Ascension (32 page)

Thor looked up. “It appears they climbed up the rose trellis.”

Lillian said, “It would have been a tough climb down with a girl fighting them.”

“Perhaps she was not conscious. Serena is a spirited woman. She may have had to be subdued in order to carry out their plans.”

“I suppose we can assume that.”

Belinda walked to the glass. It was cracked in the center and a spot of black blood streaked down from the middle of the break. “The women managed to injure one of them.”

Lillian knelt by the window. “There is more demon blood on the sill.”

The two hunters looked over the entire room inch by inch, before making their way down the steps and searching out Gabriel. They found him in his study. The room had not changed since Gabriel’s father had been the Earl of Tullering. Nothing about the place gave an impression of the current earl. Several paintings of horses and ships hung on dark wood paneling. Law books lined the shelves. The dark carpet and heavy drapes still carried the stale odor of cigars. Gabriel never indulged in that manly habit. The ornate desk took up the center of the room. Several hard benches lined one wall. Besides the large seat behind the desk, two overstuffed chairs sat before it. Everything in the room was some shade of brown.

“Where is your mother?” Belinda asked.

“She was hysterical. I sent for her maid and she has gone above stairs.”

“Did she believe you?” Lillian asked.

He shrugged and gave a disgusted look toward the door. “I have no idea.”

“It is a lot to grasp, Gabriel—”

She wanted to say more, to tell him his mother needed his patience, but Shelby cleared his throat in the open door.

“Mr. Thaddeus Douglass has arrived, my lord.”

Gabriel’s eyes widened and his fists clenched. His jaw ticked in anger.

“I sent for him. If he wants to marry into this family, he will have to understand.”

“What must I understand?” Thaddeus Douglass was uncommonly tall. He stood several inches over Gabriel’s head. His red hair hung loose around his shoulders and his cravat was untied, exposing his throat. Though he was in evening dress, he appeared to have stopped in the middle of dressing to answer the urgent call. He spoke with a hint of a Scottish brogue.

Gabriel looked Thaddeus up and down. His eyes narrowed on the Scot before his expression turned to resignation. “You had better come in. Serena is missing and we will need all the help we can get to find her.”

“Missing,” Thaddeus’s voice shook the study walls. “How is that possible?”

Lillian sat down in an overstuffed chair. She had a soothing voice that cut through the tension in the room. “Mr. Douglass, you should take a seat and let his lordship explain the situation. We do not have much time for questions, but there are things you need to know.”

“Who are you?” His voice was strained but not unkind as he looked from one woman to the other.

Gabriel answered. “This is my wife, Lady Belinda Thurston, the Countess of Tullering and this is Lillian Dellacourt, our good friend.”

Thaddeus bowed quickly and sat in the other chair near the desk.

Gabriel ran his hand through his hair. Dark rings around his eyes marked his exhaustion.

Belinda was sure she looked about to drop herself. She settled on a bench and listened as her husband told the young man in as few words as possible what was happening. He even went as far as to describe the type of creatures who had captured his would-be fiancée.

The Scot did not react as she expected. He did not call them all crazy and stomp from the room. He paid close attention and when Gabriel was finished, he gave one nod. “How do we find her?”

“I think we can help with that,” Thor said from the door.

“What did you find?” Gabriel came around the desk.

“Tubbs is several blocks away. We found a blood trail.”

Thaddeus jumped from the chair. “Serena is bleeding.”

Thor looked from the tall Scot to his employer. “My sister’s suitor.”

The driver nodded. “No. Not as far as we can tell. Likely unconscious or restrained, but not bleeding. The blood is demon’s and is heading toward the river. I took the liberty of changing to fresh horses, my lord.”

“Good thinking. Let’s go.”

An enormous black stallion clomped his front hooves on the street just behind Thor’s carriage. The beast pawed the ground and threw his head ready to bolt at any second.

“I will follow on horseback, if you do not mind, my lord.” Thaddeus pointed to his steed.

“As you wish.” Gabriel did not stop, but vaulted up into the carriage as soon as the two women were inside.

They moved in the direction of the river more slowly than she would have liked. She understood that they were following a trail, but the idea of what Serena might be enduring had her praying to make speed.

Gabriel pounded on the carriage’s interior wall, his frustration and fear uncontained.

Belinda put her hand on his forearm.

He looked at her in the darkened carriage. “Serena is not like you, Bella. She will not fare as well under the circumstances.”

“She will have to be strong. When we bring her home, we will help her deal with what she has endured. First we must find her.”

The conversation was a private one, but they were not alone in the carriage.

Lillian stared out the window. “We are heading toward Westminster.”

Outside, Belinda confirmed for herself that they were indeed rolling closer to the Palace of Westminster. The building where the Houses of Parliament met had been recently altered with a gothic façade. The Thames River’s filth stifled the confines of the carriage. They approached a less populated area of the city and at night and the streets were empty.

Thaddeus rode forward passed them as the carriage stopped.

The hunters stepped onto the street and walked to where Tubbs knelt near the riverbank.

“The blood trail ends here, my lady,” Tubbs said.

Thaddeus jumped down from the monstrous horse. “Have they drowned her in the river?”

The young man’s voice searched the water for Serena. He gripped the low stone wall.

She put her hand on his sleeve. “Serena is not in the river, Mr. Douglass. Please do not jump. We don’t have time to save you as well.”

“Where is she?” His eyes narrowed and he pointed a finger at Belinda’s face.

The large man might have intimidated someone her size, but she merely gave him a sympathetic look and went to help search the area.

Gabriel walked along the wall that dropped to the river.

“There,” Gabriel said. He pointed along the walled embankment to a bit of white disappearing seemingly into sheer stone.

“What is that?” Thaddeus asked.

“Serena.” The name was not out of Gabriel’s mouth before ran toward where they had seen the girl’s skirts disappear.

The space in the wall was narrow. Belinda and Lillian would have no problems getting through, but the men would find it more difficult.

Thor put the force of his heel to the problem and chunks of rock fell away. He repeated the action.

“Let Belinda and I go through. You can follow. If we lose her…” Lillian didn’t finish the thought.

They all knew the consequences.

Thor stopped kicking.

Gabriel grabbed her by the shoulders. “I do not like this.”

She touched his cheek. “I know, but there is no help for it. I will be fine and you will be right behind me.”

She didn’t wait for a response. Lillian and Belinda crawled through the crevice, which led down some roughly carved out steps. It was damp and close. Belinda’s mind went to her underground prison. A shiver ran up her spine. It was a trap to lure her back to the master. She knew it. It was likely that Lillian did as well. It made no difference. Serena couldn’t be made to suffer for the decisions she had made three years before.

At the bottom of the steps, another crack in the castle’s foundation led them into a hallway. At least the men would be able to get through this larger entry. In the hall, Belinda dropped her skirts in favor of the trousers beneath, and Lillian pulled the drawstrings on her dress so that she could fight or run if need be. Belinda cut a square of fabric off the bottom of the skirt, halved it and tucked the pieces between her breasts. She had no doubt that they would come up against every manner of demon in these catacombs.

The men who built the castle above had not built these strange underground caverns. If they had, it was for other purposes. At some point, the demons had taken over the dank underground.

She needed to focus on finding Serena and removing her from the hands of the master or his minions. The demons couldn’t have been using the space for very long. The smell was only river and dust. It lacked the overwhelming foul stink that always accompanied demons.

“Belinda, over here.” Lillian pointed to a door as she whispered for attention.

The door was of heavy oak, but when she drew closer, weeping came through from the other side.

Where were Gabriel and the others? The corridor behind her was empty.

“I do not think we can wait,” Lillian said.

“No. Let’s go.”

“Are you sure you can do this, Belinda? You have been through a lot.”

“A bit late for that question now, Lilly. I will be fine. I can recover from my experience when Gabriel’s sister is safe.”

The redhead nodded and pushed on the door. Unsurprisingly, it did not open. Lillian tucked her
sai
knives into her boots, pulled two pins from her hair and crouched down at the lock.

A satisfying click sounded. Once she had recovered her blades, she opened the door.

The smell hit them first but six malleuses stood ten feet inside the doorway as if they’d been waiting for the invasion.

Across the room, Serena was strapped to a round object that looked as if it was a giant pendulum. The girl bled from a cut on her shoulder and her gown was filthy and tattered. Her hair, so similar to her brother’s, formed a nest around her head and face. She cried softly, but when she saw Belinda, screamed her name.

Belinda was not sure if the girl was trying to warn her not to enter or if she was happy to see a familiar face.

The demons seriously outnumbered them. They needed help.

Besides the malleus, there were two durgot priests and one of the nasty, hairy beasts with all the teeth. The demons at Fatum called these pravus. It was the same kind of monster that had bitten Reece and poisoned him, according to what Gabriel had told her. The priests were far too close to Serena for comfort. Their dark hoods were tossed back and they grunted through those wide bull noses.

Belinda remembered the one she had killed in the yard outside of Fatum and her heart pounded harder.

She hoped that was all they would find in the room and the others would arrive soon. How long could it take them to break off some crumbling stone?

There was no help for it, they had to go in. Belinda stepped through the door and moved to the left with Lillian directly behind.

As soon as they were inside the malleus demons moved forward. The six of them fanned out in front of the two women and started forward.

Belinda thought of one of these bulbous-headed monsters carrying her away from Gabriel across Scotland. It fueled her rage. The endless hours of life beneath the earth with no windows and only enough air to live consumed her. She wouldn’t remember lifting her sword, running along the wall or slicing off the head of the first malleus. Her body became the product of her training. Some part of her tried to keep Lillian in mind as she spun around, jumped, and kicked in the nose of the second in line. Her sword was an extension of her arm and found its mark in the chest of the third.

“Above you, Belinda.” Lillian screamed the warning.

The pravus’s open mouth and pointed teeth loomed overhead.

As it dropped, Belinda’s world slowed. The air around her shifted as she jumped to one side.

The malleus with the broken nose grabbed for her.

She pulled her dirk from her belt and thrust it into his eye.

He clutched at the hilt.

Belinda’s sword sliced the air above and cut the strange hairy beast in two. Its bloody innards sprayed her and the room with gore.

Lillian’s blades had taken care of two more malleuses, but the last lifted the hunter off her feet and tossed her against the wall. She slid limply to the floor.

The cry that split the air did not sound human or familiar, yet it came from Belinda’s lips. She ran across the space.

The demon turned and roared as he lifted his arms to hammer down on her smaller body.

Belinda fell to her knees causing him to miss his mark.

While he recovered his balance, she thrust up with her blade impaling him through the belly so deep she must have pierced his heart. He fell forward.

Belinda rolled to the side to avoid being crushed.

She spun toward the movement in the corner of her eye, sword high. Midway through the cut, she stopped her blade as Gabriel’s concerned face came into view. “Sorry.”

He didn’t respond. His eyebrows lifted. He’d stood in the path of her sword and had faith that she would stop before she cut his head from his shoulders.

Belinda’s view had been blocked by the malleus, but now she saw the pendulum was a kind of altar suspended above a hole in the floor. Through the gap in the floor, there was only blackness.

The priests began to chant. One moved toward the hunters and the other lifted his ax toward Serena.

The girl started screaming as soon as she saw her brother and Thaddeus.

The Scot rushed toward the priest nearest to his fiancée.

Gabriel allowed the other one to come forward toward them.

The durgot lowered his horned head and rushed forward, intent on skewering them with the horns.

Both Belinda and Gabriel sidestepped and let the beast rush between them.

Gabriel turned back and lifted his gun, firing and hitting it in the back.

The ball did little damage as he spun around and charged at Gabriel again.

Thaddeus disarmed the demon that was about to carve up Serena and was engaged in hand-to-hand combat with the enormous beast.