Dark Calling (35 page)

“It i
s your father,” Asmoday explains with an almos
t smile.  He holds out his hand
,
and to everyone’s shock, she releases Nick and takes her brother’s hand
allowing him to lead her to
the door.

“Keely!” Kimberly, Nick, Bryon, and Lila shout
in unison.  Keely ignores them
because as Asmoday pushes the thick door open with a creek, she can see her dad.  His head is down, his eyes closed.  His white button up work shirt is nearly brown and there is dried blood on the side of his face and head.

“Daddy,”
Keely croaks as she runs
and drops in front of him.  He l
ifts his head groggily trying
to focus his eyes on his daughter.  “O
h, Daddy.”  He is bound in rope;
it’s probably the only thing holding him in the chair. 

“Keels,” he murmurs.  He attempts a smile and Keely throws herself against him in a one sided hug. 

Nick pushes past Asmoday into the room.  He pauses, assessing the area.  Satisfied that everything appears safe, he relaxes and uses his dagger to cut the ropes.  Keely’s dad falls forward into her, but somehow she manages to hold him up.  Nick moves to his side and pulls him into a stand
ing position.  “Put your arm around my neck,” he instructs.  Bryon moves to the other side taki
ng the other arm
and togeth
er they move Keely’s dad
.

Kimberly bursts through the door, tears running down her cheeks. 
“Kevin?”  She stops cold, staring at her husband. 
He lifts his blurry gaze
and all the air goes out of her as though she had been holding every breath in since
they’
d been separated.  Wrapping her long arms around his waist, she cries, “I’m so sorry.  I’m so sorry.”

Knowing her dad can’t hug her
mom
back at the
moment,
Keely pulls her mom’s arms away from
him and offers
herself for a hug.  “It’s o.k.  He’s o.k.”

With everyone
distracted
at the moment,
Asmoday takes advantage of
the opportunity.  He catches Keely’s
eye and gestures for her to follow him.  He moves
a few feet away from the others easily
unnoticed
.  “I need to take you and your parents back now,” he says adjusting the hood back over his head.

“What?  Why?”

“I was instructed to ensure
you and your parents
were safely returned home.  I am only trying to do as I was told.”

“I think they want to look for Dustin.”

Asmoday tilts his head slightly to the side w
atching her closely.  “You do not
think they will find him alive?”

Keely starts at his words.
She shakes her head.  “No,
I just don’t think they’ll find him here.  I’m sure he’s alive.”

“How are you sure?”

Keely tries not to laugh and winds up smiling.  “It’s an expression.”

Asmoday smiles back at her.  “Yes, I understand now.”  He bends slightly at the knees to look more evenly into Keely’s eyes.  “So why do you think he is not here?”

Not liking the way his gaze seems to look past her, ins
ide her, Keely shifts away from him
.  “Apophis had him backed into a wall—that’s another expression.
 
He was using Lila to make Dustin do what he wanted.”

Asmoday’s face doesn’t change and Keely isn’t sure if he understands what she’s trying to say.  “Dustin helped Apophis.  H
e
led me right to him and handed me over.  I can’t blame him.  He had no choice.
  I haven’t told anyone yet.  I don’t know if I will.
”

Expression still neutral, Asmoday says,
“He had a choice.  He just did no
t choose you.”  He br
ushes the hair off
Keely’s shoulder, his hand lingering too long.  “He chose incorrectly.”  He drops his
hand and inhales deeply.  “I will
give you one more hour
an
d then I must get you back.  It i
s not safe here.  The
longer you stay
the more you a
re at risk
.”

Keely n
ods, giving in for now.  “Thank
you.  For everything.”

Asmoday tips his head in a bow.  “My pleasure, Princess.”

Nick, having passed Keely’s dad on to Michael and Kimberly, comes back into the room.  “Keely, we need
Asmoday to send
you
r mom and dad
back and I think you should go with them,” he says.

Keely looks from Nick to Asmoday, then back to Nick.  She steps outside
the door and he follows her as s
he moves out of earshot of the others
.  “I’ll ask him to take them back, but I’m not going with them.”

“It’s better if you go
.
  This
isn’t exactly a safe place. 
I waited until we found your dad
, but you shouldn’t be here
.
”

Keely shakes her head.  “Asmoday is under orders to take me and my parents back.  Not you guys.  If I go back, he fulfills his duties.  Are you willing to bet he will come back for the rest of you?  Because I’m not.  He’s willing to give me one more hour to look for Dustin.  I’m staying.”

Nick puts his finger and thumb to his eyes and sighs.  “And if in an hour we haven’t found Dustin?”

“We can figure that out then.”  She takes his hand and tries to walk back over where everyone else is, but Nick doesn’t budge.

“That’s not good enough.
  If we haven’t found Dustin in an hour, you have to go back.  Please.”  The look on his face is so desperate, Keely nearly gives in.

“We’ll just have to find him within the hour.”

Nick pulls Keely to him and puts his hands on her arms.  “I know you don’t like anyone telling you what to do.  I know you haven’t listened to me yet, but I need you to do this for me or I am going to take you in there to Asmoday and beg him to take you home
right now
.”

Her first reaction is anger. 
The hell you
will!
  But that
anxiety
is still evident on his face
.  S
he softens her reply.  “If we don’t find him, we
’ll
all go back.”
 
Nick scrutinizes her face for a long time as he struggles to make the right decision.  She knows she nearly has him, so she adds, “I won’t go back without you.  I won’t go without
the protection of
my Guardian.”

Nick leans his head back and closes his eyes.  He grits his teeth. 
Stupid, stubborn girl
.  “One hour,” he tells the ceiling.  “One hour and we are all going home together.”  He puts his hand back in hers and allows her to pull him back to the group.  “I don’t know why I’m worrying anyway.  We found your dad.  We’ll find Dustin.”

“Come on honey.  We need to get your dad to the hospital.”  Kimberly holds out her hand expectantly to her daughter.  Keely notices the usually manicured nails are chipped and grimy. 

“I’m not going yet.  I need
to stay and look for Dustin.  Just for another hour.  I’ll be home soon.”

Kimberly straightens her back and tries to compose herself.  “You need to come home with me, Keely, now.  I won’t lose you again.”

Keely doesn’t want to argue.  She turns to Michael.  “Will you go with my parents and stay with them until we return?”
 
He nods his head slowly, not sure if he is putting himself in the middle of a family argument.

Deciding to put the fight off until later, Keely turns to Asmoday who stands back watching everyone. 
“Will you pleas
e take my parents and Mr. Laszlo
home now?”

He winks at her and before Kimberly has time to do mo
re than look annoyed, he rais
es his hand. 
Darkness envelops them and
they disappear.  If she had blinked, she would have missed it.  She didn’t know what she had expected exactly, but that wasn’t it.  It was so q
uick.  So easy. 
She swallows hard, wishing she had something to drink.  Suddenly, an overwhelming
feeling of sorrow overtakes
Keely.  It hits her so hard she s
tumbles backward as a wail ruptures
from her throat.

Tears fill her vision as she tries to look at Nick.  Tries to explain.  Tries to placate his horrified confusion.  But words won’t come.  Nothing can explain the feeling tearing at her body right now.  Like a piece of herself has been
brutally ripped out
, leaving in its place only anguish.

Nick shakes h
er, trying to make her hear him
or answer him.  He doesn’t know what’s wrong with her.  He doesn’t know how to make it better. 

“Nick, STOP
!” Bryon shouts.  “You’re hurting her!”  Bryon pries Nick’s hands off of Keely’s arms and slams him into the wall.

“Something’s wrong with her!” Nick
yell
s, pointing
at her helplessly.

Keely slumps over losing the will to sit up.  What’s the point?  She settles her face against the cool ground.  Nothing matters anymore.  She might as well lay on this sullied and soiled floor forever.  Her soul has left her.  That must be it.  She
must be dying.  She wants to
.  Just so this agony will stop.
 
“Please make it stop.  Please make it stop,” s
he mumbles.
 

A shiver runs through her body.  The air changes subtly and her hopelessness fades to sadness.  She allows Bryon to sit her
up
.  Her sadness fades to melancholy.  She blinks a couple of times.  Her
melancholy fades to a mellow tiredness.  She feels the cord pull at her and she twists, trying to find him.  Their eyes meet and Asmoday looks as unhinged as she does.

The longer her eyes rest on him, the more normal she f
eels.  Nick says her name again
and she tears her eyes away from Asmoday.
  Now that she is focusing on N
ick, her brea
thing quickens as though she has
been
running.  Because now the reality of what happened is sinking in, bringing with it raw fear.  When Asmoday left the realm without her, it severed the invisible cord.  This she
is sure of.  She is also positive
this is why she was so incredibly sad.
  When he cam
e back, the cord reconnected, m
aking her whole again.  Making her happy.  She is positively certain of this.
  What she doesn’t get, is why?  And, why now?

“I’m o.k. now.  I don’t know what happened,” she lies.
  She never lies.
  “I just got disoriented.”  She moves to stand up and Nick pushes her gently back down.

“Are you hurt at all?”  His hands hover around her, afraid to touch her.

She pushes
his hands away feeling confused and embarrassed.  “I said I was fine.
”  It comes out much snippier than she intends and she feels guilty.  It’s not his fault.  He can’t help he’s worried.

Asmoday maneuvers his way through everyone and kneels in front of Keely.  He extends his hand, offering her a bottle of water.  She reaches for it, and in a move so subtle, no one notices but Keely, Asmoday flicks his pinky out and caresses her fingers as she takes the bottle.  He isn’
t full
of
his usual cockiness.  In fact, everything about his demeanor has changed. 

“Thanks.”  Her voice shakes.
 
He dips his head
and
thankfully backs off.
 
“
Did you get my parents home safely?”
she asks. 
He tilts his head in one tight nod.
 

Nick helps Keely stand
this time, but keeps his hands on her making sure she is steady on her feet.  She keeps her eyes down while she drinks the water.

“You scared the shit out of me, Kiem.  You good now?”  Bryon stands back
, shifting his feet
nervously.

Keely smiles at h
im.  “Really, I’m fine
.”  She looks around at all the concerned faces of the people Nick brought with him.  All the people she doesn’t know.  At least the Demons aren’t staring.  They don’
t seem to care at all about her outburst.
  “Can we just go?”

Nick studies her features. 
Satisfied that she is all r
ight at least for the moment, h
e tak
es her hand and they join the
procession
.  Lila pushes off the wall
and slide
s
up next to Keely without a word.  They all walk in silence.  Turn corner after corner.