Drop Dead Demons (48 page)

“Not so fast Miss Doom and Gloom,” I said. “We just climb down the other side.” I scrambled to the opposite edge. More demons howled just below us. I jumped back. “Or not.”

“Why would she tell us to go up? We’re trapped! She’s just like Aphrodite!”

“No!” At least I hoped not. “She had a reason.”

To my left talons scraped. A clawed hand slapped over the edge, followed by a lipless fang-filled smile. I kicked its oval head. The creature spiraled into open air, clawing at its many friends, trying to gain purchase.

“Eros.” Psyche dropped her face in her hands. “Am I never to see him again?”

“A little faith would be nice.” I paced. Rubbed my temples. “I
have
gotten out of here before.”

“How?”

I jabbed a thumb at the sky. “Gloria flies me out.”

“And?”

“And that’s it. She doesn’t even do a good job. She always—Aw,
no!
No, no, no, no,
no!
”

Psyche shook my shoulders. “Always what?”

“Drops me.” I peered over the edge. “From way up high. Like this kind of high.” My stomach lurched. “I can’t believe she’s making me do this.” I stomped my foot. “Bunch of leap of faith crap.”

Psyche looked over the edge. “You mean…?”

“Yep.”

She gulped. “Oh no, no, no.”

“See, that’s what I said.”

A sea of claws curled onto the edge of the plateau. We were out of time. Surrounded. Heavy pants whispered past the jagged array of teeth and fangs. Lidless black eyes lit up at the sight of us. The ghoulies practically drooled. A few seconds more and they’d have their entire grotesque selves onto level ground. With us.

Psyche shook her head and cried, “I can’t!”

“Yeah, well, neither can I.”

“No!”

“Yes! If you want to see Eros again. You said love is worth any sacrifice. Here’s your chance to prove it. It’s do or die time. You with me?”

I held out my hand.

She blew out a breath and grabbed it in her own. “I am with you.” She blinked back tears. “My friend.” 

Holding each other for dear life, we ran toward the edge. With a mournful wail, a demon reached for me. I leapt over his head and off the ledge, gripping Psyche hard to make sure she joined me in this insanity.

We dropped.

Seeing the shiny crimson ground far, far below, I choked on my heart, which was chugging up my throat, and realized I should’ve thought this through.

Maybe Gloria meant there was a non-fatal way out. Or maybe I needed to put myself in danger so that Gloria’s restrictions would lift and she could fly in and save us.

Yeah. I liked that one.

I liked it a lot less as the ground kept getting closer. Psyche screamed louder. Oh, not louder. That was me finally joining in.

Wind ripped through my ears, seemed to crush all around me. My skin burned. Lungs emptied a few stories back. Couldn’t reinflate. I closed my eyes at the realization that…

Gloria wasn’t coming.

I hit, skidding and spinning on cold, hard ground. Pain beat a steady rhythm into my bones and sung a high pitch in my jaw. Not the oh-my-God-I’m-dying kind of pain. This was the that’s-gonna-bruise kind of pain.

The
alive
kind.

A whimper spurred me into action. Not much action. Just because I was alive didn’t mean I didn’t hurt. Badly. But I moved through it to drag my body into motion and push off the ground, noticing an immediate plus. No dead bodies.

Beside me, Psyche was slowly uncurling herself from a ball, her mouth open in shock and pain.

“Are you alright?” I said.

“No.” She shuddered a breath. “But I will be.”

“Good.” I wobbled onto my feet. “Because we’ve got a problem.”

“You’re dressed like a man?”

I looked down. My usual sneakers and jeans get-up was back, mud and moss from the Gossamer Falls cave clinging like glue, but no human ooze or an anklet made from intestines. Yay.

“That’s not our problem.”

Psyche rolled to her side, arms too shaky too push herself up. “Where are your friends? Where is Eros?”

“
That’s
the problem.” I put hands on hips. “I have no idea where we are.”

We’d landed on a gray, polished concrete floor — no wonder my body was cursing me out. White walls with big artwork that looked like it should be in a museum. A set of shiny double doors. A big rectangular table lined with leather chairs. Like some corporate boardroom. From the ceiling florescent light flickered from white to pale bluish-pink. The room was empty save one very confused me and my new immortal sidekick.

She struggled for breath. “We are alive?”

“Unless heaven upgraded its pearly gates for steel doors, yes.” I yanked her up.

“Oh!” Psyche brightened. “We’re in a society base. We are safe!”

Society? Surely she didn’t mean
that
society.

My stomach went into a freefall. Been doing that a lot lately. At least this time my feet were firmly on the ground.

I strangled down my screech to a hiss. “Why would you say that?”

Psyche pointed above the doors and also the center of the long conference table, as well on the backs of the leather chairs. The symbol was clear on each. Four locking circles with a huge letter M in the middle.

“I should’ve just stayed in the Waiting World,” I muttered, standing smack dab in a base or compound or whatever you want to call it, of the villainous wants-to-put-me-in-manacles Mandatum.

Above us, lights flickered red. I looked up.

Oh, no.

It wasn’t fluorescent lighting.

The ceiling had a huge, gaping hole. The view through the hole wasn’t of blue sky, but of red. The Waiting World sky. I was staring up the cliff face from which we’d just jumped. Much taller than I’d thought. Between the height and the fact that the Waiting World was only a few feet away, my stomach settled — or unsettled — on extra queasy. 

I tore my eyes back down to the more normal, earthly room, then I tip-toed across the floor, pushed open one of the doors, and peeked out.

Empty corridor. Walls of cut stone. A few closed doors. Down the hall was a Gothic mullioned window with three thin, arched panes divided by vertical stone pillars. All was quiet. Finally, things were going my way.

Except…I did a double-take. Out the window, under the cloudy sky, I saw a city. Pretty city. Dense city. Full of old architecture city. Water. Bridges. Almost like—

I gasped. “No freaking way.”

Psyche peered over my shoulder. “What?”

“Getting home is going to take a while.” I slapped a hand to my face hoping it’d stop my head from spinning.

“What is that tall metal edifice?” she asked.

“The, um, Eiffel Tower.” It was hard to speak with my jaw on the floor. “We’re in Paris, freakin’ France.”

I slammed the door shut and paced the empty room. The frantic stride helped me forget we’d landed on another
continent
.

Don’t think about that. Think about how we were going to escape a high-tech Mandatum base. Easy. Of course. A silly laugh tickled my throat. The Ishidas had private jets. I could get a croissant while I waited. If Psyche would just—

“Shut up and help me figure a way out of here!”

Hurt fluttered into her eyes.

Okay. Little harsh. But I’d somehow landed across the Atlantic in the base camp of the people trying to kill me — such is my luck — while Psyche pelted me with a gazillion questions about the “strange land” called France and I just didn’t have time for a geography lesson.

“Sorry.” I leaned against the wall and wrapped my hands around my head. “I’ll show you a map or something, once we’re home. But we are not safe. These people, the Mandatum, if they get a hold of me, I’m dead.”

She laid a finger my lips, eyes wide. I strained to hear what she heard. Nothing. Other than my pounding heart.

“Wha—?”

She pointed up. Inside the gap to the Waiting World, something kept popping over the edge of the portal only to disappear a second later. Rather nerve-wracking.

Psyche squinted at the portal. “What is that?”

“Let’s not stick around and find out.” I backed up, wanting it all to go away. But I’d somehow opened a portal that I didn’t think should be here in the first place, and I had no idea how to close it.

The doors burst open.

I jumped in front of Psyche. The guy who entered froze at the sight of us. Then he staggered a step back.

"Nossa!"
he muttered, black eyes registering shock
.
“
Fiamma?”

He was stocky, wore a heavy coat, his long, wavy brown hair pulled back in a ponytail. The look, the accent, reminded me of a conquistador. Definitely Spanish. Spain kind of Spanish.

“Um…” That was the beginning of my clever line to get us out of this mess. As it turned out, it was also the end of it.

So I ran. Forward. And slammed the doors in Spain’s face.

Almost.

He took a hit to the temple but jammed his foot so the door wouldn’t close. I strained against it. He shouldered it open with a surge of strength, which slammed me into the wall. Air hissed from my lungs, and I slid onto my butt. Spain stumbled into the room, falling onto one knee, directly beneath the freshly opened portal.

Eyes glued on me, he looked ill. Stunned. Like he was staring at a ghost.

“
Imposible
.” He stood slowly, stepped toward me.

I balled my fist.

A leathery blue arm reached down from the open portal. Talons ripped into Spain’s coat and yanked him up.

“No!” I launched through the air, wrapped one arm around Spain’s waist, and shot my other hand up.

Energy coursed down my arm. Spiders of light burst from my fingers. The portal flashed bright. I turned my head away, felt a jolt, like I’d slammed into a buffalo, then Spain and I dropped to the floor, his body
thudding
on top of mine.

Heavy. Couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t get him off. Then the weight was gone. I wheezed. Someone turned me over. Pushed hair off my face.

“How did you do that?”

Psyche came into focus. Helped me sit.

I looked up at a ceiling. It was solid concrete. The portal was closed. Much better than when I blew a hole through the building and it almost collapsed on top of us. I was getting better at this. Or just plain lucky.

“How?” I rubbed my eyes with the heels of my hands. “Not sure.”

Spain was on the floor, next to the open door, unconscious or—

“Is he dead?”

“No,” Psyche said. “The portal closed as the creature pulled him up. He hit the ceiling hard then you both fell. He merely lacks consciousness.”

Something twitched on the other side of Spain.

“Yikes!” I scuttled back.

“Fear not.” Psyche walked over, picked up the severed blue arm, and brought it over so we could take a closer look.

Although why she thought I wanted a closer look was beyond me. Blood the color of ink dripped from just above the elbow.

“It was severed when the portal closed, but poses no threat now.”

The skin was mottled, almost scaled.

“I think it’s a ghoulie.” I reached out a finger.

The clawed hand spasmed closed.

“Yaaaglg!” I squealed and nearly fell on my butt.

Psyche squealed too, but in some other language, then she chucked the arm away. I almost expected it to dig its talons into the floor and start crawling toward us, but it didn’t move again.

“Keep an eye on it,” I told her as I double-checked Spain’s condition.

No blood, no punctures. But he would need a new coat. I turned out his pockets hoping for a weapon, a cell phone, a clue. Any freakin’ thing that might help me understand this colossal catastrophe. On second thought, I didn’t care about
why
, just give me a
how
to get out of it.

“The other one is coming,” Psyche said.

“What other one?!”

Psyche grabbed my hand and dragged us out of the room and down the hall. Footsteps fast approached. I looked around hoping for a neon exit sign, but saw nothing. Nowhere to hide. No escape.

Except…I paused, turned, glanced back into the room.

Psyche pushed me away. “I am
not
going back to the Waiting World!”

“Psyche, we got out once, we can do it again.”

“No!” She pummeled a fist against the wall. “
Nothing
they can do to us here is worse! Trust me. Do you have any idea
how long
I’ve been trying to get out?!”

A few millenniums, but who’s counting?

“But
I
can get us out.” Probably. “And Gloria will help.” Probably. But admittedly, she’d been acting weird.

“No! She may help you, but I could be abandoned. Here, I have a chance. I am Mandatum. They will not harm me. And it isn’t
hell
.”

She had a point. Several actually. But I felt a little different about the situation. I could go on my own, but…could I open the portal? Make it up another cliff before getting eaten? Would I even land in the same place? What if I ended up in that barren flatland like the first time? Not a cliff in sight? I couldn’t run forever.

I swore under my breath, tears of frustration blurring my vision.

Running footsteps. They raced closer. Then Psyche gazed over my shoulder and said, “We surrender.”

I whirled. “No we don’t.”

A female figure loomed in cargo pants and tank top. Early twenties. Dark olive skin. Black hair in a single braid down to her hips, with two serrated knives clinking together as they dangled off the end. Sexy, deadly, and way beyond my pay grade.

Surrendering sounded really good. I raised my hands up, palms out, trying not to let them shake. Fat chance.

La Femme Nikita stared at me, her expression morphing from menacing to mortally shocked.
“Fiamma?”

I narrowed my eyes. Why did they keep calling me flame?

“Fiamma!”
the voice of some new guy echoed, bouncing off walls so I couldn’t tell how close he was. Great.

Over her shoulder Nikita said, “I’ve got her!”

Wind gusted against my back. Nikita’s eyes widened and she launched into a back hand-spring. An arrow hissed past my cheek. It caught Nikita in the head and she went down.

“No!” I ran to the girl, glaring at Artemis who held an arrow poised to shoot at me. “You didn’t have to kill her!”

Nikita whimpered then stilled, but her chest rose and lowered. She was alive, just pinned down by Artemis’s arrow because before it buried into the floor, the goddess had shot it through the
braid
at the base of her skull,
not
through her skull. Big plus. Nikita was simply out cold from knocking her head on the ground.

Artemis flashed a wolfish smile. “You have my stone.”

“Maybe?” I squeaked. I’d thought I had Aphrodite’s stone and that hadn’t ended well. I dug in my bra then produced the ring Eros had given me on the beach. “This it?”

She breathed deep, eyes shining with relief. “Yes. Give it to me.” The ring started to glow. Artemis doubled over, wincing. She held out her hand. “Hurry.”

There was more shouting from several hallways. I couldn’t see them, but people — Mandatum — were coming from all directions.

“No!” Psyche grabbed my arm. “She has touched this umbra stone, so it has become the Artemis Stone, and since you wield it, you become her master. Order her to do your will.”

“Silence!” Artemis readied to shoot an arrow into Psyche.

“Stop!” I said. And funny enough, Artemis did, hands shaking as she glared at my sidekick. “Is it true? You have to do what I say?”

“It is not that simple,” Artemis looked grim. “There is danger. Power brings consequences. There is always a price.”

“
Fiamma!
” The guy’s voice was closer. Doors banged open and closed.

I held up the ring. “Get us out of here, and you can have your stone.”

Psyche made a noise of protest, but I ignored her.

Artemis’s eyes narrowed, wary. “What trick is this?”

People were shouting, coming closer. I fought the urge to run. I had nowhere to go.

“No trick,” I said, heart pounding. “I’m terrified of being controlled by these jerks, I’m not about to do that to someone else. But here’s the deal.” I put the ring on. Beams shot out. Energy surged through me. Power. It felt good.

Artemis stiffened and winced. “Your price?”

“Be nice,” I said. “You want to be left alone? Fine. Don’t kill, maim,
kidnap
, or harm anyone as an overall general rule, or I’ll go all Divinicus Nex and hunt you down.”

“As if you could,” Artemis scoffed.

“I brought down Aphrodite.” I cocked my head. “Something you failed to do for centuries.” 

Her wolfish smile was back. “Indeed.” She bowed her head. “You have my solemn vow.”

She reached out her hand. Before I could give her the ring, Psyche stopped me with a touch on my arm.

“And you owe Aurora one favor,” Psyche said. “Anytime, anywhere, and for anything she desires.”

I was about to say no because all I wanted was to get out of here, but almost immediately Artemis gave Psyche a shrewd look then nodded. “Agreed.” She snatched the stone from my hand, held it to her chest, and sighed.

Then she
poofed
out of sight. Gone.

Psyche turned to me. “You must bargain with a greater show of force and strength. The gods only yield high esteem to those whom extract suitable recompense for the gifts and deeds bestowed upon them.”

“Wow,” I said. “That sounds really fancy and all, but a lot it good it does me because she just left us here high and dry, and any second, Mandatum hunters are going to turn the corner, and we’re gonna be surrounded. So, way to go girl.
Super
negotiating skills.”

“
Fiamma!
” Behind me, I heard the guy race into the hallway. He was breathless.

“Tag,” I whispered, “I’m it.”