by Lizzy Ford
Toby was gone.
Rhyn rose and crossed to the small cave, peering into its depths. Toby’s backpack was there along with his pink coat. Rhyn straightened, angry at himself for not hearing the boy leave. A flash of purple caught his eye through the trees, and he loped through the forest. Toby’s purple sweater, streaked with foul-smelling angel blood, was strung across a low branch.
“He’s in Hell, with our kind.” Darkyn’s quiet voice made Rhyn tense. The demon lord materialized from the surrounding trees.
“What do you want with Toby?” Rhyn demanded.
“It has a name? Interesting. The angel is a guest. As long as you do what I want, he’ll remain unharmed.”
“You’re the second thing that’s tried to use the angel to bargain with me. Take him. Eat him.”
“I’ll call your bluff,” Darkyn said. “You don’t bring something food and clothing if you don’t care if it dies. If you want it – Toby - to live, come to the castle this evening after dark falls. We have matters to discuss. Bring Kris. If you want the angel to die then stay right here.”
Rhyn clenched his fists. Darkyn said nothing else and walked away, disappearing into the morning shadows of the forest. Rhyn felt fevered. His power was leaking out of his body, killing the plants around him. He grappled to control what he could, aware he would soon not have that option.
He didn’t have three more days’ worth of control. The idea he’d likely explode before Death delivered Katie made him feel fear, an emotion he hated and hadn’t felt until responsible for the life of someone he cared about.
Testing his magic, he realized he could call forth a portal. He needed an ally, but it wasn’t Kris. He had no intention of bringing Kris to meet Darkyn, not when he didn’t know what Darkyn wanted. His thoughts went to Gabriel, the best friend he hoped he hadn’t lost completely. Gabe wouldn’t try to negotiate with Darkyn if things went bad.
Rhyn opened a portal and walked through the cool shadow place. The shadow world felt … strange this time. He looked around, unsettled by the sensation that someone else was there. The black portal to Hell throbbed then dimmed, as if someone and come through. But he didn’t see anyone else in the shadow world. Shaking his head, he continued to his destination. He emerged through a portal leading to Death’s corner of the underworld. It was a place no demon or Immortal was allowed to go, and he’d thought it impossible to get there, until he’d tried. He’d visited Gabriel once before.
While not large, the Immortal underworld was separated by several different domains, two of which – Hell and Death’s domain - were contained within shields no one could enter. At least, no normal Immortal or demon could enter. As a creature of both worlds, Rhyn could enter Hell, and he’d found by visiting Gabe that he was able to enter Death’s domain, too.
It was clear and cool outside of Gabe’s small cottage in the middle of a possessed jungle. Rhyn felt the sense that someone else was there once more and looked around. Assuming the feeling has something to do with his magic, Rhyn shook it off once more. He opened the front door without knocking, already sensing it was empty. Gabe had left in a hurry. The wardrobe near his bed was open and his walls were missing many of the weapons Rhyn had seen last time.
Frowning, Rhyn pulled a dagger from the wall and tucked it into his belt. He’d never tried tracking anyone through the Immortal underworld before; if Gabriel didn’t want to be found, Rhyn wasn’t going to find him in the death-dealer’s backyard. Sweat dripped down his face in the still air of the cottage.
He called another portal and strode through it to the house of the one brother he’d come to almost trust. Kiki’s feet were propped on a cast iron table while he gazed intently at the screen of his trusty iPad.
“Rhyn,” the Immortal with Asian features snapped up at Rhyn’s appearance. “I did what you wanted. Kris said –“
“I’m not here for Kris,” Rhyn said.
“You aren’t dead-dead.”
“No shit.”
“No, I mean, you aren’t out of control. How is that?”
“I don’t know. But I know it won’t last long. Kiki, I need … help,” Rhyn forced the words out.
“Kris would’ve helped you. Why did you come all the way here?”
Rhyn shrugged.
“It’s been three days! You and Kris couldn’t get along for three days?” Kiki demanded and frowned. “Your war with Kris needs to end now. You two will destroy – “
“Don’t care, Kiki.”
“You should care. You couldn’t just tell him what you did?”
Rhyn eyed him. “What do you mean?”
“After I left the Sanctuary, I guess you could say I had a visitor who told me about Lilith and why you killed her. How she was working with the Dark One to try to drag Kris and the rest of us down to Hell,” Kiki explained.
“Who told you that? Death?”
“Death? I don’t rate the attention of that creature. It was a dream. Andre told me everything. He also told me you never told Kris, and Kris has believed the worst about you for thousands of years. It’s a long time to bear a grudge, brother, if it’s true. Is it?”
“I don’t care about any of that right now,” Rhyn said impatiently.
“Answer the question, Rhyn.”
“Yes, it is. Now, if we could – “
“You’re like two little – “
“I can beat the shit out of you again to make you help me.”
“Fine,” Kiki said and crossed his arms. “What do you need from me?”
“I need help rescuing Toby from Darkyn.”
“You surprise me, Rhyn. When did you start thinking for – did you say Darkyn?”
Rhyn nodded.
“The demon lord Darkyn.”
“There’s only one, Kiki.”
Kiki considered him for a long moment. Then he said, “On one condition. You must tell Kris about Lilith. I’m sick of this war between you two. We need you both on the Council.”
“You sound like Andre,” Rhyn said and scowled, wondering how a long-dead woman and a newly dead woman could still cause him such grief.
“Yes or no.”
“Yes.”
“Let’s go. Wait,” Kiki said as Rhyn opened a portal. “Do you have a plan?”
“You.“
Kiki sighed. “Nevermind. Wait here. Ully was working on something awhile ago. I was supposed to field test it for him.”
Rhyn crossed his arms, irritated. Kiki trotted from the patio into the house perched on a hill overlooking Tokyo. He returned ten minutes later with a small briefcase, a jacket and a hard case for his iPad. Rhyn opened the portal, and the two strode through it, back to the massive tree where Rhyn had lost Toby in the cold, wet French Alps.
“You should’ve told me it was raining,” Kiki grumbled. “How far are we from the castle?”
“An hour jogging. Their scouts don’t start until about half a mile from the castle,” Rhyn answered. He watched Kiki set the briefcase down and open it. “What is it?”
“Another of Ully’s experiments. Hopefully it’s better than his demon skunk spray.”
Rhyn’s gaze went to Toby’s backpack. The cold rain felt good against his hot skin, and he stripped down to his T-shirt in the frigid weather to buffer the heat and magic growing within his body.
“This is supposed to incapacitate a demon,” Kiki said and loaded a handgun with a small dart. “I need to test it.”
“I’ll bring you a demon,” Rhyn said, turning.
A sting bit the arm opposite the one Katie had touched in his dream. He whirled and glared at Kiki, who waited expectantly.
“Tell me if it does something,” Kiki said.
Rhyn yanked the dart free and looked from it to the small welt forming on his arm. It matched the welt on his other arm. He gazed at his other arm for a long moment then strode to Toby’s bag. Snatching it, he unzipped it and dumped its contents onto the ground. Alongside Toby’s 3DS, a pair of clean underwear and socks, and gamers ma
gazine was a small shaving bag. Rhyn opened it, surprised to find a syringe and two small bottles, one empty and one filled with wine-colored solution.
“What is it?” Kiki asked.
“That little shit.”
“Is this Toby’s?”
You need me if you want to survive. Toby had said before they left the Sanctuary. Rhyn unscrewed the lid of the full bottle, recognizing the scent of Katie’s blood at once. It made his body roar to life, and he realized just how hungry he was. He’d foregone food after her death, hoping to starve himself.
“Weird,” Kiki said and took it. “The other bottle’s empty. Did he inject himself?”
“No, he injected me,” Rhyn replied. “How did he know to do this?”
“I don’t know what this -“
Kiki’s voice stopped suddenly as blackness swept over Rhyn.
Chapter Five
Toby huddled against the black stone wall of his cell in Hell. He wished he’d thought to bring his backpack with his 3DS and magazines until he remembered why it was better he left it: Rhyn needed the other dosage of Immunity blood if the half-demon wanted to make it to the seventh day after Katie’s death.
“Are you ok?” Ully called from the cell across the narrow hallway.
“I don’t like it here,” Toby said. “It’s really boring.”
“Yeah, I wish I had my portable lab set with me,” Ully agreed. “Or maybe, just my anti-demon skunk spray.”
“It didn’t work very well.”
“It was a work in progress. But I’d like to piss off someone like Darkyn right now.”
“He’d kill you, Ully.”
“He’ll kill me anyway.”
Toby frowned, worried as much about his human charge as his Immortal friends. Even if he wasn’t with Katie, he could sense her. She was in some kind of danger, which meant he was the worst guardian angel in the history of guardian angels.
“I’m such a failure,” he said with a sigh.
“You’re just a baby,” Ully said with a chuckle.
“No, I’m not just a baby! I’m almost full grown. I should’ve done a better job.”
“It’s not your fault, Toby.”
Toby was silent, knowing a normal Immortal could never understand. He didn’t yet have the full power of a real guardian angel, but he should’ve been able to do more than … nothing. Angels were placed with human mothers so they could understand the creatures they were meant to take care of. Human mothers raised them as their own, yet none of his human mothers had gone to the extent Katie did to try to protect him. Her circumstances were unique among all the humans he’d met, even if she wasn’t the greatest mother he’d had. She still tried.
“Maybe I can go work for Death,” he said glumly. “Isn’t that where angels who fail go?”
“That’s what I hear,” Ully said. “You’d rather kill humans than protect them?”
“Not really.”
“I brought you a friend,” a third voice said.
Toby looked up as the familiar demon named Jared passed his cell, trailed by two demons carrying a body with another familiar face.
“Gabriel!” he exclaimed, bounding to his cell door. “Gabriel!”
His long time friend, the assassin, was bloodied and unconscious. The demons tossed Gabriel’s body into a dark cell two down from Ully’s before they left.
“Hello, my Immortal Twinkies,” Jared said, his slender form pausing in the hallway between them. A slow smile slid across his face, revealing pointed teeth.
“I remember you,” Toby said. “You’re Rhyn’s friend.”
“Friend, no. Formerly indebted to him for my life, yes.”
“What’re you doing here in Hell?”
“There’s a saying, better to serve in Hell than get your head split open somewhere else.”
“That doesn’t sound right,” Toby said.
“He’s messing with you,” Ully said.
“Maybe you can help us leave!” Toby said, his excitement growing.
“I’ll get right on that,” Jared said and rolled his eyes. “Or I could stay right here and watch Darkyn pull you limb from limb. That’s my idea of a good time.”
“He can’t leave, Toby,” Ully added. “He’s stuck here unless Darkyn lets him go. I heard the demons talking about it when I was in the lab. Jared is a glorified prisoner.”
“That’s not entirely accurate,” the demon said with some irritation. “I’m allowed to roam the fortress.”
“When you’re escorted, you can. I have more freedom than you when I’m not in this cell.”
“I’ll be happy when Darkyn orders your death. I plan on eating every part of you, down to your bones,” Jared snapped and bared his teeth.
“Ully has skunk blood, and I’m an angel. You’d gag to death first,” Toby said and giggled at the look that crossed the demon’s face. “I can almost pull a portal, with someone’s help. I could get all of us out of here.”
“You’re too little,” Jared said. “Immortals can’t portal out of here anyway. Only demons can.”
“I’m not a normal Immortal,” Toby cried. “I’m an angel! I can do whatever I have to save my human.”
“That is true,” Ully said. “But I think you have the same limits as other Immortals?”
“Maybe,” Toby muttered.
Though scowling, Jared was listening. He hadn’t left them, and Toby’s hopes rose again. Rhyn had liked this demon for some reason, and because of that, Toby trusted the flawed half-demon as much as he did Gabriel.
“You’re not strong enough to take us all with you,” Jared said at last. “And I won’t be left behind.”
“I can take me and Ully and you and Gabe,” Toby replied. “It’ll be hard, but I can do it, with Ully’s help.”
“That’s four. You’d be pushing it with five.”
“Five?” Toby asked. “Why would I need to take five of us?”
Ully sighed. “Because Darkyn replaced Gabe and someone else with shapeshifting demons.”
“There’s another Immortal down here?”
“Not Immortal, human,” Jared answered. “You couldn’t take us all, and I’m certain I’d be the one who’s left behind. Humans take priority to you angels. No, sweetmeats, I won’t help you escape.” With that, the demon left.
“Ully, who is it?” Toby asked. He gripped the bars of his cell and pressed his face against them, trying to see into the neighboring cells.
“Fuck!” Gabriel’s furious curse made Toby jump.
Toby looked his direction the best he could through the bars of his cell and saw the walls around the dark cell shake.
“Gabe!” he called. “Are you okay?”
“Toby? What’re you doing in Hell?”
“Darkyn found me.”
The death-dealer issued another string of curses.
“Where’s Mama?”
“Stuck in the Immortal underworld.”
“Gabe, she can’t stay there! Death will find her!”
“Katie’s alive?” Ully asked. “That’s why Darkyn had me clone you, so he could get to her.”
“Clone?” Gabriel echoed.
“Shapeshifter demon.”
“And he’s with her now.”
“She’s safe, I think. Darkyn wants her as a hostage, just in case,” Ully whispered.
“Gabe, what’re you saying?” Toby asked, listening with increasing panic. “Mama’s been caught by a demon? Why?”
“I don’t know, but we need to get out of here,” Gabriel answered.
“A human in the Immortal world doesn’t stand much of a chance,” Ully said.
“You think I don’t know that?” Gabe snarled. “I defied Death to rescue her. Played right into Darkyn’s hands. I’m a fucking fool!”
“You couldn’t have known,” Ully said. “But if she stays with the demon, who knows what Darkyn’s plan is. And if she runs …”
“She’s dead-dead,” Gabe finished.
“Gabe, get us ou
t of here! I have to help her!” Toby shouted. “Where’s Rhyn? He’ll save us!”
“Calm down, Toby,” the death-dealer said. “Right now, there’s nothing we can do. Let me think in peace.”
Toby’s heart somersaulted in his breast, and he tried hard to reach the depths of the powers that would be his when he was just a little older. He couldn’t. He was trapped, useless, unable to help the woman he was assigned to guard. Tears of frustration blurred his vision. Ully smiled gently at him from across the hall.
“We’ll think of something, Toby,” the mad scientist said. “Okay? Don’t panic. We’ll figure something out.”
The phantom stayed with Katie throughout the night and into the first light of morning. Katie didn’t sleep, not with the creepy phantom and no sign of Gabriel. She huddled in the hollow of the tree by the lake, praying for Gabe to reappear.
Find Rhyn now. The same voice that got her into this mess and told her to drown herself had given her this reminder twice. Katie sensed she wasn’t safe where she was, but she didn’t want to travel without Gabriel.
Midmorning warmed the world around her, and she rose finally. The phantom disappeared. Katie turned towards the lake and drew a deep breath. She would find her way back to Rhyn.
“This way,” Gabriel’s voice startled her.
She turned to see him motion her towards the jungle surrounding the lake. His clothing was torn, and blood stained his skin. He appeared to have been running; his boots were covered in mud that had splashed to his thighs, and his face was flushed.
“Gabe!” she exclaimed. “Are you okay?”
“I’ll survive,” he replied. “C’mon. We’re not out of danger yet.”
“I did as you said and kept to the stream. I saw him again.”
“Who?”
“Andre.”
“Andre’s dead-dead.”
She sighed and followed him, almost too exhausted to argue. The odd sense of someone following – a sign she now knew was the phantom trailing them - returned. Andre’s specter appeared to her right, keeping pace silently with her.