The Darkest Gateway

by Jeri Westerson

  “I didn’t do any of that—”

  “Don’t think I haven’t seen men and women throw themselves at him over the centuries. Oh, the mortal race can be very appealing and very deceptive if it gets them what they want.”

  I began to consider Ed. Was she playing games with him too? He seemed to think she was being honest with him, vulnerable. But was that just a lie?

  Demons lie. Of course. Poor Ed.

  “Erasmus knows how I feel. I’m going to free him from the Booke and then it’s going to get destroyed so it can’t pull this bullshit on anyone else.”

  “You are monumentally stupid to believe that.”

  “Yeah, well. That’s us mortals, all right. We always believe we can make things better.”

  Shabiri stomped up to Erasmus. “You’re not falling for this, are you?”

  Somewhere in between all the yelling and accusations, the pizza guy must have arrived, because Nick was setting the pizza boxes on my coffee table, walking around the ranting demon.

  “We must find something other than a soul with which to bargain with Satan,” said Erasmus. “You can help us or not. But in either instance, stay out of the way.” He shoved her aside and moved toward Doc’s many ancient tomes, piled on a table. He selected one, opened it with purpose, and dropped his gaze into it to ignore her.

  She looked at all of us incredulously. “I don’t want any part of this idiocy.”

  “But you’ll stay and help if I tell you to,” said Doug, mouth full of pizza.

  “I think you’re overstepping your bounds, Dougie.”

  He dangled the amulet he wore in front of her. “Not with this, I’m not. If you aren’t going to help, then sit down and shut up.”

  She closed her mouth with an audible click and sat hard on the nearest surface, which was Nick’s laptop on an ottoman.

  “Oh, um…” Nick reached, thought better of it and drew back his hand. “Could you…I mean, you’re sitting on my…”

  “Dear gods!” She snapped up and gave him all the disdain she had. “Take your blasted toy.”

  He snatched it quick and held it to his chest. “Okay. Thanks.” He set his laptop down behind the counter, then grabbed a slice of pizza and chomped on the cheesy point.

  “Okay,” said Jolene, eyes on her computer screen and one hand on a pizza slice. “As for Satan, in the original Hebrew it seems to be a general term for ‘accuser’ or ‘adversary,’ but also seems to mean ‘to obstruct or oppose.’ Someone called ‘the Satan’ also shows up in early Hebrew texts as a celestial prosecutor of sorts. He kind of gets mixed up with the angel Mastema, who persecutes evil. Anyway, Satan is supposed to carry out punishments in the name of God, and it’s also his job to tempt humans in order to test their faith. There is a huge mishmash of ideas about him. By the way, he was never actually mentioned by name as the snake in Eden, and it took till about the 1600s for him to take on the whole ruler of Hell thing. And different from Lucifer, by the way, who was a fallen angel—the first to disagree with God about Man. So he may be none of these things…or, I guess, just as easily all of these things. But Mr. Dark says that for those in the Netherworld, Satan’s sort of an absent dictator. Though not everyone has heard or seen him.”

  “Have you?” I asked Shabiri around my own pizza slice.

  She looked around and then pressed her hand to her chest. “Oh? Am I allowed to talk now?”

  Doug got to his feet, hands knotting into fists. “I really want to slug her.”

  “So do I,” I said.

  “Hey!” She put her hands to her hips again. “Is that any way to treat a denizen of the Netherworld?”

  Erasmus heaved a sigh. “Just answer the question, Shabiri.”

  She stared Doug down before he sat again. She straightened her catsuit and shifted back against the sofa. “I’ve only seen Him once. That was many centuries ago and I don’t want to do it again.”

  “Why?” I asked. “What was he like?”

  “He is…” She wriggled uncomfortably in her seat. “He is very old. And very large. He knows every little thing that is going on around Him, who everyone is, and where they are. He sits in a burning pit and simply seems to…to brood, I suppose. And when He was approached by other demons, He seemed reasonable at first, until one of them made Him angry. And then He flew into a flurry and grew very, very large and very dangerous. He killed the demon with a mere thought in a very unpleasant way. We were all frightened, and I was able to slip away unseen.”

  “Wow.” I hugged myself unconsciously. “So…don’t get him mad. Good note.”

  “I don’t know what you can find to bargain with,” she went on, rubbing her arms. “He’s consumed with souls. He obsesses over them. Nothing is as sweet or as satisfying.” There was the merest twinkle in her eye. “Only Erasmus would know what I mean. Not all of us demons eat souls, my dear.”

  I couldn’t help but turn to him, but he was studiously not looking at me.

  “But this proves the point,” said Doc. “He might be all-powerful, but he is still a demon and not a god. He can be dealt with as a demon is dealt with.”

  “You’re a fool,” she hissed.

  “Shabiri,” Doc continued, ignoring her, “does he, too, have an amulet?”

  Her jaw hung open. “You’ve got to be joking! No, He doesn’t, and even if He did, He’d know what you’re planning. He knows what everyone is thinking.”

  “According to the Necronomicon,” said Jolene, “he can only tell what demons are thinking.”

  “That’s all I care about, you stupid girl,” huffed Shabiri.

  “Okay!” I said, cutting into what was shaping up to be a slap fight. “Can we just focus here? We need to research. The best way might be to partner up. How about Charise with Seraphina…” They both seemed amenable to that. “Nick and Jolene. Bob and Doug—”

  “Oh, Christ,” hissed Doug.

  “And Doc and Erasmus.”

  “Yoo-hoo!” said Jeff. “What about me?”

  “I think maybe you should work on what herb combinations I could use for protection.”

  Jeff seemed less than thrilled with that, knowing full well it was busy work. “And what are you gonna do?”

  I looked over to where the Booke was hovering. I’d known it was there. It was nudging my mind, after all. “I’ll be communing with the Booke. It has some secrets it wants to tell me and others it doesn’t. I’m going to climb in and see what I can find out.”

  Erasmus stepped forward. “I don’t advise that.”

  “Sweetheart, we’ve gone well beyond what’s advisable.”

  He had a weird look on his face. “What…did you call me?”

  “Oh, for Beelzebub’s sake!” railed Shabiri.

  Erasmus snapped out of it. His cheeks became ruddy, as if he were suddenly embarrassed. It was pretty adorable.

  Everyone went to their tasks. Nick and Jolene talked to each other over the tops of their respective computers. Doc and Erasmus bent their heads over worn leather volumes that were probably at least as old as the Booke, while Jeff rummaged in my buffet drawers and took out handfuls of herbs to place in a stone mortar. He knew his business as well as I did. In fact, I’d bet he was making his own wolfsbane by now.

  Bob hesitantly approached Doug, but soon they were reading and conferring with each other.

  Shabiri just glared at me.

  I took up the Booke, went to a quiet corner, and settled in. Closing my eyes, I immediately sank into the weird dream world of the Booke of the Hidden. It showed me landscapes well beyond Moody Bog. I wasn’t even sure if they existed. And while it was calming and all encompassing, I had to drag myself back and get real with the Booke. Now look here, I want to stop all this nonsense that you’ve been doing. Are you listening to me, Booke?

  Kylie…Kylie…don’t you want to play in my garden?

  No! I’ve got better things to do—

  But it’s a lovely garden. See the trees glittering in the sunshine? Watch the stre
am as it trickles along. Don’t you want to follow it?

  It does look pretty… Hey! Stop that! We’re going to talk. What can I offer besides my soul? I need to give Satan something other than my soul? What else is there that humans have?

  I know nothing about that. Come play!

  No! Your kind of playing involves creatures who kill and then I have to kill them. It’s not fair. It’s not nice.

  If you won’t play…then I’ll have to show you the darkness.

  The what now?

  The sun-dappled meadow with the sweet burbling water shifted. Everything suddenly went hazy. The sky darkened and sounds came out of the forest that didn’t belong. Sounds that suddenly terrified me. I looked up; the sun was a black disc against a white aura and the shadows stretched and creeped toward me. The reeds and ferns looked rotted, dripping with something dark.

  I don’t like this.

  This is the dark. This is what you said you wanted. Not the meadow.

  I don’t like this!

  I snapped open my eyes and looked around. I was suddenly back in my shop. Things were going on around me just as they had been. I took several deep breaths to calm myself and get that nightmare out of my mind, when I glanced over at Erasmus. His nose was nearly pressed into the book he was reading. He was so concentrated on what he was studying that he hadn’t noticed my staring. Looking at him calmed me—his handsome features, the twist of his lips, his narrowed eyes. Suddenly he jerked back, startled.

  “Find something, Erasmus?” I asked, hopeful.

  The way he looked at me made my heart give a lurch. What had he read? I was rising to go over there when he gave a half-hearted laugh. “It’s nothing.”

  “Nothing?”

  “Nothing.” And then he clammed up.

  I sat back down. It sure didn’t look like nothing. But if he didn’t want to tell me, I’d never get it out of him. His eye twitched as he read, but he was all in. I decided to leave him to it.

  I stared at my own Booke and scanned the cover, its worn leather, the weird lock that only I seemed to be able to open. But when I glanced up at Erasmus again, he was talking quietly and fervently to Doc.

  “Doctor Boone,” he said softly, “I wonder if I may speak to you. Alone.”

  “Certainly, Mr. Dark.”

  The two of them disappeared into the kitchen.

  What was all that about? I started rising to follow them when Emma, auxiliary Wiccan, asked me a question. I did my best to answer her, trying to look like the sage Chosen Host I’d never be. She left satisfied, though I was darned if I remember what I said to her.

  Raised voices chimed in from the kitchen, though I couldn’t make out the words. Nick glanced at me and shrugged.

  After a while, Doc came back into the main room and surreptitiously grabbed a candle and some herbs from my buffet. He noticed me watching and gave me a wink and a salute before disappearing back into the kitchen.

  I looked at the clock. It was getting late. It would be two days until Halloween tomorrow. And we weren’t getting very far. I decided to stretch my legs and see what everyone else had come up with.

  Raised voices were arguing in the kitchen again. Doc and Erasmus obviously had a difference of opinion about something, but the thick plaster muffled their voices. There was a popping sound, which probably meant Erasmus was ticked off and left in a huff. I exchanged another “What are you gonna do?” look with Nick. He shrugged again.

  I stretched, letting all my vertebrae click into place—but that only reminded me of the Dullahan’s whip. I flexed up my arms and something metallic clattered to the floor. When I looked down, it didn’t make any sense. I knelt to pick it up.

  My amulet. Erasmus’ amulet. I’d worn it since the moment we knew he was a demon and I’d snatched it from his neck, making me sort of in charge of him. It had a demon face with horns and extended tongue. With ruby eyes.

  Except the rubies were now black crystals and where the metal had always been warm to the touch, it was now stone cold.

  Chapter Fifteen

  “Doc!” I screamed. What was wrong with the amulet? “Erasmus!”

  Doc came tearing through from the kitchen with a horrific look on his face. I held out the amulet to him, but he didn’t seem to need to look at it.

  “What’s happened? Erasmus! Erasmus! Isn’t he with you?”

  But Erasmus didn’t come.

  “Doc? This just fell off my neck. What’s going on? Where’s Erasmus?”

  “Oh my goddess.” He sank to a chair. He seemed pale and older than he had ever looked before. Running his hand over his face, he winced when he looked up at me. “Kylie, I’m so very sorry.”

  Something clutched at my heart and squeezed, tearing the breath from my lungs. “What? Why are you sorry? What have you done?”

  I could feel everyone’s eyes on us. Everyone had stopped whatever it was they were doing. “Now Kylie, you must understand. This was his choice.”

  “WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?”

  He fidgeted. He never fidgeted. He was always sure-handed Doctor Boone, wise warlock and kindly country doctor. But now he wouldn’t even look at me.

  “It had become obvious that we couldn’t find anything for you to bargain with. Nothing. And Mr. Dark knew you would go regardless. Darn it, Kylie, we all knew. But Mr. Dark found another way, another solution in one of my older books. He found a spell to turn him…well, it would turn him human. And he insisted I help him with it. I…I refused at first. I didn’t think it was a good idea.”

  “Turn him human?” My mind whirled. I had no idea that such things were possible. Why would he do that?

  “Yes. He said he would go back to the Netherworld, invoke the spell by breaking an enchanted wax seal, and become…human. It’s a very rare and ancient spell. Irreversible.” He looked away from me, fiddling with a knot on the upholstery of my chair. “He explained that as a human he wouldn’t have been able to get into the Netherworld…well, never mind about that. But once he was human he could—”

  “He could offer his soul.” Oh my God. I couldn’t breathe. I grabbed the chair behind me to steady myself and tried to inhale. My face was suddenly wet and my eyes burned. “No. No. He’s not allowed to do that. I was going to free him. He would have been free.”

  “He didn’t want you to die. I looked into his eyes, Kylie. And for the first time, I believed him. I believed that he loved you enough to sacrifice himself.”

  “But he can’t do that. He can’t do that!”

  “He…he begged me to help him.”

  “But why would you? Why didn’t you ask me?”

  “Because we both knew what your answer would have been.”

  I wiped at my tears impatiently as they continued to flow. “What right did you have? Why is my life worth more than his?”

  Doc looked away. I knew the answer to that, too. Because he was a demon and I wasn’t. But that made no sense. We’d gotten to know him, to understand him. His life was just as valuable as mine. And now he was human too.

  “You’ve got to change him back.”

  “I can’t, Kylie. I don’t know how.”

  I shook the amulet at him. “You have to!”

  “I can’t.” He dropped his head into his hands. “Goddess forgive me. I knew it was a mistake the moment I did it.”

  I whipped around, searching all the faces around me. “I’m going to go get him. And stop him.”

  Seraphina stepped forward. “And how are you going to do that, Kylie? Do you want his sacrifice to mean nothing?”

  “I don’t care! I want him to live.”

  Nick looked torn. He’d never liked Erasmus, never trusted him. All with good reason. “But how are you going to get into the Netherworld without him?” he said.

  I grabbed the hovering Booke. “With this. It’s a key to a gateway.”

  “You’ll never find him,” said the voice from the back of the room.

  We all turned. Shabiri wore a grim expression. “The book
might get you into the Netherworld, but how will you navigate your way through? There are no helpful street signs. No GPS. And your very life force will alert any and all demons of your presence. You wouldn’t get three feet without being devoured.”

  I staggered toward her. “Come with me!”

  “Are you insane? No way.”

  “It’s Erasmus. You know him. You’ve known him forever. Please help me.”

  “No. I’m captive. I’d be a target too.”

  Captive? Her amulet. Doug had snatched hers as I had taken Erasmus’. I looked toward Doug.

  He cottoned on easily. His hand went to the amulet around his neck. “What if I gave it back?”

  She stared at him with surprise, then her expression turned hungry. “Yes, give it back.”

  “I don’t trust her,” said Nick.

  “Help me save him, Shabiri.”

  “Why should I do that?”

  “I don’t know. It would be your next big adventure. What can I give you to help me?”

  “Kylie!” Doc shouted.

  I held a hand up to him. “What can I give you?”

  “Well, isn’t this interesting?” She moved a bit like a cat, slinking around the far table. “What could it be that I’d want?” She tapped her chin with a sharp nail.

  “Don’t do it, Kylie,” said Nick.

  “Nick’s right,” said Jeff. “I’ll go with you. I’m part demon now anyway. I can probably figure it out.”

  “Y-yeah,” said Nick warily. “I c-can go too.”

  “No. Only me. And Shabiri. If she’ll take me.”

  She smiled. “I think I will go. And I’ll think about what I want from you. If Dougie gives me back my amulet.”

  “Talk about dealing with the Devil,” said Doug, eyeing me with a rock steady gaze. “I’ll give it to her if you say so.”

  There was no choice. I had to go rescue him, no two ways about it.

  “I agree to your terms,” I said.

  “Done!” She clapped her hands and then turned to Doug. “Dougie?”

  He yanked the chain from his neck. “I’ve been wanting to get rid of this thing anyway. Here you go, bitch. It’s been a slice. I free you!”