Demon Storm: Belador book 5 (14 page)

Evalle opened her mouth, then closed it without saying a word. Put that way, she didn’t have an answer.

She’d been angry with Adrianna from the first moment the Sterling witch walked into the mission room at VIPER headquarters just because, well, Adrianna was the epitome of female perfection.

Crud. That was rotten.

If Evalle forced herself to admit the truth, Adrianna had never been anything but nice around the teams. But Adrianna stayed on Evalle’s bad side because the witch had a habit of smiling at Evalle as though she knew something Evalle didn’t, which she did.

Adrianna could probably fill a library with what she knew about men when Evalle couldn’t fill a pamphlet.

Storm had never shown any male interest in the witch, but Adrianna was the walking vision of what Evalle would never be.

Graceful, elegant and confident in a room full of men who were ogling her.

Now that Adrianna had called her out, Evalle owed her an honest reply. And hell, maybe an apology.

After months of carrying around this grudge, it now felt unfair and Evalle was tired of spending the energy required to stay angry. “You’re right. I should be thanking you for the times you’ve helped all of us. I’m sorry I haven’t exactly shown my appreciation.”

Adrianna lifted one eyebrow at the understatement, but allowed it to pass.

Evalle would never be besties with Adrianna, but she could treat her with the same consideration Evalle tried to give everyone. She could treat her like a teammate as a start.

Storm would be all over Evalle for this, because he’d told her that you never touch a dark witch voluntarily, but she extended her hand and said, “Thanks for your help tonight. I would do anything to bring Storm back. When it’s time to pay his debt, we’ll both be there.”

Adrianna stared down at Evalle’s hand. The surprise in her gaze gave more weight to the significance of Evalle’s offer. Adrianna clasped hands and shook, the entire moment registering strangely in Adrianna’s face as if touching–let alone shaking hands–was actually unfamiliar. When she withdrew her hand, she said, “Your offer is accepted and held in great esteem. So let it be spoken, so let it be done.”

Things didn’t automatically turn chipper after that, but the hostility hovering between them settled to a guarded acceptance.

As long as they were on friendly terms, Evalle wanted to find out where Adrianna stood with the Medb infiltrating the city. “Have you heard about the Medb showing up in Atlanta?”

“Yes.”

When Adrianna didn’t expound, Evalle said, “Are you on friendly terms with them?”

“No. I don’t associate with all dark witches. In fact, I associate with very few.”

Fair enough.

Once Adrianna had everything in place, she pointed to the stone slab. “Please take your place.”

Evalle eyed the slab that just so happened to already be here on the ground when they showed up. Asking Adrianna if she’d been out here sacrificing chickens would likely put a kink in their tentative ceasefire. “Do I have to lie down?”

“No.”  Adrianna had that irritating smirk back in her eyes. “That’s only for
virginal
sacrifices.” 

“Very funny.”  A dark witch comedienne.

Evalle stepped on the smooth stone and it might have been her imagination, but she could feel vibrations coming up from beneath her feet. “Are we on some kind of fault line here?”

“That’s the energy you’ll need to reach Storm.”

“I don’t teleport well.”

“It’s not teleporting. This is more like astral projection. Your body will remain here, but you should be able to speak and see things in another realm. However, you will be able to speak
only
to Storm, because of your connection to him.”

Oh, boy. An out-of-body experience, literally. “Can something in that other realm grab me and keep me there?”

Adrianna tapped her jaw, thinking, then said in a little girl’s voice, “You mean like the boogie man?”

And just like that, the ceasefire disintegrated. “You still need our help,” Evalle reminded her. “In your case, payback can be a bitch.”

Adrianna’s smile broke out from behind her clouded expression. “Ah, there’s the Evalle that Storm needs.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” 

That wiped the smile from Adrianna’s face. “Where you’re going, you have to be ready for any threat, because a realm where a witch doctor of Nadina’s power would have taken him will very likely be far worse than anything you’ve ever witnessed in this world. Do not fight the spirits as they guide you, and don’t try to interfere in the realm you visit, because you can’t physically influence anything that is going on.” 

Evalle caught her meaning when Adrianna paused. The witch was warning her that Evalle had to use restraint even if she thought Storm needed protecting. “I understand. What else?”

With a nod, Adrianna continued. “Any abrupt action on your part may cause the spirits to break the connection. Otherwise, you can return when you’re ready by thinking about this spot, but I warn you now that we can only do this once. Just opening this passage will alert spirits better left undisturbed. Understood?”

“Got it.” 

“One more thing. Making an educated guess at the type of place he may be, for you to pass through from the mortal world to a realm of darkness uninvited often requires a sacrifice.”

Was she serious? Evalle suggested,  “Can we use a chicken?”

Adrianna stared at her a minute, lips twisted with disapproval. “I
don’t
sacrifice animals!”  Adrianna looked away, blew out a breath and looked back at Evalle. “This would be something you sacrifice
personally
.”

Evalle was still processing the angry “
I don’t sacrifice animals
” statement. Her whole view of Sterling witches just tilted. When this was over, she intended to become far more knowledgeable on the Sterling family.

The one thing Evalle did know about dealing with anyone in the world of nonhumans was to be specific. “What exactly do you mean about something I sacrifice personally? All I brought with me are my weapons and you told me they couldn’t travel with me.”

“Think along the lines of what a spirit would want. It’s better for you to decide what you’re willing to give up so the spirits don’t
choose
what to take from you.”

A string of everything dear to her that she could lose crowded her mind, from Storm, Feenix, Tzader, Quinn, and the list went on and on. She would not risk any of them. “How do I declare what I’m willing to offer?”

Adrianna angled her head in acknowledgement of another correct question. “You say, ‘In appreciation for allowing me to pass unharmed to my destination and back, I am willing to sacrifice ...’ then you fill in the blank.”

Evalle raked hair off her forehead, thinking.

“Are you ready?” Adrianna asked.

No, but that wasn’t going to change any time soon. “Ready.”

“I will begin chanting as I light the last three candles. As soon as the last wick flames, tell the spirits what you offer and close your mind to everything except picturing Storm. Ask the spirits to take you to him.”

Adrianna’s voice was crisp in the evening air. When she began chanting, it hit Evalle that Adrianna should be singing professionally. After a moment, Adrianna held her hand open and a tiny spark flamed in the center of her palm.

Okay, that was definitely new. Up to now, Adrianna had been using a long fireplace match to light the candles. Guess that made these last three special.

The flame walked across her creamy skin, not burning it at all. When the flame reached the tip of her index finger, she held it over the first candle until the wick lit, then moved on to the next one. Evalle was so mesmerized by the ceremony she almost missed her cue of the last candle firing up.

She took a breath, closed her eyes and said, “In appreciation for allowing me to pass unharmed to my destination and back, I am willing to sacrifice whatever I possess where I stand, except for my soul.”

Adrianna had continued chanting, but she gasped at those words.

Evalle would not put anyone she loved at risk. If the spirits wanted to take away her powers then so be it. She would give up much more to bring Storm back.

Wait. Adrianna didn’t say
when
the spirits would take delivery on that sacrifice. What if Evalle needed her powers where she was going?

Should have thought that one through better.

Evalle closed her mind to everything except Storm’s face. The harder she thought on him, the more he came into focus. He had a strong profile. A proud one. He turned and his dark eyes stared back at her, telling her how much he wanted her. She’d been a fool time and again, falling into the jealousy pit and wallowing around. No more. When she got him home, she would accept that he was hers and she was his.

Maybe even mated, if Kai had been correct.

Home. She wanted to be with Storm and Feenix.

To her, anywhere with those two would be the equivalent of a picket fence life.

Noises blurred and stretched until it sounded as if she was flying through a wind tunnel. The whirring sounds weren’t freaky, just wrapping around her and making her claustrophobic.

She was supposed to be talking to the spirits. “Please take me to Storm of the Ashaninka and Navajo.”
There couldn’t be two of those, right?
“I wish to go to Storm no matter where he is. Please–”

Icy fingers clutched at her, dragging her out of the wind tunnel. The cold digits covered her eyes and she managed not to panic. Just. Her body was drawn to the left then to the right, back and forth, weaving a drunken path.

She stiffened at being held, but Adrianna had warned her not to fight the spirits. A cold film started coating her body. She shivered hard against the chill. Where was she going? She’d envisioned Storm somewhere akin to Christian hell where fire blazed nonstop.

Not somewhere that could compete with Antarctica.

All at once, the motion slowed until she just drifted. When the spirit removed its icy fingers, Evalle blinked to clear her vision. A huge, empty room came into view that reminded her of the amphitheater under the mountain shielding VIPER headquarters. This place looked like a giant had scooped out the rock, but left it open with no stadium style seats cut into the stones.

Ledges jutted out from the walls above the dark floor ... that just moved.

Not a floor. Bodies.

As more bodies moved, she could see that there were hundreds of them lying around. Maybe thousands. Some had animal bodies covered in fur or coarse gray skin. Others with human-like bodies were covered in tattoos of strange symbols designed in black, red or both.

She didn’t see anything similar to a Cressyl or Birrn Demon, but they were from different parts of the world. Still, she recognized none of these creatures as fitting into the races of demons she’d studied. The power alone wafting off this group vibrated over her skin. She shuddered at the thought of facing even a handful of these in Atlanta.

In the middle of the room, one large shape had the body of a buffalo that was shielded in swamp-green armor plates the size of her two hands. It had a mangled human-shaped head with a pig’s nose and long donkey-like ears. To the left of that one, a fifteen-foot long serpent body slithered down from a ledge. Clear scales covered the internal organs. Eww. Then it raised its head that was a mutant orange-and-brown cat shape, if the cat weighed a hundred pounds and had wide jaws that dropped open to show a double row of sharp teeth.  

She had to stop shivering. They didn’t know about her.

Once the serpent reached the ground, there was a ripple of movement through the room. Maybe her arrival caused a disturbance, an unexpected energy wave, because all at once a third of the heads popped up, looking around, searching.

Red eyes glowed on the demons.

The red eyes made her skin crawl. Those were the worst of all demons.

Storm was stuck in here somewhere?

Her heart kick boxed inside her chest. Where was he?

How could she move around to hunt for him? Staying as calm as she could, she tried swimming motions.

That worked.

She floated forward, eyeing the demons that appeared to be settling back down into their siesta. She had night vision, but a glow coming from the left shed enough light to illuminate much of the massive space. As she made it past a ledge to look in that direction, she squinted against the light but realized it wasn’t affecting her vision.

When she took a hard look, she did a double take at the being slumped on a throne. Had to be a throne since it was the only chair in the room. Where had that thing gotten the owl shape to its head? No owl was that ugly and the bony body did nothing to improve his–she guessed it was a
he
based on the genitalia–appearance. Evidently, he had a fetish for skulls since his throne had been built out of skulls stacked like Leggos.

He was clearly head honcho over these demons, but who was he?

She couldn’t waste time when she needed to get to Storm who could answer her questions faster. Stretching her head to take in the entire room, including ledges draped with more sleeping demons, she still didn’t see Storm.

Her gaze caught on a recessed area on the far wall at the rear of the space–if that throne was at the front. There was a half-circle, thirty-foot-round area cleared of any demon in front of the opening to that hole.

Could Storm be in there, tucked away with his back to the wall so he could fight off these demons? That would fit for someone like Storm who knew how to best position himself in a room full of predators.

Had to be one to think like one.

Going into a dark hole raised all Evalle’s childhood nightmares to the surface–the ones of growing up locked in a basement–but if she couldn’t influence anything in this realm then those demons shouldn’t be able to touch her. Right?

She swam above the field of bodies and worked to ignore her wildly thumping heart.

When she reached the small cavern, she eased in slowly, encouraged that her natural night vision allowed her to continue seeing in the dark because there was no light in here.