Devil's Descent (Luther Cross Book 2)

by Percival Constantine

  “That the same for Heaven and Hell?” I asked.

  Cain shrugged. “Never been, but I assume so.” He looked at Asmodeus for confirmation, but the archdemon ignored us, smoking his cigarette and staring out at our surroundings.

  I looked at Tessa. Her eyes were closed and she sat upright, hands resting on her knees. She was in a meditative state, no doubt preparing herself for whatever threats we might face in Purgatory. It wasn’t a bad idea, and I knew I should be doing the same. But my demon side was on high alert and it made relaxation all but impossible.

  Cain reached into his duster and pulled out a flask. He took a swig from it and screwed the top back on. Just as he was about to put it back in his pocket, he looked at me and held out the flask, giving it a shake. I nodded and he tossed it across the boat. My heart clenched up for a minute as I watched it fly through the air. I tried to catch it without rocking the boat even a little. Fortunately, I did, and I could breathe again.

  “Probably not the best idea given our surroundings,” I said as I unscrewed the cap.

  Cain chuckled. “Relax. Caught it, didn’t ya?”

  I tipped the flask back, the liquor splashing onto my tongue and down my throat. Almost immediately, a coughing fit overcame me. I hunched over, still hacking. The stuff burned like battery acid and tasted ten times as foul. Through the coughs, I heard Cain laughing, and I looked up at him.

  “This that same moonshine Asmodeus tried?” I handed the flask back.

  “That’s the stuff.” Cain accepted his flask and took one more swig before he returned it to his jacket. “I got a higher tolerance than most. Gotta admit, I’m a bit disappointed. Thought a cambion would be able to hold his liquor.”

  “I hold it fine; that shit’s just nasty.” I lit a cigarette to try and kill the aftertaste of moonshine with a good dose of tobacco. Every now and then, I’d hear a moan or a groan and look over the side of the boat. We continued to push through all the lost souls stuck here that made up the Styx.

  “When I first began this job, the Styx was clear,” said Charon. Almost like he’d read my mind. “Beautiful, crystal water. The purest you’d ever seen.”

  “And now it’s filled with bodies,” I said.

  “For eons, the souls of mortals have felt lost regardless of where they are,” he said. “They cannot accept their place in the world. Even those in Heaven try to escape. But when they try to swim the Styx, they get stuck.”

  “Why would someone escape Heaven?” I asked. “Thought it was supposed to be the ultimate pleasure palace.”

  “Because it gets boring,” said Asmodeus, finally acknowledging the rest of us. “You humans have always been restless, ever since your creation. You crave drama and change, even if it’s for the worst.”

  “Says the guy who joined up with Lucifer,” I said.

  “Don’t get me wrong, I’m not criticizing,” said Asmodeus. “I actually think it’s an admirable quality that you never settle for anything and try to reach for something more. And as I’ve told you, I find you talking monkeys irresistibly entertaining.”

  “What was that?” asked Tessa, suddenly opening her eyes.

  I looked at her in confusion, then glanced at Cain and Asmodeus. They both seemed just as in the dark as me. “What do you mean?” I asked.

  “I thought I felt…” Tessa shook her head. “Never mind, maybe I just got too deep into the meditation.”

  “Or maybe not.” Cain stood, throwing his coat back and drawing the revolver from the holster. “Be ready.”

  I stood and tossed my cigarette over the edge of the boat. One of the souls yelped when it struck their head. “Sorry ’bout that,” I said, then looked at Cain. “What kind of threat could we deal with here on the Styx? The lost souls?”

  “No, the lost souls are the least of your worries,” said Charon. “It’s the adaro you must fear.”

  “The adaro?” asked Tessa, standing too.

  “Most of the lost souls just stay lost,” said Cain. “But a few turn malevolent over time. The weight of all the pain and suffering over time transforms them, corrupts them. And they want only one thing.”

  A growl came from somewhere in the distance. I drew my own revolver from the shoulder holster and looked around, aiming it in front of me. “What are these things like?” I asked.

  “Vicious,” said Cain. “If Tessa sensed one, then it’s a fair bet that connection worked both ways. They claw their way up from the bottom of the Styx and try to grab souls off Charon’s boat.”

  “Would’ve been nice for you to tell us about this before we came on this suicide mission,” I said, glaring at Asmodeus. He just remained in his seat, smoking his cigarette without a care in the world. “You hearin’ me, Hell Lord?”

  Asmodeus sighed. “I hear you just fine, drama queen. To be honest, I completely forgot about the adaro.”

  “These things gotta have a weakness, right?” asked Tessa.

  “If you get ’em back into the Styx, that should buy us enough time to escape,” said Cain. “Just don’t let ’em take you overboard.”

  Another growl in the distance. I concentrated on my demonic senses, focusing my abilities to zero in on the adaro. “Something’s wrong,” I said. “My senses aren’t working.”

  “No, they’re working fine,” said Asmodeus. “Have you forgotten where we are?”

  Of course. I could detect the presence of supernatural creatures. But on the Styx, everything around us was supernatural, so there was nothing standing out, nothing to zero in on. I wouldn’t be able to see any threats coming at us.

  “There!” Cain turned and aimed his gun in the distance.

  I looked and saw something crawl up from beneath the lost souls. It started running across the bodies, snarling as it did. When it came closer, I could see it was a man, but one that had been deformed after too much time spent at the bottom of the Styx.

  The adaro had scale-like skin and sharp fins protruding from its forearms and calves, with three fins piercing through its bald scalp. Its skin was a sickly green color, and the long fingers on its webbed hands ended in sharp talons.

  It sprung into the air, leaping towards the boat. Cain pulled the trigger and the adaro screeched as the rounds punched into its chest. The adaro landed on the surface of the Styx, and almost immediately, the hands of the lost souls reached up and pulled it back down into the depths, the adaro reaching its arm out to try and stay above.

  Something hit the boat from underneath. I looked at Charon, who tried to maintain the balance and keep us from capsizing. A clawed hand reached out and grabbed the edge of the boat. Tessa stepped back, and I was about to fire, but she held up her hands and performed some gestures. Her eyes flashed, and as her hands moved, trails of flame followed. The adaro’s hand suddenly burst into flame and it cried out before returning to the Styx.

  I heard a noise come from behind me, like nails on a chalkboard. I turned and saw an adaro leap from the river. Before I could stop it, it grabbed my shoulders. I grabbed its throat and tried to pull it off, but the adaro dug its claws into my flesh. I gritted my teeth and glared at it, raising my revolver and placing it to the creature’s head.

  “You are one ugly bastard.” I pulled the trigger and the adaro’s grip loosened. I pulled its claws out of me and let it fall into the Styx.

  The boat continued to shake, threatening to tip at any moment. We all chipped in to maintain balance—all except Asmodeus, who just remained calm and watched the show unfold.

  Adaro attempted to climb up in multiples, their claws digging into the sides of the boat, their hands reaching for us. Cain and I used our revolvers to shoot them off, while Tessa relied on fire and lightning spells to keep them at bay.

  “There’s gotta be a better way to do this,” I said. “Charon, is there a route where these things won’t go?”

  “There’s a cavern,” he said. “But it may be a bit treacherous.”

  “Anything’s better than this!” I shouted as I pistol-whi
pped an adaro about to climb onboard.

  “Luther!”

  I turned and saw that one of the adaro had managed to get onto the boat, snarling as it stood upright. Tessa backed away from it, but tripped on one of the benches and fell back. The adaro pounced on her and she was able to create a mystic shield to keep it at bay.

  I dropped the gun and wrapped my arm around the adaro’s neck from behind. It tried to turn its attention to me, its claws flailing in an attempt to hit me. I reached beneath my jacket and drew my dagger, then plunged it into the adaro’s head. I pulled the knife out and threw the adaro overboard.

  “The cavern is just ahead!” shouted Charon.

  “Good, then head towards—” I was silenced when I looked where we were headed. Oh, yeah, there was a cavern up ahead. But what Charon failed to mention were the red rocks that made it up, and how cascading down from above was a barrier of lava.

  “What the hell is that?” asked Tessa.

  “As I said, this is a treacherous path,” said Charon.

  “A little tip, Char,” said Tessa. “When the treacherous path involves lava-falls, that’s something you should mention!”

  “Create a shield,” said Asmodeus. He looked at Tessa. “You, witch-girl. Create a shield.”

  “Around the whole boat?” she asked. “I’ve never made a shield that big before.”

  “First time for everything.”

  I looked at Tessa. “Think you can do it?”

  Tessa took a breath and nodded. “Yeah. I mean…I hope so.”

  “That’s not a confidence builder,” I said.

  “Well, you get what you pay for.”

  “I can try and help,” I said.

  Tessa nodded and started moving her hands in circles, weaving them past each other. Her eyes sparkled with gold energy and I saw trails of it manifest in the wake of her movements. I summoned up the magic energy inside me and started directing it towards her. Over and over, I kept repeating, “Sepio,” under my breath, the Latin term for barrier.

  “I suggest you speed things along,” said Charon. “The threats on the Styx cannot harm me, but the rest of you are a different story.”

  “You’re not helping, Charon,” I said, trying to keep my focus on the barrier. “C’mon, Tess. Visualize a shield all around us. Or at the very least, a really big, really strong umbrella.”

  Tessa’s hands moved quicker, and finally, she raised her arms above us. There was a spark in her hands and giant barrier formed over the top of us. We passed into the mouth of the cavern, with the lava cascading off the edges of the shield. It wasn’t quite big enough to cover us all, so Cain and I both moved closer to Tessa to stay intact.

  A drop of lava fell onto Asmodeus’ coat, and he looked down at the burn in annoyance. He clicked his tongue. “Honestly, Tessa. I expect better than this.”

  “Shut up, Asmodeus—now’s not the time,” I said. And then I added to Tessa, “Keep it up, kid. We’re almost through.”

  Tessa had an intense look of concentration on her face. Her eyes crackled with golden energy, her lips pulled back to reveal gritted teeth, beads of sweat running down her face and matting strands of her bright red hair to her forehead.

  I looked up at the shield and saw the energy start to flicker. If we didn’t get past this lava-fall soon, she wouldn’t have the strength to maintain it. I kept staring at that barrier, all the while thinking, C’mon, Tess, just a little longer…

  We passed through the mouth of the cavern and Tessa gasped, the shield dropping almost the instant we made it. She collapsed to her knees, and Cain and I bent down to help her up. Tessa was breathing heavily, looking like she just finished a marathon.

  “You did it,” I said.

  “Not bad, kid,” said Cain, giving her a pat on the shoulder. “Not bad at—oh, shit.”

  “What now?” I asked.

  And I saw, just ahead, that we were right on course to go over the edge of a waterfall. Because that was just the kind of day I’d been having.

  12

  Celeste King sat in the rear of the limo, sipping a glass of merlot and staring out the tinted window as the city rolled by. She looked at the thin watch around her wrist and saw that the time was after nine in the evening. Assuming everything had gone off without a hitch, Luther had now been in Purgatory for around eighteen hours. She didn’t even want to imagine what it must be like in there, and all she could do was hope he stayed alive long enough to get out.

  But Celeste had priorities other than Luther Cross. She ran a unique escort service, one in which all the escorts were vampires and all the clients paid top dollar for the pleasure of being fed on. For some, it might seem strange. Who would pay to have a vampire feed on them? But for the wealthy and powerful who’d screwed, smoked, or snorted everything there was, a new thrill was hard to come by. And there was a certain erotic quality when it came to feeding, particularly if the vampire was gentle and not trying to kill.

  These days, Celeste mostly just ran the business side of things; running the website, connecting clients with escorts, arranging meetings, and handling the money. She hadn’t actually gone out to meet a client for an encounter in years. But this client was different. A wealthy stockbroker with whom she’d had several dealings in the past. Most of the time, he was fine with Celeste’s regular escorts. But tonight, he said he wanted to see her in particular.

  Celeste thought about telling him no, but getting her mind off Luther was something she needed to do. And besides, it wasn’t like she was going to sleep with the guy, so it technically wasn’t cheating. Plus, her and Luther technically weren’t even a real couple.

  The limo rolled to a stop in front of the Hyatt Regency. Celeste waited until her door was opened for her. She climbed out of the limo, accepting the assistance of her driver’s large hand. He was just over seven feet tall, his head and face shaved of any speck of hair, his ears ending in points, and his skin as pale as could be. As always, he dressed in a black suit and wore a pair of sunglasses at all times, even at night.

  Celeste had a red shawl wrapped around her torso, covering her black top, and she wore burgundy leather pants, her short hair swept back. She smiled at the driver. “Thank you, Hem.”

  “Would you like me to wait outside the room, Mistress?” asked Hem.

  “I told you to stop calling me that,” she said. “And no, it will be fine. Just find a spot to park and go have a drink at the bar or get something to eat. Use the company card—it’s on me.”

  Hem gave her a nod and returned to the limo. Celeste watched as he slowly drove away to self-parking and she then approached the front door. The doorman held it open for her and nodded as she entered. She walked through the lobby and headed to the elevators, then rode one up to the top floor.

  When she stepped off the elevator, Celeste took her cell phone out of her small purse and read the text message from the client for the room number. She walked down the hall and approached the door to one of the suites. It opened a moment later and she saw a tall, suited man with a full, dark beard standing on the other side.

  “Celeste King,” she said. “I’m here to see Mr. Martin.”

  He stepped to the side and Celeste walked into the suite. This room was massive, with a piano greeting her as she entered. Turning the corner, she saw a large dining table, a bar, and even a central fireplace separating the dining area from the living area with a big-screen TV and plenty of ample seating. There were other men like the one who had answered the door. One stood behind the bar, and two more stood at the entrance to the bedroom.

  “This is quite the place,” said Celeste. None of them answered, just stared at her. Celeste thought it interesting that each of the four men sported beards.

  “Drink?” asked the one at the bar.

  “Merlot,” she said.

  He took a Bordeaux wine glass and set it on the counter, then poured the wine, filling it up to about the halfway mark. Celeste walked to the bar and picked up the glass, noticing the bart
ender staring at her.

  “Where’s Mr. Martin?” she asked.

  “Coming,” said the man who answered the door. He gestured to the living area. “Have a seat.”

  Celeste gave him a careful once-over, then looked at the bartender again. She slowly walked to the sitting area and sat in one of the leather chairs. While sipping her wine, she settled into the chair and glanced at the two men who flanked the closed door to the master bedroom.

  She was starting to wish she’d taken Hem up on his offer to stand outside the room. Celeste opened her purse to take out her cell phone and send him a text. But just as she did, one of the bodyguards came up to her.

  “No phones, ma’am,” he said.

  “Why not?” asked Celeste.

  “Mr. Martin’s orders.”

  “James Martin has been a client of mine for years. Not once has a single one of my employees said he behaved anything like that. Nor did he ever travel with such a large entourage.”

  The bodyguards exchanged looks amongst themselves. Red flags had been going off ever since she entered the room. Celeste took a sniff of the air and she realized just who these bodyguards really were.

  “Martin didn’t arrange this, you did,” she said. “You wanted me here, figured I would only come out to meet with one of my old clients. That’s pretty clever. Far more smarts than I’d ever attribute to a pack of lycans.”

  One of the guards by the bedroom door curled the corner of his lips into a snarl, and Celeste could see a long, pointed canine tooth. She set the wine glass on the side table. As Celeste stood, she hit the call button on her phone before dropping it into her purse on the chair.

  “So, what’s this all about?” she asked as the four men came closer to her. “We all know you boys didn’t think up this plan on your own. You’re just the hired muscle.”

  “We’re not going to hurt you, Ms. King,” said the one who answered the door. “My name’s Zack. I’d just like to talk to you for a few minutes.”

  “It’s not often lycans want to sit and chat with vampires,” said Celeste. “What’s going on?”