Dark Demon Rising: Whisperings Paranormal Mystery book seven (27 page)

Shan’s
body toppled, his torso landed on the white circle, blood spurting from the
stump.

One
gnarled hand took Shan by a shoulder and pulled him in to lie between the beast’s
legs.

Rain
ran in and grabbed Shan’s head by his long black hair. “Hey, you forgot
something.” She threw it in, where it landed with a sickening thud and rolled
between the monster’s legs.

I
couldn’t breathe. The demon had dragged Shan’s body through the salt,
destroying the circle, and didn’t breaking a circle allow whatever was trapped inside
to come out?

Arthemy
draped the demon’s arm, his spine bent at an impossible angle, eyes bulging,
mouth open in a silent scream. With its other hand, the thing picked up Shan’s
head by his silken hair.

“You
have your sacrifice and he who tried to bind you. Return to where you came
from,” Rain said. She looked tiny, facing the monster three times her size.

It
loosed a deep hollow chuckle which coiled around the chamber. “But I only now
arrived, little one. I think I will bide awhile.”

Rain
backed to the table and plunged her hand in the pail. “Do I have to use the
salt on you?”

Its
teeth ground; it laughed again. “There is always another time. I will not
forget you, wraith.”

A
flash of black light, a gust of air smelling of burning rubber, and a ghastly
silence.

Dagka
Shan, the blood mage Arthemy and the demon had disappeared.

“Thanks,
Castle. High five.” River held his hand up, palm out. “Castle told me to knock
the mage in the circle, send him out of the land of the living to the dark
realm. All his spells failed.
Pouf!
”

“And
did Castle remember Arthemy’s spells bound the demon to his will?” Rain panted.
“Nothing but a pail of salt stood between it and us.”

She
listened for a second, made a noise in her throat and an impolite sign in the
air.

“Your
master is dead. Let them go,” she ordered. My head spun so much from being
knocked back by River’s clunky pistol, it took me a second to realize she spoke
to the big men.

They
took their hands from Royal’s and Baelfleur’s shoulders. Baelfleur stepped
away, but Royal immediately rounded on them.

“Leave
it,” River said. “You can’t take a mountain troll down.”

Troll?
They were trolls?

One
troll scratched his hairless head. They looked at each other. Then without a
word they turned and lumbered from the room.

And
I found myself feet off the floor in Royal’s embrace.

“You
don’t know how good it is to feel you.” I husked. My throat felt like
cardboard.

I
pressed my palms firmly to Royal’s cheeks and inhaled his sandalwood and amber
scent. “And smell you.”

“We
will not get anywhere if you keep stopping to touch me,” he replied with an
amused lift of his lips.

He
didn’t understand. How could he? I’d been in sensory hell for days. To smell anything
was marvelous, even this dank passage.

Four
heavy wood doors lined it, each with a small hatch. I sniffed. “Although . . .
oh lord, do you smell that, Royal?”

Bel
was himself, an anonymous figure in a brown cowled cloak. Rain and River stood
outside the first door on the right. Thankfully they’d retrieved their
clothing. With everything which happened, my mind was too busy with other
things to be embarrassed by their nudity, but being confronted by two naked
people now would make me uncomfortable.

“You
don’t want to look,” River said.

Before
Royal opened the hatch, I smelled what lay inside. I pinched my nostrils when
the reek hit me full force but it got in my nose and coated my throat, making
me want to gag.

Putrid
flesh, old blood and charred meat.

Royal
opened the door and went in. I decided to wait outside. He stayed in there a
minute.

“They
were torn apart, limb from limb, decapitated and burned,” he said in a numb
voice lacking any inflection.

I
pictured the charred, featureless remains of a once beautiful woman, victim of
the Charbroiler who decapitated his victims. I saw a den in a big house, a
death vision of Shan ripping into an innocent family with his bare hands. I saw
him crouched on a girder, gore dripping from his fingers.

Shan
personally killed these people. He tore them apart. He made sure they were
never coming back. They
must
be Cousins.

“Tiff?”
Royal held my shoulders and squeezed.

“S’okay.”
I pulled away and went to the next door. “Let’s open box number two.”

“Wait,”
Rain said. “Castle says the dryads are in here.” She eased open the hatch and
looked in, and shook her head at what she saw. “Poor things. Easy prey. I bet
Arthemy took them off the streets to use in his experiments or spell-working.”

She
opened the door, beckoned and spoke in a soft non-threatening tone. “Come.
You’re safe now. Come with us and we’ll get you to the Auld Wood.”

As
an aside, she muttered, “Stupid things. Why
do
they come to Gettaholt?
It’s the worst place for them.”

I
peeked around the doorframe at odd willowy creatures with silvery skin, brown
twigs for hair and golden eyes; not human but nonetheless feminine.

Bel
went in the cell and grasped a dryad’s thin arm, drawing our attention to blood
seeping from a bandaged wrist and I swear green streaked the red. It cried out
in a thin whistling voice and shrank from him.

“Fresh
blood empowers a spell.” His eyes became hard as pebbles. “Arthemy bled them. I
think he meant to use their blood until they died.”

While
Rain, River and Bel tried to coax the dryads out, I went to the door on the
other side and slid the hatch. I was weak and still slightly disoriented, but not
stupid. I thought I knew who waited behind the door and it stayed locked till Royal
and I decided otherwise.

Harsh?
Excuse me for harboring unfriendly feelings for Dark Cousins.

And
there she sat on a bench on one side of the bare cell. Gia Sabato in all her
glory. Not a dark hair out of place, makeup professionally applied, no crease
or rumple messed the rose-colored suit of pencil skirt and tight-waisted
jacket. She might have come from an appointment at an upscale salon.

Wearing
white jeans and a pale-blue shirt, yellow hair in long tight coils, Teo Papek
sat with her. Two tall Gelpha leaned on the wall. Short, curling black hair
framed a woman’s dark, heart-shaped face. The man with olive skin wore his
straight black hair to his waist. I had never seen them before.

An
elegant hand snaked between the bars; slender fingers clamped on my throat. I
took my eyes off Gia for a second, which was all she needed.

“Get
us out,” she hissed.

I
tried to speak but what came from my mouth began as a squawk and ended as a
gurgle. Frantic, I tried to pry her fingers loose.

Royal
grasped her wrist. “Let her go!”

Her
fingers dug into my trachea. “Quickly. Shan is here. Free us and we will
protect you.”

“Shan
is dead, you foolish woman!”

Her
eyes flared and she released me. I reeled backward, making choking sounds and
holding my throat. Royal caught and steadied me as I gasped for air.

“You
killed Shan?” Gia’s gaze went past us and her lip curled. “No, not you.
Wraiths. You used wraiths.”

“What
does it matter who killed him? He is dead.”

“And
the mage?”

“Dead.”

They
traded stares. “So, Shan is gone. What now, Ryel?” Gia asked.

“It
depends on what you mean to do if we set you free.”

 With
something vaguely like a chuckle, she said, “I have never been called a foolish
woman before. After all these years wearing this form I think I have in truth
become a woman, with a woman’s emotions. I fell in love and was forced to part
with him.” Her tone became poignant. “I left Rio above with his family, where
he is safe. I have nothing left in me now. No ambition. No desire.”

Royal
leaned in dangerously near the hatch. “Stay Downside. You are safe here where
no Gelpha army can descend on you. Agree, and we will free you.”

He
gathered me in with one arm. “There is one other condition: Shan opened the Gates.
Leave them open. Let those families split asunder when they closed be reunited.
Let it be as before, with Gelpha freely moving between the two planes.”

Her
narrow brows drew in. “Those are your terms?”

“Nonnegotiable.”
Royal backed into the passage.

A
tiny frown pinched her brow; she looked aside at her companions. “What say you?”

After
a long pause, Teo Papek’s young voice said, “Aye.”

The
other two spoke their agreement.

“We
agree,” Gia said. She began to say more, stopped and averted her face. When she
looked back, tears made her eyes glimmer. “We must gather what is needed to lay
our kin to rest.”

“Of
course,” Royal agreed.

What
Shan said about he and his brethren fighting through Bel-Athaer to reach their
Gate was an empty threat. Most of them were already dead. If those remaining had
cooperated with him, they were still only four, or five if the number included
Shan. Not enough to overcome an army of Gelpha. It was another of Shan’s lies.

“Do
not look for Shan’s body. It’s where you cannot follow.” Royal turned away.

Bel
and the wraiths had managed to bring the dryads out. “Let us get these poor
things away first,” said Bel.

Swaying,
reeds in the wind, they waved spindly arms as Rain and Bel ushered them along
the passage toward the steps leading upstairs.

“Go
with them, Tiff,” Royal said.

“Wait.
I want answers.” I looked through the bars. “Why was Shan free? How did he
manage to imprison you and kill the others?”

Gia
held my gaze, then dropped hers. “He coerced one of us and made him unsure of
our motives and objectives as opposed to Shan’s. He freed Shan and was the
first of us Shan killed. We looked for Shan for months and came to think he
returned to the world above. We did not imagine he’d engage an army of trolls. They
came to our homes, took us from our beds. Is it not ironic there are monsters
which put our powers to shame in the one place we thought safe?”

Her
gaze drifted, moist and vacant. I don’t think she saw me. “He imprisoned us.
The first night Shan sent trolls for Bregoen and we listened to him die. Then,
the others, one by one.”

Daven.
I forgot Daven Clare. Did his body lie with the others? I couldn’t make myself
ask. I kind of liked him, a decent guy as Cousins go.

Gia
blinked and stared me right in the eyes. For a moment I saw her as a stricken
woman, grief and defeat naked on her face. Then she sniffed, lifted her chin
and a tiny sardonic smile spoiled her scarlet lips’ smooth perfection.

Royal’s
hands on my shoulders eased me away from the door. “Time to go, Tiff. Go with
the others.”

“And
leave you alone when they come out? No way.”

“You
are weak as a kitten. Go with them,” he said, using
that
tone on me.

I
made a face. “Okay, but watch yourself. If they hurt you, I’ll never forgive
you.”

But
I didn’t think the Cousins would harm Royal. If I had, I would not have left
him. For some mysterious reason, I believed they would keep their word.

He
gently shoved me in the small of my back and I tottered to the steps.

We
waited in the hall: Rain, River, Bel and I, with the twittering dryads. I
chewed my nails—man, it felt good. And paced—that felt good, too. On the point
of going back to find Royal, he strode in. Alone.

I
moistened my dry lips with my tongue. “Where are they?”

“They
left by the garden door.” Royal removed his coat and hung it on my shoulders. I
worked my arms in the sleeves.

The
long black car idled at the end of the path. It took all River’s, Rain’s and
Bel’s persuasion to get the dryads in the back seat.

“We’ll
take these lovely ladies to the Auld Wood after we drop you at The Station,”
River said as he got in the front seat with the big blond driver.

Rain
got in after him, leaving me, Royal and Bel to squeeze in with the dryads. They
cringed in one corner, so close a quick glance mistook them for one body. Royal
made room by sitting me on his knees. I didn’t object.

“So
you did it?” Clide asked as we settled on the leather seats.

“We
did,” Rain replied.

Clide
nodded. “Good.” He started the car.

And
off we went.

I
leaned over my knees to see past Royal to Rain. “You faced down a demon for me.
Thank you.” I smiled at River. “Thank you both.”

Rain’s
eyebrow twitched. “Part of the job and not the first time we went up against
something from the Netherworlds. Anyway, he was a lesser demon.”

“Lesser?
He was huge!”

“The
aspect he wore was big, yes. I mean he’s low in the hierarchy, a first level
manifestation. If it’d been a seventh-level demon we’d have been in trouble.”

I
hated to think. “I don’t understand how Arthemy’s spell was supposed to work.”

Her
eyes slid to Royal. “Arthemy meant to sacrifice Royal and pour his blood inside
the circle to complete the summoning. He’d give Royal’s soul to the demon. In
return, the demon lassoed your soul and whipped it back in your body.”

“Oh.”
I tried to quash the images her words evoked but my stomach flipped. The bowl
was to catch Royal’s blood. My head spun, my gut clenched. I gripped Royal’s
hand tighter.

“But
Shan’s blood did the trick and the demon took both him and Arthemy. He got a
deal.”

“And
to exchange Lawrence’s and Shan’s souls?” Royal asked.

“After
the mage ousted their souls, another demon, another sacrifice, and he had four
of them in his cells.”

I
said, “Can you tell Castle thanks from us?”

“Tell
him yourself. He can hear you.”

“I
thought so, but. . . .” I squirmed a little. I’d told myself often enough I
understood Royal’s difficulty relating to people he didn’t see and now I knew
how he felt firsthand.

Rain
smiled. “Don’t worry, he knows.”

“Wish
I could meet him.” Castle interested me. He seemed to be a real character.
“What does he look like?”

“Big.
Black hair, dark eyes, pale skin, like all of us. His scowl can strip paint off
a wall but he’s a big softie inside.” Listening, Rain dipped her head on a
smile. “Oh, and exceedingly handsome.”

“And
you, Baelfleur, how can we repay you?” Royal asked.

“By
never asking for my help again,” Bel said in all seriousness.

Royal
nodded his chin once. “So be it.”

Deep
in our own thoughts, we silently watched Gettaholt fly past. Mine focused on
Dark Cousins and their oath. Gia lied when it suited her. Did she lie about the
Cousins wanting nothing more to do with my world?

I
pushed it from my mind and wallowed in the feel of Royal’s arms around me.

The
car stopped outside The Station.

“How
do we do this?” Royal looked through the window at the brick building.

“I
will go with you through The Station and the doors when they open for you.
Pause a moment to let me get ahead of you before you walk the bridge, for it
cannot take us to separate destinations at the same time,” Bel said.