Katie's Hope (Rhyn Trilogy, Book Two)

by Lizzy Ford

  Rhyn trotted to a window. The peaceful, snowy park was now swarmed with Immortals and demons fighting. Sasha hadn’t lost time in acting after the ill-fated Council meeting!

  “How can he make something unsacred?” he puzzled aloud.

  “The ground is sacred because our father is buried here. Even in death, he holds power.”

  “He moved our father’s body?” Rhyn asked with a laugh. “Hope he chucked it off a cliff.”

  “I’ve sent Immortals after it. Laugh all you will, Rhyn, but this is my home, and the refuge of our Immortal brethren. I don’t intend to lose it. If you give a shit about anything, you’ll get your ass out there and fight.”

  Furious, Kris stalked away. Rhyn watched him, aware he was much more useful in another way. Kris’s Immortals appeared to outnumber the demons two to one for now, and Katie would call for him if she needed help. He opened a portal and crossed into the shadow world and then through a portal into a Japanese-style palatial estate overlooking Tokyo.

  “Kiki!” he called, ignoring the startled servants scampering away from him.

  “You just can’t give me a break, Rhyn,” Kiki grumbled. He trotted down a set of black lacquered stairs, an iPad tucked under one arm. “Did Kris send you?”

  “Not exactly.”

  “Then get out of my house.”

  Rhyn snatched his brother by the front of his shirt and slammed him into the ground. The iPad skittered across the floor.

  “I’m not Kris, Kiki. If there’s any part of you that thinks I won’t snap your neck like a twig in a hurricane— ”

  “Fuck, Rhyn! What’re you doing?”

  Rhyn planted one foot at the base of Kiki’s neck and wrenched his head back. Kiki strained to breathe.

  “I’m doing what Kris won’t. I’m not bound by those rules of his. Sasha needs to fry, and the Council needs to remain intact, or all Immortals die. I don’t particularly want the world to go to shit before I get a chance to enjoy my time away from Hell,” Rhyn said calmly. “Now, you can send your soldiers to the castle where the demons are staging an attack, and rejoin the Council, or I can bury you here in your front yard. Make your choice.”

  Kiki wheezed for a long moment, then said, “Yes, fine. Let me go, you dick.”

  Rhyn obliged and stepped back. Kiki glared at him, but Rhyn knew this brother to be the easiest of the three to sway. He was about to address Kiki again when Katie’s angry words hit him.

  She hadn’t been talking about Toby.

  “What?” Kiki eyed him warily. “I already agreed. Don’t look at me like I’m your dinner. I take it you’re going to see Erik next.”

  “Yeah,” he managed. “Erik.”

  Holy fuck. There was a hatchling growing within her.

  Chapter Five

  The demons couldn’t get near Sasha so long as he had the coffin holding his father. Jade watched from the brush nearby. Sasha sat on top of the sarcophagus and looked around, smug in how safe he was sitting on top of the coffin. The forest was full of demons. Most had attacked the castle while Darkyn’s personal guard went after Sasha. Jade hadn’t wanted to come; he’d asked a personal favor of Darkyn not to come. Darkyn had laughed and dragged him.

  Jade’s insides still churned at the sight of the demons and Immortals fighting. Technically, this was Sasha’s doing, for he had dragged the coffin out of the protected crypt and left the Immortals exposed. This fact did little to assuage Jade’s guilt when he saw the slaughter around the place he’d once called home.

  “Where’s your master, fools?” Sasha shouted to the forest.

  “I’m here,” Darkyn’s voice boomed from a good hundred meters away, the nearest the demon could come.

  “What of our deal?” Sasha demanded. “I gave you Kris and the Immortals.”

  Darkyn’s chuckle filled the air around them, and Jade watched Sasha’s face turn from expectant to furious.

  “So that bitch Jade betrayed me,” Sasha muttered. “No matter. I can sit here all day, Darkyn, and you can’t come near me.”

  The sounds of fighting from the direction of the castle made Jade sweat. He hadn’t wanted all the Immortals to die, just the ones that hurt him. He shifted in the brush, wishing he could’ve found a better way to draw out Kris and Sasha than by sacrificing everyone.

  “I can’t, but Jade can,” Darkyn said, unconcerned.

  “Jade’s a coward and a fool!”

  “He tricked you, didn’t he?”

  Sasha sneered in response. He rose and began to pace, the first sign of his anxiety. Jade’s hands were sweaty as he drew a machete. He’d crossed the line. There was no going back.

  “Jade, kill him and bring me the vial,” Darkyn ordered.

  Jade closed his eyes, drew a deep breath, and stepped from the forest. Sasha was armed with two daggers and lowered himself into a fighting stance. Jade had trained under Kris, the greatest of the Immortal warriors, and knew Sasha to be a lazy fighter. His first few blows were deflected, but the third slashed Sasha’s arm.

  “Wait, Jade,” Sasha said, surprised. “We can make a deal, you and I.”

  “You have nothing I want.”

  “I am still an Ancient. I will make you my mate.”

  “I saw how Ancients’ mates work. You get no choice, Sasha!” Jade snapped, the hurt caused by Kris’s rejection renewed. He slashed again. Sasha’s guard fell quickly, and Jade hacked at the Ancient with all his fury until Sasha lay in a bloodied heap.

  His whole body shaking, he tried to calm himself and withdrew, wanting to wipe away the taint of Sasha’s blood from his clothing and skin.

  “The vial, Jade!” Darkyn barked. “We are watching. If you try to take it, your death will be the most horrible I devise yet.”

  Jade hesitated, not wanting to go near Sasha’s body. He knelt beside the Ancient and set the machete on top of the sarcophagus. Sasha was far too chopped up to be alive. Jade rifled through his pockets, part of him praying he didn’t find the vial. He’d been responsible for enough Immortal deaths this night; he couldn’t stomach more.

  Jade’s hand brushed the glass in Sasha’s pocket. Sasha had the vial. The fool had really believed he could bargain with Darkyn and the Dark One! Or maybe he was desperate to return to the only place that would accept him and all his sick ways.

  Jade pretended to continue to search, mind racing. It was one thing to feed Kris and the Immortals here to the demons, another thing to give the demons a tool they could use to destroy all Immortals, if not humanity, too. He’d thought he crossed the only line that mattered by selling out the Immortals but found there was another he wasn’t ready for.

  He left the vial in Sasha’s pocket and rose.

  “It’s not here,” he said.

  “Not there,” Darkyn repeated. Jade bristled for an attack, even knowing the demons couldn’t draw near. “Where else would it be?”

  “Kris has a scientist named Ully who would’ve likely been given the vial. Maybe this…” he kicked Sasha’s body, “wasn’t as stupid as we thought.”

  “Or Kris locked it away because he knew better than to trust that piece of shit,” the demon leader added. “Take the bodies and throw them into the sea, where no one will find them. We will find this Ully and take him to Hell for interrogation.”

  “Yes, master.”

  “And Jade?”

  Tensing, Jade turned to face the direction of the demon’s voice.

  “Welcome to Hell, your new home.”

  Jade said nothing, conflicted. He heard the demons withdraw from the forest around them toward the castle. Suspecting some of them remained, he gave no indication he’d found the vial as he carefully lifted Sasha’s body and laid it on the sarcophagus. He stepped back to look at father and son, dead-dead together.

  Very fitting.

  He opened a portal, mind racing with how to keep the demons from getting the vial. Darkyn had said to dump them in the sea. He lugged the coffin through the portal into the shadow world and then paused to
think.

  Sanctuary. All of them were located in the middle of a sea. If he tossed Sasha’s body close enough to one of them, the vial would be safe.

  He concentrated on which Sanctuary he wanted, the farthest from the castle, and lifted Sasha’s body. He crossed to the glowing portal and threw Sasha’s body through it, satisfied when he heard a splash. He turned back to the coffin, not nearly as concerned about the dead-dead Immortal he’d never met but who’d fathered at least two fucked-up sons— three, if he counted Rhyn.

  The Immortal should’ve died in Hell, where he probably belonged. Jade focused on another part of the ocean, Challenger Deep, the deepest part of the Pacific Ocean. Maybe the depth of the sea would crush this Immortal’s perfectly preserved body. If nothing else, the father of the Council would never again be found.

  He lugged the coffin to the new portal and shoved it through. He didn’t stay to hear the splash this time but walked through the shadow world toward the only portal that glowed black, the portal to Hell.

  While feeling vindicated that Kris might already be dead, he couldn’t help the growing guilt at hurting so many other Immortals. Nursing a cratered heart, he stepped into Hell, well aware he had nowhere else to go.

  *

  Katie paced her corner of the gymnasium, where she had been herded with the rest of the Immortal mates. Toby was awake and sitting, fascinated by Lankha’s soft hands. She glanced at them again and looked toward the door.

  It had been an hour, and Hannah hadn’t appeared. She didn’t know if there was a second gym where other Immortal mates were, but Kris had said Hannah would be down. She waited another few minutes and then headed to the bathrooms. Women were packed even in the luxurious bathrooms with their sitting areas decorated with couches and a gilded fountain. She crossed to a stall and closed the door, focusing on a portal to the shadow world. She envisioned Kris’s chamber on one of the upper floors and emerged from the shadow world into the chamber.

  The door was open, and she ducked down as a furry shape rushed by.

  Some of the demons had made it into the castle. She drew a deep breath, terrified of running into one of those creatures alone, then crept to the door. When she heard nothing in the hallway, she eased out of the safety of his room.

  Hannah hadn’t been there long enough to learn the castle. She knew Kris’s chamber, the guest chamber, Katie’s chamber, and the dining hall. Katie trotted to the chamber next to Kris’s, knowing the guest chambers were near but not sure which was which. She pushed the door open to the next chamber and ducked inside.

  “Hannah?”

  Silence from the room, footsteps from the hallway. She darted to the other side of the bed and dropped to her stomach, peering under the bed through the door. A massive creature with black fur and fangs paused in front of the open door, sniffing the air. She held her breath. Her heart pounded as it swung its head to face the room.

  It jerked suddenly and bolted down the hallway with a snarl. She heard the clash of bodies and waited for the sound to fade before rising again. She peeked out to see two creatures at each other’s throats and frowned, wondering why demons were fighting one another. With the creatures too distracted to notice her, Katie drew a breath and darted across the hall, shoving the door of the guest bedroom open.

  “Hannah!” she hissed.

  “Katie?”

  The sound of her sister’s voice brought a waterfall of relief. Hannah peeked from the bathroom door, her normally neat hair mussed and her eyes red from crying. Katie closed the door to the bedroom behind her. She’d barely left it when it slammed open, and two furry forms barreled into the room, snarling and fighting. Hannah screamed. Katie covered her head as they trounced over her and rolled to the other side of the chamber, fighting.

  She rose and ran into the bathroom, jostling Hannah out of the way as she slammed and locked the door.

  “Katie!” Hannah exclaimed, her face a mask of terror. “I was taking a bath earlier and I heard sounds in the hallway. When I— ”

  “Hannah!” she snapped. “Look for anything to brace the door!”

  Hannah looked around, lost. Katie’s gaze swept over her, and she was grateful to see her sister unharmed. She closed her eyes to summon the portal when the door bucked. Hannah cried out and scampered to the far side of the bathroom. Katie rushed to the door, trying to brace it. The sound of snarling came from the other side, and she closed her eyes as the demon struck the door again. She sailed across the bathroom and landed on Hannah. The demon crouched in the door, then roared in pain and whirled.

  The other demon had clamped its teeth around its leg and dragged it out of the doorway. Katie hauled Hannah to her feet and pulled her through the doorway, across the bedroom, and into the hall. Another demon down the hall caught sight of them and charged. She led them into Kris’s room again and slammed the door, vaguely pissed at the Ancient for having the only door that locked in the whole castle. The door bucked but held.

  Her gaze went around the chamber and settled on the alcohol in the corner. She crossed to it, took a deep swig, then flung it against the door. The glass carafe exploded. She threw another and pulled the final from the fridge. As if reading her intentions, Hannah forced herself out of her shock and hurried to the low-burning hearth. She snatched the lighter on the mantle and ran to the door, standing close until the alcohol lit and spread.

  Fire licked across the wooden door. The door bucked again before all went quiet. Hannah stood close to her, and Katie stared at the door, willing their fire to keep the demons at bay. For a long moment, she thought their simple plan worked, and she closed her eyes to concentrate on the portal.

  The door exploded open in flames, wood, and black fur. Hannah dragged her down as fiery splinters sailed over them. The two fanged figures battled until one lifted the other and cracked its back over its knee. It slammed the creature onto a broken piece of burning word. The dying creature let out an otherworldly roar of pain as it burned. It went limp.

  The remaining creature turned to them. It contorted into a human form, and Katie cursed.

  “Lunchmeat,” Jared said with a toothy smile. “You brought a snack to our little party.”

  “Hannah, you have to trust me when I tell you jumping out that window is a better death than what this thing will do to you!” Katie said, dragging her sister toward the window.

  “Easy, Lunchmeat. I came to help, at your half-breed’s request,” Jared said, holding up his hands. “I smelled you from outside the castle. Oh, the sweet smell of— ”

  A roar in the hallway made him whirl.

  “Come with me, morsels,” he said. “I’m your only ticket out of here.”

  Katie hesitated. Jared morphed again into a massive creature. It beckoned for them to follow with one paw and knocked the burning door out of the way. She trailed it, wanting nothing more than two minutes of relative peace so she could summon a portal. Hannah clung to her arm as they entered the hallway.

  Jared launched himself at the demon barreling toward them. Katie gasped and flattened herself against the wall as they soared past them. She grabbed Hannah’s hand and bolted for the back stairwell at the far end of the hall. Steadying herself against the walls of the winding stairs, she ran as fast as she could without stumbling, aware of what likely followed them. Barks and roars from further down the stairs made her stop and grip the railing.

  “This way!” Hannah cried, pointing to the doorway they’d just passed to one of the mid-level floors. Katie followed her into another hallway on the floor where the castle’s serving staff lived. This hall was smaller and narrower. Hannah stopped at an intersection, and Katie took her hand again, continuing down the hall toward the second stairwell.

  Her breathing as loud and ragged as Hannah’s, Katie paused for a deep breath inside the larger stairwell. Hannah draped an arm over her, gasping for breath. Katie heard nothing pursuing them and closed her eyes, focusing hard. Rhyn’s energy filled her. She visualized the portal and the basement.
As soon as the portal appeared, she dragged Hannah through it, racing to the glowing door on the other side.

  Only when they both emerged into the basement did she stop to catch her breath. Hannah dropped to the floor beside her, and Lankha inched away while Toby smiled.

  “Master Kris has ordered an evacuation,” Henri, Kris’s secretary, said as he approached. “He said you’d know where to go, Katherine.”

  She nodded, sucking in air.

  “How did you do that?” Hannah asked, turning to her. “We were somewhere else …”

  “I’ll explain later,” Katie promised. “I’m not waiting for any demons to find us. Lankha, pick up Toby.”

  She closed her eyes and focused again.

  They crossed unimpeded through the portal and onto the island Sanctuary, one of four such sites bridging the mortal and immortal worlds. Sanctuaries were managed by a convent of women who cared for the lost and injured. Katie didn’t recognize the woman who greeted them and ushered them into the small fortress on an undeclared— hidden by magic— island in the Caribbean. She led them into a courtyard lined on all four sides with lopsided doors.

  “Master Kris said you were coming. We have several refugees here already,” the woman in the long brown robe said. “We’re assigning quarters as soon as they arrive and providing a hot meal afterwards. Ladies, you are in these two rooms.” She pointed to two doors. “The healer can stay there, and the angel— ”

  “With me,” Katie said.

  “Then you can take the larger of the two rooms. I’ll wait while you look around your quarters.”

  Katie knew from experience there wasn’t much to see. Lankha was nearly buckling under the weight of Toby. She opened the door to her tiny room, taking in the two twin beds with sagging metal frames. Lankha set Toby down on one before they joined Hannah in the courtyard.

  “Is it normally this … exciting around here?” Hannah asked as they walked to the cafeteria.

  “Seems to be so far,” Katie admitted. “Nice of Kris to abandon you upstairs like that.”