on his own but he was already striding toward the door. Moving much more quickly than I thought he should be capable of.

  I started to follow him but my father stopped me with a hand on my arm. “Leave him be. He has poisoned himself with dark magic. He must deal with it on his own.”

  My stomach felt as if it were filled with lead. What had I done to my friend? He’d gotten involved in this mess because of me. Because I’d asked him to. It was all my fault that he was sick.