Eleventh Grave in Moonlight

by Darynda Jones

  I was pouting. I’d refused to take the comfort any of our furniture had to offer. Instead, we sat in a corner, Jose and I, brushing up on our bladder-capacity skills. So far, so good.

  I stopped studying the pendant and studied my husband instead. Studied how he always folded his shirtsleeves in the evenings, or pushed them up, depending on the shirt, to expose his forearms. He did it on purpose. He had to know what his forearms did to me. And his biceps. And his shoulders. And pretty much every other part of him.

  He sat, bathed in fire. His legs outstretched. His shirt and jeans unbuttoned. Boots thrown under the coffee table.

  Just when I was going to give in, to throw in the towel and seek out the porcelain pot, Reyes spoke. “Send me.”

  “Okay, but I don’t know how that’s going to help. It’s my bladder that needs emptying.”

  He didn’t look at me when he said it. He was busy studying the fire while I was busy studying him. “Send me inside. I was born and raised in a hell dimension. I can go in and bring them back.”

  The god glass? Was he honestly suggesting I send him into the very dimension for which the god glass had been created?

  “No.” I rose and stumbled to the bathroom. Not because I was drunk but because I had a cramp in my left butt cheek. I always forgot to stay hydrated when fighting evil gods and arguing with arrogant angels.

  Then again, all angels were arrogant. I was 99 percent certain.

  I peed, did a drive-by in the kitchen on the way back to my corner, and sank down to curl up with a fresh bottle of my new BFF.

  “Is it me, or is it harder to get drunk all of a sudden?” Normally I’d be puking my guts up after even half a bottle of Jose. But I was pretty good. Aside from that whole world-tilting-to-the-left thing, I felt great.

  Reyes pushed off the captain and walked up to me. No, he swaggered up to me, a severe expression on his beautiful face, his shirt open, showing the expanse of his chest. He stopped and towered over me. “Send me.”

  Now I was just getting annoyed. “No. Kuur is in there. You remember Kuur? The supernatural assassin who has killed beings from dozens of dimensions just because he can? Yeah, him. And let’s not forget the god that killed your sister.”

  “You don’t think I can take them?”

  “I’m not willing to risk it either way.”

  “It was meant for me, anyway. I’d like to see what my Brother had in store for His sibling. What kind of god He is.”

  What kind of god indeed. I wondered that, too, but I wondered it even more so about myself. Clearly, I was not the girl I thought I was. I only pretended to want peace? I was in the Peace Corps, for heaven’s sake.

  He sat beside me, drink in hand. “It can be an experiment.”

  “Reyes, I cannot tell you how hard of a no this is. It is not going to happen, so give it up.”

  “Send me in, wait sixty, then call me back. I’ll scope out the place.”

  “I may not be Miss Know-It-All when it comes to all this god stuff, but I do know that time works differently in every dimension. Sixty seconds here could be six hundred years there.”

  He sank down beside me, our shoulders touching. “The time slip isn’t that much. If anything, it could be maybe a year. Or it could be the opposite and I’d come back so fast I didn’t get to see anything. At which point we can reevaluate and decide what to do next.”

  “No, I think Kuur said a few seconds was years there.”

  “We’ll never know until you send me in.”

  I sat Jose aside. “Reyes, why? Is this some kind of quest for revenge against Mae’eldeesahn?”

  His smile held about as much humor as a pit viper’s. “No.”

  “And what if something goes wrong and, I don’t know, I can’t get you back?”

  “The priest did it. You told me.”

  “Yes, but, there are no guarantees. This information came from an evil demon assassin.”

  “What part of life is guaranteed? It’s all a guessing game, including this glass. This dimension.”

  “Do you resent Jehovah for it?”

  “Yes. I’d like to know what I did that was so bad He had to create an entire dimension just for me.”

  “I’d like to know that, too. Only I want to know why I agreed to have my memories erased. What did I do that was so bad I wanted to forget?”

  He took my hand and brushed the backs of my fingers over his mouth. His eyes shimmered, and for a moment I forgot what I was going to say. I wished Shawn’d had the opportunity to get to know him better. His almost brother.

  “Shawn was kind of fascinated with you. He wanted to get to know you.”

  He nodded and looked down in thought. “Thirty seconds.”

  I laughed. It was so like him to skip over the emotional parts of any conversation. Or any part that cast him in a positive light. “We’re negotiating now?”

  “That’s all I need. Thirty seconds.”

  “Reyes, no.” I turned to face him. “I’m not risking your life on a fool’s errand.”

  “Fool’s? You said there were innocent people in there. That the priest would send people of his village there whom he couldn’t control or whom he got angry with.”

  “Or obsessed with. Remember, he sent Joan of Arc. She was never the same coming out as going in.”

  “But she was in there for how long?”

  “I don’t know. Kuur made it sound like weeks. Possibly months. And she was only twelve.”

  He took the god glass out of my hand. Unlike every other celestial being that gazed upon the pendant, Reyes seemed only mildly interested. Most, including yours truly, became instantly mesmerized. I’d always assumed Jehovah had done that on purpose in order to lure Reyes closer so he could be trapped. Perhaps I was wrong. Reyes seemed the opposite of mesmerized. Though he was curious. Who wouldn’t be?

  “I want to see it. The dimension.”

  “According to Kuur, you already have.”

  He straightened.

  “He said they trapped you, Mae’eldeesahn and Eidolon, to transport you to Lucifer. When you came out, you were disoriented.”

  Astonished, he laid his head back against the wall. “I don’t remember.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  “Well, it couldn’t have been that bad, right? If I’ve already been there and came back normal.”

  Someone snorted. I was pretty sure it was Jose. “Normal? Got a pretty high opinion of yourself, eh, Mr. Farrow?”

  His grin, that wicked, sensual thing he wielded like a weapon, touched me in all the right places. “I guess you’re right.”

  I climbed onto my knees, then climbed him. Or, well, straddled him. “I have a better idea, anyway. You send me.”

  All traces of humor vanished in an instant. “No.”

  I started to climb off him. He clasped my hips and held me to him.

  “Why not send me?” I asked, sounding a bit like a petulant child. But it was my glass now. If anyone had a right to go in …

  “It’s not safe.”

  “Oh, but it’s safe enough to send you? That’s logic for you. Of the penis-wielding variety.”

  “We’ll flip for it.”

  “If I had a penis…” I thought for a moment. “I’ve got it! We’ll send Cookie, but only for a few seconds. Wait. What did you say?”

  One corner of his mouth battled for control. Grin versus scowl. Which would come out on top?

  I raised my arms in victory. “And the grin takes the gold.”

  He gave me a moment, the grin taking on a personality of its own.

  “Okay. Sorry. Yeah, let’s flip.”

  I shifted to the side so he could reach into his pocket. He took his time, his fingers brushing against Virginia, stirring her.

  “Wait a minute.” I narrowed my eyes in suspicion. “This is a trick.”

  “It’s a coin.” He held it up and showed me both sides of the quarter. “How is this a trick?”

  I settled back on his lap, his crotc
h wedged against Virginia, my unruly vajayjay. “I don’t know, but it is. I can feel it.”

  He tossed the coin. It flipped over and over in the air, then he slowed time, reached up and wrapped it in his hand.

  “I knew you’d cheat,” I said.

  “I’m going. I can’t risk losing you.”

  “But I can risk losing you?”

  “You can. And so can Elwyn. She needs you.”

  “You’re the stronger of us, Reyes. You can protect her.”

  “First, that’s not true. Second, all the prophecies are about you. Not me. I’m going.”

  When I started to argue again, he lifted me off his lap and went to the kitchen for a knife. I’d expected him to come back with a paring knife. Instead, he brought a chef’s. Twelve inches of glistening metal.

  “We don’t need that much blood,” I said to him, worried.

  He shrugged. “Just in case.”

  He ran the tip of one finger along the razor-sharp edge. Then he smeared the dark red blood on my finger.

  I curled my hand into a fist to keep it safe. To keep that miniscule part of him safe. Then I lifted my chin and pretended to be brave.

  “Okay, this is your basic reconnaissance mission. Go in, scope out the lay of the land, then come back no worse for the wear. It’s just a trial run. A test to see if it can even be accomplished. I mean, I’ve seen entities go in. I’ve never actually seen one come back out.”

  “You’re stalling.”

  “I’m—” I started to argue, but it was hard to argue with someone who was right. I soaked him in. His image. His scent. His feel.

  He pulled me to him. Dipped his head. Pressed his mouth to mine in a kiss I could only hope would not be our last.

  Then he stepped back, and I unfastened the catch on the glass-covered pendant. The six-hundred-year-old, glass-covered pendant. The second it sprang open, thunderstorms and lightning bolts shot out around us. Winds whipped and howled as though in mourning.

  Reyes still seemed barely interested. But I stood in awe. Not of the glass. I’d seen it opened before. Of him.

  The glass had devoured two preternatural beings in my presence—a demon assassin and a god—but I had yet to see the reaction Reyes was getting from the glass. Lightning crackled around us, but it did more than that to Reyes. It … caressed him. It explored him. Tiny spider-webbed currents of electricity pulsed over his skin, traveling over every curve, every line of his body. As though seducing him. As though luring him inside.

  He sucked in a sharp breath. Threw back his head. Let the sting wash over him.

  Then he leveled a hard gaze on me. “Say my name.”

  I wiped his blood on the surface of the glass, drew in a lungful of air, and sent my husband to hell.

  * * *

  Scared beyond measure, I kept my gaze riveted to the clock on the wall. The one with a second hand.

  I’d said his celestial name. His godly name. His true name and the only one that would work to send him through the portal.

  “Rey’azikeen.”

  The bolts of electricity had danced around him, had jumped as though in joy at the prospect of pulling Reyes into their domain. They’d curled and arced all the way to the metal rafters overhead in a joyous symphony. He’d offered me one last glance and winked a microsecond before he was gone.

  I’d closed the pendant and my eyes, wondering what I’d just done.

  I looked at the clock again. Fifteen seconds. It’d seemed like hours. I couldn’t wait any longer. I opened the pendant, held the raging storm in my palms, and offered up a little prayer to the God I may or may not meet on the battlefield one day before saying his name.

  “Rey’azikeen.”

  Then I waited. Not sure what to expect. Winds whipped around me, lightning crashed and traveled up the walls, but nothing else happened.

  Alarm started a slow, agonizing ascent up my spine.

  I repeated his name. “Rey’azikeen.”

  The storms seemed to grow stronger. More furious. I screamed it so I could be heard above the roar.

  Nothing.

  Fear shot through me so fast I almost passed out. Panic closed my throat. I tamped it down and tried again. With every name he’d ever gone by that I knew of. He’d been alive a long time.

  “Rey’aziel.” His celestial name, the one he used in hell.

  Nothing.

  “Reyes Alexander Farrow.” His human name.

  Nothing.

  “Razer.” His godly nickname. The one they called him in Uzan, a prison from my home dimension.

  Nothing.

  This was not happening. This could not be happening.

  I sank to my knees. No clue what to do. Perhaps the glass had to be clean and blood-free to bring someone out. I scrambled up and ran into the kitchen. I cleaned it with soap and water. The lightning bolts punishing me. Water and electricity didn’t mix.

  I dried it and tried again.

  I said his name.

  I screamed it.

  I whispered it.

  I held the god glass so close to my face the electricity scorched my eyes and said it again. “Rey’azikeen.”

  Nothing. Nothing. Nothing.

  Bombarded with idea after idea, I tried everything I could think of. I tried versions of Razer in every language that came to mind. I tried chanting it. I tried opening and closing the pendant, in a sense, rebooting it.

  Nothing.

  An hour later, I lay on the living room floor, clutching the god glass to me, the storm as strong as ever. I could hear nothing else but the howling winds. Could see nothing else but white hot flashes of lightning behind my closed lids.

  I could break it. I could break the god glass, but what would that accomplish? It would either set everything inside free—including a malevolent god and a demon assassin—or lock the only gate to the hell dimension in existence.

  Kuur had told me. One way in. One way out. Of course, the fact that he was an evil demon and an assassin kind of transferred anything he said into a folder called Reasonable Doubt, but …

  Then it hit me. I sat up. The perfect plan. I would go in after him. I would have Cookie say my name and send me inside.

  Sadly, I would have to trick her. She’d never do it if she knew the truth. But I could leave her a note explaining how to get me back out. In theory. Obviously the whole process was a little flawed.

  I hurried to the bedroom for my robe. She would be asleep. Actually, I was a little surprised my screaming didn’t wake anyone. Or the tempest currently residing in my apartment.

  Just as I was about to head out the door, the storms changed. They became darker. Thicker. Angrier. Heat welled up around me. Energy. Power. It rushed over my skin like an electrical shock wave. Fierce and raw and furious.

  The pendant became too hot for me to hold. I dropped it and stepped back in anticipation. Something was happening. It was just hard to say exactly what after the earsplitting explosion.

  It threw me against a wall, almost knocking me unconscious. I lifted my lids but didn’t dare move. Thick black smoke pooled around me. I looked up just in time to see a dozen souls rush into me, wanting only to escape. Wanting to be free.

  I gasped as life after life flashed before my eyes.

  A widow with two children. She’d spurned the priest’s advances.

  A man who refused to sign over part of his land to the church.

  A young boy who saw the priest in a compromising situation.

  On and on. Life after life destroyed by one man.

  I knew the priest had been locked inside as well by a group of monks who took him to task for his evil deeds. But I didn’t feel him. Of course, he would never have gone to heaven. Perhaps he was already in hell.

  After more than a dozen souls crossed through me, all from the same time period, the 1400s, I waited. Three more beings were inside the dimension. The demon assassin. The god Mae’eldeesahn. And my husband.

  The smoke filled the room, lit occasionall
y by quick flashes of lightning. The entire apartment spun slowly, churning like a supercell.

  And then Reyes walked out of it, the billowing smoke falling from his wide shoulders and settling at his feet.

  I jumped up, elated, and started toward him. But I skidded to a halt just as quickly, stopped short when I recognized something amiss.

  Smoke and lightning curled around him as though it were alive. Like an animal. Like a lover. If he shifted, it shifted. It flowed and ebbed at his will, the lightning crackling over his skin.

  He wasn’t in the storm. He was the storm. The tempest. The squall. He was his own element.

  I stood astounded as he walked toward me, eating the ground in three determined steps.

  I stumbled back, caught myself, then whispered, “Reyes?”

  He narrowed his eyes on me. As though curious. As though he had no idea who I was.

  I reached up to touch his face and got a whole lot of wall for my effort.

  He shoved me against it so hard I bounced back a little. Then he ran his gaze down the length of my body, his hand at my throat. Then my jaw. Wrapping his fingers around it, he talked to me, his voice low and husky. “Elle-Ryn-Ahleethia.”

  Why would he use my celestial name?

  He seemed … surprised. Astonished to find me there. Then he gave me another once-over. His gaze filled with both lust and contempt.

  And then I remembered. Kuur had told me Rey’Azikeen had only contempt for the humans his Brother loved so much. And I was human. At least a grain-sized portion of me.

  I studied him as he studied me. Something came out of that dimension. It looked like my husband. Smelled like him. Felt like him. But the being standing in a pool of billowing black smoke was not the man I married. He was a feral version of him. A beast.

  This truly was Rey’azikeen. I was meeting him at last.

  And then I realized the truth. I may have just made the biggest mistake of my entire existence. I may have unleashed hell on earth.

  Also by Darynda Jones

  The Curse of Tenth Grave

  The Dirt on Ninth Grave

  Eighth Grave After Dark

  Seventh Grave and No Body