The Underworld (Rhyn Eternal) (14 page)

Karma was on guard in the bedchamber, but something told her the long-imprisoned deity didn’t really understand the purpose of watching without engaging. Wrapping the towel around her, Deidre emerged tentatively from the bathing chamber into the destroyed master suite, uncertain what she’d find.

The redheaded deity had changed clothing and captured her thick curls at the base of her neck. She sat with a book on an overturned trunk.

Deidre crossed to the wardrobe whose door was still open, and she surveyed the clothing critically. Everything was in white or shades of cream. The material of the clothing was rather coarse, woven to withstand time rather than provide comfort to a goddess unable to feel it.

“Never thought I’d prefer a Hell dress.” Deidre sighed. She pulled out what appeared to be the most comfortable of the clothing, a long dress, and then tugged on leggings beneath it. Knowing the boots would fit, she quickly pulled them on, tied them and straightened.

When she turned, Karma was standing directly behind her.

“Oh, god!” she gasped. “You shouldn’t sneak up on people, Karma.”

“Karma thought only water nymphs had pink hair,” Karma said, studying her pink-dyed hair.

“Someday, someone is showing me what a water nymph is,” Deidre replied. “Did anything happen?”

Karma raised an eyebrow in polite offense. “Yes, and Karma …
I
took care of it.” Her eyes were blue this time, her round face lightly flushed.

“I’m guessing you didn’t hide until they left.”

“Karma doesn’t hide. She needed clothes that fit. You are too small.”

Deidre took in the new clothes. Karma wore all black, like a death dealer. “Okay. We should probably move on.”

Karma started towards the door, and Deidre followed, strapping the velvet purse containing souls to her belt.

“We can go back to the dungeon,” Karma told her.

“I think we need a plan.”

“Karma … I heard the death dealers talk before they found Karma. There was a prisoner that escaped. The dealers are searching the palace, except for the dungeon. It’s safe.”

“Did they mean us?” Deidre asked.

“No. A demon.”

“Jared got out?”

“Is that what they’re called now?” Karma sighed. “Karma has been in prison too long.”

“No, I mean, the demon in my cell was named Jared. But if he got out …” Either Past-death did, too, or had been eaten. Deidre didn’t want to dwell on the glimmer of satisfaction she experienced at the idea of the woman who fucked up her world getting what she deserved.

She shook her head to free her mind of the bad thought, aware she felt bad for past-Death being eaten by a demon, no matter what the former deity had done to her.

Her stomach seized, and she dropped to her knees, clutching it. The hunger pangs were getting more frequent, more intense. Pain pierced her abdomen and radiated outwards into the rest of her body. She closed her eyes.

“Come, Deidre,” Karma whispered, tugging at her arm. “There are people coming.”

Deidre wasn’t able to move. She huddled, nauseated, in silent agony. Her chest was too tight to breathe.

The door to the bedchamber burst open. She lifted her head, gaze blurred. There were four death dealers in the room and at least twice that in the hallway.

“The little demon is alive.”

She recognized the voice, even if the accompanying memory was gone. Deidre shuddered. Sheer terror gave her the strength to move despite the pain, and she pushed herself to her feet. Her pulse raced with adrenaline, and Karma wrapped an arm around her, steadying her.

Together, they moved away from the door, putting the trunk between them and the death dealers.

“Karma can take … four, I think,” the deity whispered. “How many can you fight? Five? Six?”

None. I’m too weak.
Deidre’s eyes watered, and she drew a shuddering breath.

“Oh, no. Karma does not like that emotion,” the goddess snapped. “You’re a
demon.
You can fight.”

“I can’t,” Deidre said in a cracked voice. “I tried before!”

“You tried to fight them like you’re
human.
”

“Ready for round two, little demon?” one of the death dealers taunted. “I brought more friends this time. Good thing, seeing as how quickly you recovered the first time.”

Deidre squeezed her eyes closed, fear paralyzing her. Maybe if she passed out first …

I’m tired of being the victim of the Immortal world.
The thought crystalized, along with a sense of helplessness to know she didn’t have the ability to prevent her fate at the hands of the death dealers.

“No!” Karma grabbed her arms and shook her hard. “No! You’re a demon. Fight them how a demon fights!”

“I don’t … know … how!”

“Where does the Dark One get his power?”

“What?”

The dealers entered the room cautiously, weapons drawn.

Karma snatched her arm and all but dragged her into the bathing chamber, barring the door. Deidre sagged to the floor, already trying to make her mind numb.

Not again. I can’t go through this again.

Spinning, Karma grabbed Deidre’s arms again and hauled her up. “Look at me!” The deity’s eyes were piercing green, her curls gone and her hair straight standing on end, as if she’d stuck her finger in a light socket. “You are a demon now, and you can draw power from the same thing the Dark One does. I
know
you are tired of this, and I know you can do this. There’s lots of power here for one such as you.”

“Depravity?” Deidre asked uncertainly.

“Evil. Hatred. Pain. Resentment. Betrayal. Whatever emotion it is that makes them hurt you. You can use it against them.”

“I don’t know how.”

“How?” Karma echoed, astonished. “You just use it! Did the Dark One teach you nothing?”

Deidre drew a few calming breaths and forced her panicking mind to focus. “Y… yes. He did. How to kill.”

“Then do it!” Karma released her and took a hand. “Look. You’ve got small claws. When demons are threatened, they grow claws and fangs. Make them grow more.”

Something smashed into the door, and the bar across it cracked.

Deidre looked at it fearfully then at her hands.

Karma was right. Her nails had grown to short points and turned black, the same way …

“Wait a minute. They do this when I’m in bed with Darkyn,” she murmured.

“Defense mechanism. What he does should probably kill you.”

“That’s what he says.”

Karma grinned suddenly. “Then pretend you’re in bed with him.”

Desire shot through her at the thought, pooling at her belly. As Deidre watched, her nails grew longer, until they were thick and pointy enough to look threatening even to her.

“You can kill with them,” Karma told her. “They are like tiny swords. They will go through anything.”

“I’m like Catwoman.” Deidre studied the lengthened nails in a cross between revulsion and intrigue. “Or maybe Wolverine.” Her nails stopped growing at about two inches long. “Umm … definitely Catwoman.”

Karma appeared confused. “Yes. Whatever it takes. How does this Cat-wo-man act? Afraid of death dealers?”

The door splintered.

“She’s not afraid of anything,” Deidre said.

“You can be that! You
are
that inside.”

“He taught me another way to kill,” Deidre continued, flipping over her hand to study her palm. “I couldn’t do it to him. Karma, I don’t know if I can kill.” The demon way of killing usually involved a lot of blood and pain, from what she’d seen. Neither was natural to her.

“You can kill, or you can watch Karma get killed, because we won’t make it out of here otherwise. Karma is weak right now, too.”

Deidre looked up, startled, and met the deity’s grim gaze.

“You have to be a demon now,” Karma said firmly. “You are the mate of the Dark One, the most powerful creature in the universe. The power is in the men who want to hurt you. Use it.”

I’m tired of being the victim.
Deidre studied her hands once more and then nodded. She clung to the idea she already had the power within her to defend herself and Karma this time. After a fatal brain tumor, the list of deities and Immortals trying to use her for their means, the loss of her life, her mortality, her human boyfriend …

This ends now.
No more Immortals fucking up her life and body, no more deities trying to control her. Anger trickled into her, and the black fingernails grew longer.

Karma moved away from her and faced the first death dealer hacking his way through the door.

Swallowing hard, Deidre watched Karma duck the blow of a sword and grab the dealer’s arm. He froze, his mouth opening in silent horror. Karma’s hair lengthened and whirled around the both of them with the tangibility of smoke and the eerie writhing of a snake, her eyes flashing white then black and settling on red, while her features grew stony.

She, too, appeared frozen, absorbing the man’s vitality. He grew pale, gaunt, and mummified so quickly, Deidre would’ve missed it, had she blinked. His hair and skin were the last to fade away, revealing a skeleton. Karma’s hair returned to normal, and she released him.

The bones and clothing fell at Karma’s feet, and she readied herself to face the next man. Red hair remained straight, the tendrils stretching out towards the next dealer through the door.

The rest of the door exploded, knocking both of them back. The dealers kicked aside the bones and charged into the room.

Karma moved to the side opposite Deidre, forcing the dealers to split up. Their effectiveness was further whittled down by the narrowness of the path around the round baths.

“Hello, little demon.” The death dealer approaching Deidre had eyes that glowed with lust. His dagger was raised. “Ready to scream for me again?”

Deidre retreated, struggling to focus on Karma’s words to keep from losing her angry edge.

… you can draw power from the same thing the Dark One does.

Deidre glanced at her fingernails. She doubted they’d do much against a sword, but she already knew from fucking Darkyn that they could slice through skin easily. He loved pain, and she began to realize that he’d been quietly teaching her how to be the demon she really was, using his body as her scratching post.

Depravity. Evil. How did she channel what was clearly in front of her? How did she draw on Darkyn’s power when he was cut off from her? She had never thought to seek the bad out in anyone, but the large death dealer looming over her made her want to give it a go.

“I’m unarmed,” she whispered, holding up her hands. “I … know how this went last time. I just want it not to hurt.”

The death dealer considered her then sheathed the sword. “No promises.”

“Better your hands than a sword, right?”

He snatched her arm hard enough to hurt. Deidre grimaced, fighting away the frantic urge to curl up in a ball and sob. She rested a hand against his chest to steady herself and focused hard on feeling the parts of him that would attract her mate.

I am the Dark One’s mate. If there is evil here, it will obey me.
Closing her eyes, she chanted the words over and over, trying not to notice that the death dealer was ripping her dress to get to her skin with the haste of a man not fully under his own control. He grabbed one breast and squeezed too hard, shoving her into the wall behind her and rubbing his erection against her hips.

This ends now.

The scent of blood was in the air, thick, rich and compelling. Deidre’s mouth watered, the demon side of her responding to its food source.

A whisper reached her, something dark and cold, emanating from deep within her attacker and tingling through the hand she held over his heart. The cool energy went up her arm, tickling her from the inside, and she redirected it, willing it to do to his heart what she never thought herself capable of before.

The dealer hesitated and started to pull away.

Keeping her hand rooted to his chest, Deidre focused harder, tears on her cheeks.

“Stop,” she whispered to his heart. “Now.”

The dealer dropped.

Gasping, Deidre’s eyes flew open, and she stared down at the body at her feet. She had no time to dwell over her first kill but was confronted by a second dealer. This one paused, glancing at the dead man, before he stepped over him and took her arm.

“Claws!” Karma shouted with a grunt from across the room.

A quiet, quick death was one thing, but Deidre wanted nothing to do with blood. It was drowning her senses already, pulling at a part of her she didn’t want to acknowledge existed. One that lusted to gorge itself on the coppery rivers of blood pulsing through the body of the man before her.

Coupled with her hunger, the thought of tasting him was overwhelming.

The cold flow of energy was stronger from this man, and even stronger from the man behind him. Her demon senses were opening, and she drew in the evil with less effort than before, collecting it with some bafflement, and then readying it to defend her.

Driven beyond emotion by hunger and fear, Deidre didn’t wait for the next man to grab her but gripped his arm, unleashing the cold energy into him.

He fell instantly.

The man behind him drove her back with a slash of his sword. Deidre jumped away, uncertain what to do against the weapon, and concentrated on sucking in more of the cold energy circulating in the room to use when she had the chance. Slipping on the tile, she landed hard on her knees, barely avoiding another blow.

He hauled her up, and she slashed his forearm, forcing him to let go.

The dealer bellowed, and the scent of blood filled her nose. Deidre barely had time to move before he wrapped his hand in her hair and wrenched her head back, knife at her neck.

“Got one!” he shouted behind him.

His blood dripped down his arm, and she found herself unusually fascinated by the trickle of maroon droplets towards her.

Deidre licked her lips. Horrified by her body’s response, she steeled herself, touched his forearm and released the cold energy.

Man and knife fell.

Her hand was covered in his blood. She stared at it, resisting the need to lick it clean. She wiped it on her dress instead and rose.