Demon Crossings (20 page)

Grace was afraid that at any moment they’d hit a dead end but the twins were there too. They wouldn’t have let Aiden ride down into this trap unless there was a way out.

The culvert curved left but Hallie was straight ahead.

“No…” She lifted up so she could shout directly in Christian’s ear, hammering at his shoulder to get his attention. “No. She’s that way.”

She pointed toward the sheer wall of smooth rock.

“There?” Christian’s voice was sharp and incredulous.

“There,” she shouted. “There has to be a way in.”

Aiden didn’t notice that they’d slowed and he stormed ahead. Christian grabbed the horn from his saddle and blew three blasts in quick succession. The hunt wheeled toward him and he assumed the lead, turning his horse toward the cliff.

Closer. She was so close. Grace felt that tentative touch on her consciousness and then a thrill of elation. To Hallie’s mind it had only been seconds since they last spoke. She barely registered Grace’s absence at all even though it had been days since the last time Grace had been able to reach her. Aiden had told her that time passed differently here and she’d thought,
Sure, nightmares always seem never-ending while you’re in them.
He’d said that was why his people tended to have longer lifespans, living as they did almost directly over an active fault.

But she hadn’t entirely believed him until she felt Hallie’s shock and a rush of hope when she realized that her father was coming to get her. She didn’t understand how one second Grace had been impossibly distant and in the next, she was right there.
We’re coming, Hallie. Be ready.

It looked like they were charging into a dead end but just as Christian’s hands tightened on the reins, a split in the rock became visible. The opening was tall but far too narrow for the horses to fit through. Aiden stopped beside them and without pausing, he dismounted and unceremoniously grabbed her from the saddle.

“Guard the entrance,” he snapped at Christian, who nodded grimly.

They’d made it in but were being chased. And now they were trapped in this ravine. Every second gave the demons more time to gather and take advantage of that fact. Grace tried to keep up with Aiden as he hauled her toward that black slit in the rock. The ground had looked like solid rock but now she could tell it was ice. The cold seeped through her boots and crept up her legs, locking her muscles and making it hard to walk. Or maybe that was just fear.

She kept catching glimpses of things out of the corners of her eye—shadowy forms that would vanish when she looked at them dead on. She glanced sharply to her right and then overbalanced when Aiden released her to duck inside the entrance. She could still see the flash of his blade even in that flat, smothering darkness. She didn’t understand it. There was no light for it to catch and reflect but the steel glowed with enough strength for her to see Aiden’s strong hand on the hilt and the shadow of his face. He guided her hand to his belt.

“Hold on there. You’ll need to tell me if we need to leave this main path. I won’t be able to see if it branches. If anything comes at us, drop flat to the ground so you’re out of the way of my blade. Got it?”

She nodded and then realizing he wouldn’t be able to see, said, “Yes.”

And then they were inside. The silence was sudden and enveloping, muffling the noise from the demons and the hunt, that slicing wind that whistled through the rock until all she could hear was the thudding beat of her heart and a drip of water coming from somewhere above.

She grit her teeth and followed Aiden as he pushed ahead, moving easily over the broken floor as if he could see in the dark. Maybe he could. There was still so much she didn’t know about him.

“There’s a branch ahead.” His voice was a low whisper that sounded shockingly loud in the tight space. “Right or left, Grace?”

She didn’t hesitate. “Right.”

Hallie was in a hole, staring up, waiting for them now. Grace wanted to call out to her but didn’t want to draw the notice of whatever had captured Hallie in the first place. So she held her tongue.

“Dad?”

Aiden cried out and leaped forward, sprawling flat on his stomach to catch Hallie’s hands and haul her into his arms. There was some kind of moss on the walls of this cavern, glowing like the algae at the lake and providing an eerie blue light. Aiden’s eyes were squeezed shut and Hallie’s arms were wrapped around his neck so tightly it was a wonder he could still breathe. Grace didn’t want to interrupt the moment but they needed to leave. Now.

She didn’t have to remind him. Aiden opened his eyes and nodded once brusquely at her before scrambling to his feet. She followed him back into the black tunnel. He was only a few steps ahead of her with Hallie cradled against his chest. A scuff behind her had her whirling around to face the threat. Horrible mistake. No chance it could be anything good. She should have started running.

That half second lost cost her everything.

It wasn’t a fire demon. The figure was entirely black, a shadow in the dark tunnel. But this shadow had substance and a grip that locked around her elbow and pulled her back hard against its chest. Her scream was cut off when its other arm wrapped around her neck restricting her air supply. Aiden heard her though. She saw him stop, set Hallie on her feet and turn with his sword at the ready even as she was dragged deeper into the tunnel. She kicked her heels against the thing’s legs and was rewarded with a grunt. Clawing at the arm around her neck, she searched for a vulnerable spot but panicked when she couldn’t find one. It had a hard shell like an insect and no matter how hard she kicked and clawed and struggled, she was getting farther and farther away from Aiden. She couldn’t see the faint glow from his sword anymore. He couldn’t come after her. He couldn’t leave Hallie.

“Grace,” he roared, but already it sounded far off and muffled. Or maybe it was the lack of oxygen that made it seem that way. Darkness. Silence. That hard armored body stealing her breath, pulling her down, and then nothing at all.

“Hallie. Thank God.” Christian took Aiden’s trembling daughter from his outstretched arms, and settled her across his lap before looking around. “Where’s Grace?”

“Take Hallie. Get her out of here. Something got Grace. I’m going back for her.”

Fen growled and stood in his path. Aiden swung his sword in warning and Fen danced out of the way but circled back to block his way again.

“Aiden,” Christian shouted. “We won’t make it out without you. Gary’s injured and Jackie lost her horse. The hounds are barely holding them back as it is and we still have to run the canyon. We can’t go without you.”

Aiden swore viciously. Christian wasn’t given to exaggeration and he wouldn’t abandon Grace if there was another option. Fen either. They’d be lucky to make it out. And Hallie…he couldn’t let her down again. His mount came at his mental call and he swung up, feeling the burden of his position weigh heavily on him as he cut his way through the canyon toward the portal, welcoming the blood and the death that rode with him.

He would get Hallie out and then he’d come for Grace.

Grace opened her eyes to darkness and blinked a few times to make sure they were open. She didn’t panic right away, not until she remembered where she was. And even then, not until she tried to move and realized she was bound, shackled hand and foot to a cold wall.

“You’re human.” The deep voice was soft enough that she had trouble pinpointing which direction it came from. Male, unfamiliar, it almost sounded as if it was coming from inside her head.

Something touched her cheek and she shuddered away from it.

“Shhh. I won’t hurt you. I am…curious.”

“Let me go.” Even though she’d whispered, the sound bounced off all the smooth flat surfaces of her cell.

“It is not safe for you out there. The demons are frenzied. Their prey has escaped.”

Closing her eyes, she tipped back her head and bit her lip hard, until she’d swallowed down the sob lodged in her throat, until she tasted blood. Of course, they would have had to get Hallie to safety. She knew that. She thought of the little girl Aiden had lifted from the pit, thin, pale and delirious with fear and relief.

“I protected her from them.”

Grace flinched, thinking he was reading her mind. Just when she’d started to tell herself that was impossible, she realized his voice was clearer than her own jumbled thoughts and that when he spoke, there was no echo.

She tried to see…something just to get a sense of what she was up against, but it was no use. It was pitch black and silent except for the sound of their breathing and that trickle of water overhead. A slow rumble shook through the rock like the growl of an approaching storm. She wet her lips and said, cautiously, “You speak English.”

“No,” he corrected. “You do.”

There was an edge of amusement that had nothing to do with tone of voice. He
was
inside her head.
Oh God.

“You’re not Æsir but you’re able to cross freely. You tracked the youngling and you can mind speak as well. We did not know humans were capable of this.”

The last thing she wanted was for his kind to get curious about hers. She shook her head, hair catching on the rock behind her. “They’re not.”

“What are you then?”

“Someone who doesn’t belong here.”

She felt his laughter. “None of us do, except perhaps your Æsir companions. But they escaped this place long ago.”

Something sharp pressed into her skin beneath her chin. She lifted her face away from the pressure so that it didn’t pierce her. Lightly, like the touch of a warm summer breeze or the caress of a butterfly wing, he traced the outline of her lips with his finger.

“So soft.”

She closed her eyes and he released her.

“You needn’t fear me you know. I kept the youngling safe.”

“You kept her in that pit.”

“What else was I to do with her? I can’t cross, and when the demons smell the fault weaken, they swarm. She would have been torn apart if she lingered near the portal. I tried to speak with her father once when he came searching.”

She lifted her head.

“He did this.”

He paused for effect and she smiled wryly. “I can’t see anything.”

“Nothing?”

The curious speculation she caught from him alarmed her but at this point that seemed the least of her worries. Was it better that this thing was a logical, thinking being capable of prolonging her torment if he so desired or better to be torn apart in a quick death by a demon?

“My hand is gone.” A blunt pressure on the side of her neck, stroking over her collarbone and down along the outside of her breast. “The youngling was hardly a nuisance to keep alive and it wasn’t worth it to me to lose more.”

“What—” She bit her lip before she made the mistake of blurting it out loud, but apparently the mind speak thing worked both ways.

“What am I? Vanir. Or more accurately, I was Vanir. Now I am simply damned. As are you.”

The Vanir were enemies of the Æsir, she remembered that much from when she’d logged on to her laptop to try to verify some of Aiden’s claims. He’d laughed at the misinformation when she’d asked him about some of the stranger stories she’d dredged up. The memory of that rare smile flashed in her mind and she mentally winced away from it.

“I can teach you to survive here.”

“You can let me go.”

“You’d be as helpless here as the youngling. Maybe more so. This, at least, was once her natural world.” He was angry she’d asked. Grace could feel a hurt sort of rage simmering beneath the words he passed to her mind. She opened herself up a little more. Her gift might be useful here. It might keep her alive, might just be her means of escape.

But all of her machinations shattered when he stepped in close. God, he was tall. His hips pressed into her abdomen and he bent his head to hers. She felt the brush of cloth against her cheek and armor—she thought it was armor—press against her chest. “You, whatever you are, are fragile.”

“They’ll come back for me.”

He withdrew a few inches, a few feet. No way for her to tell. She sagged against the bonds holding her to the wall.

“Perhaps,” he conceded. “But how will they find you?”

“I’m going back,” Aiden called out.

Scowling, Christian brought his horse around. Aiden’s gaze dropped automatically to his daughter’s face, a pale oval half buried against Christian’s chest. Her fists were clenched in his shirt and her eyes were closed. “The surge is ebbing. You’ll be trapped. There are at least twenty demons waiting on the other side and Hallie needs you here.”

Fen shifted to human form and, naked as the day he was born, reached up and placed his hand on the reins. “You know Christian’s right. If we want to be of any help to her, we need to either sneak in during a minor flare or ride in force again. Anything else and you’re both dead. The Vanir pulled her into that warren. He kept Hallie alive. He’ll keep Grace too, and now we know where to look.”

“Grace is smart,” Christian said. “She’ll sit tight until we can come for her.”

“You’re wrong,” Aiden said quietly, looking toward the fading portal. “She won’t think anyone’s coming back.” No one ever had. But Christian was right about one thing. Aiden couldn’t cross now. The portal was collapsing, already it was dangerously unstable. Rage and fear churning in his gut, he turned away. “She’s been abandoned too many times for her to believe that.”

He didn’t dwell on what a Vanir might do with a human woman. Hallie was frightened but whole. But Hallie was also a child. Who could predict what a Vanir exiled to the wasteland of Asgard might do. He’d seen the Vanir watching from the safe vantage of the cliff as the demons attacked them and wondered what he was doing there. Sentinel, spy or outcast. Aiden had encountered them before on rare occasions and had been only mildly surprised to see one today. What the hell had he been about? What would a Vanir want with a human? They had no feud with humankind.

Grace knew nothing of how to survive Asgard. He hadn’t taken the time to train her properly because Hallie’s life had been at stake. He hadn’t taken the time to fully explain their history, the danger of the Vanir, their damned mind games and their fondness for subtle mental torture. He hadn’t taken the time to tell her that she was important to him, that she needed to survive this, to come back to him. Now it might be too late.

His hands clenched on the reins and he stared at the drifting portal, fading quickly now beyond his ability to pry it open. Grace was there. Lost. And it was his fault.

He guided his horse to Christian and held out his arms. “Give me my daughter.”

Hallie stirred when he took her. She coiled her arms around his neck and whispered, “Daddy,” against his throat. His arms tightened around her back as he hugged her close, soothing her with sound more than words, tears welling up in his eyes as he started for home.