Demon Games [4] (22 page)

Alexa shook her head in disbelief. ‘Look, can we just skip the bit where you enquire about our general well-being, and move on to the part where you tell us how you are going to get Philippa out of here?’

‘Of course. Did Trey leave the Fae ring as I told him to?’

‘Yes. He . . .
rediscovered
it not long after you left the first time. He remembered what you said about needing it, so he left it in the food drawer beneath the cell plinth. He was a bit reluctant to do so, but he didn’t know where else to put it. It’s still there. None of the guards has been near that cell since they came and . . . ’ Alexa stopped and looked away, unable to complete the sentence.

‘Since they came and took Trey away,’ Philippa said, finishing her friend’s words for her.

The Ashnon crossed through the magical barrier guarding Philippa. ‘Are you ready for what lies ahead? Do you think you are strong enough to get away?’

‘I don’t want to go without Alexa.’

‘I have explained that I am unable to do anything for—’

‘I know what you said, but I can’t just leave without her! I can’t try to escape knowing that she’s still here!’

‘Yes, you can,’ Alexa said, crossing her cell to stand as close to the edge of her own as she could. ‘My fate is in Trey’s hands now. The Ashnon is your only hope of escaping this place.’ She smiled at her friend. ‘I would feel exactly the same as you do right now if our positions were reversed. But you have to do this.’

‘She is right,’ the demon said. ‘It is only possible for me to help one of you, and I am obliged to help you try to escape, Philippa. A contract still binds us, you and me.’

‘And how do you intend to get me out of here? Can you nullify that force field or whatever it is?’

‘No. The magic that sustains the barrier around this cell is unique. I am unable to disable it.’

‘Then how are you going to get me through it?’

‘I’m not.’

Philippa looked between the nether-creature and her friend in the adjacent cell, but Alexa simply shrugged her shoulders in reply to the unspoken question.

‘I will need your help, Alexa,’ the Ashnon said. ‘I am far from certain that my plan will succeed, but it is the only one that I could come up with. It means that you will have to try to escape the citadel yourself, Philippa, but there are very few guards around today – they are all preparing for the Games – and Molok is relying on the Fae to deal with anybody foolish enough to try to get into, or out of, this place. I have somebody waiting to help you once you are free of these immediate walls. They will get you to safety and help prepare a portal for your passage back to the human realm.’

‘How will I know if Trey and Alexa are safe?’

‘You won’t.’

Philippa gave Alexa a stricken look.

‘Don’t worry about us,’ Alexa said. ‘You must promise me that you’ll listen to the Ashnon and do everything possible to escape this place. We need you to get to Tom and tell him everything that you’ve learned over the last few days. He needs to know that Caliban is more powerful than any of us thought, and that it looks as if he’s planning another attack on the human realm. You need to tell him about Trey and me.’ She paused for a moment. ‘Without my father around, I doubt there’s much Tom can do to help either of us, but he can at least prepare for any outright attack Caliban might be planning. He’ll also be able to communicate all of this, should my father somehow get in contact with him.’

Alexa looked at her friend, and added, ‘You getting free of this place can help us all, Philippa. Don’t think it can’t. We’re all relying on you.’

Philippa pursed her lips and looked desperately unhappy, but eventually nodded at the Ashnon. ‘OK, what do I have to do?’

The nether-creature moved to a space between the cells and explained its plan to the two girls.

Moriel had dropped Lucien off at the safe house where he was staying in the hills of Nongroth. She would not allow him to go with her – regardless of the bonds that had formed between them in the last few days, she’d explained to him that there was no way a battle-angel was about to let a vampire know where the Arel were based. Lucien walked into the stone hut, little more than a shack, and slumped back against the door, shutting it behind him. He had not fed for some time now, and although he was in no danger of collapsing yet – a vampire as old as he was could, if pushed, survive for a few days without feeding – he was aware that he was getting weaker. He moved over to the one piece of furniture in the place, an old chair, and slumped down into it.

He closed his eyes.

And opened them again almost instantaneously, but this time he looked out through the eyes of another.

He was weak. Maybe weaker than he’d ever been before – certainly since being reborn as a vampire. He could hardly stand; his legs gave way beneath him every time he tried to put his weight on them. If it hadn’t been for the creature by his side, he would not have been capable of making his way through the thick heavy mud that stuck to his feet and legs. She was almost carrying him along now, bearing his weight, his arm across her shoulder. He turned to look at her. Earlier he’d told her she was beautiful, and he had not lied. She was beautiful in her grotesquery.

‘
Not much further, my lord,’Helde said.

There was a carriage waiting for them on the far side of the swamp. They heard the snuffling of the gurtligs that would pull it, and they made their way towards the sound, relieved to find that the ground beneath their feet was becoming firmer with each step.

The world was bathed in a low, dark purple gloom now, and the driver only became aware of their presence when they were almost at the carriage. Helde opened the door and pushed Caliban in ahead of her, bundling the vampire into the cab. The demon driver leaned over at the sound, exclaiming loudly at the sight of the sorceress. It was the last thing it ever did. Helde reached up and grabbed the creature by the throat, pulling it down off its seat and throwing it to the floor. She set about the creature, opening up its throat and feeding hungrily on its blood. She stood, straightening up to her full height and peering into the murk on all sides.

Lucien watched all of this through Caliban’s eyes from his position inside the cab.

He was desperate to feed, and the sight of his sorceress sating her own bloodlust made him all the more frantic about his own state. He would not be able to carry on for much longer without human blood.

He watched Helde step over the body and approach the seat on top of the carriage. Suddenly the vampire stiffened, his eyes widening as he realized that he was not the only one looking out through those twin orbs. That something, or someone else, was seeing these things too. He had never experienced anything like this before, but the vampire instinctively knew what was happening.

‘
Well, brother,’ he hissed, ‘it seems that you have learned some new tricks since we last met.’ The vampire closed his eyes and called out to Helde, waiting for her to get in and sit opposite him before telling her everything that had just happened. The sorceress listened without saying a word. When he was finished, she drew back her arm and hit the vampire on the jaw with all her might.

Lucien sat up with a jolt as if it had been he who had been struck. He had seen through his brother’s eyes and experienced his thoughts. Whether that was because Caliban was in such a weakened state, or for some other reason, he didn’t know. But he knew that his brother had successfully resurrected Helde, and that they were making their escape.

He stood and paced about the small hut for a moment, before approaching the window and looking out. Lucien closed his eyes again, but this time no revelation of his brother’s whereabouts came. He didn’t expect any – his brother had clearly been knocked unconscious by the sorceress. He kept his eyes shut and concentrated on Moriel, filling his mind with her and calling out in the way that she had told him to. He had no idea if the beckoning had worked, and he crossed the room to slump back into the chair again.

The battle-angel was there in less than ten minutes.

When he opened the door, Moriel was standing with her sword drawn, looking behind Lucien for the source of danger.

Despite everything, Lucien smiled. He was not used to having anyone act as his protector.

‘We need to go to the old woman,’ he said. ‘Immediately.’

Hag opened the door. She stepped back, moving aside so that they could enter.

She did not seem surprised to see them.

‘You failed to find her,’ she said in a low voice.

Lucien looked at the sorceress. There was none of the usual mischievous and sly banter that she usually greeted him with. And she refused to meet his eyes, shaking her head and staring at the floor before shuffling off to sit down.

‘My brother was successful in bringing the sorceress back,’ Lucien said, following Hag and taking up the chair opposite her. She nodded, and Lucien wasn’t sure if this was because she already knew about Helde, or if she had suspected it would happen anyway. He told her everything he’d seen and felt from inside his brother’s head.

‘You had your chance,’ the old woman said when he’d finished. ‘You had an opportunity to find them both when they were weak and vulnerable. You had a chance to destroy Caliban a«t/Helde.’

‘He is weak, very weak,’ Lucien said.

Hag looked back at the vampire, her eyes boring into his own. ‘She will restore him, the way that he restored her. But your brother does not fully understand what he has done. He has given her something that will make her stronger than she ever was before.’ She held up a gnarled and misshapen finger. ‘Mark my words, your brother has created a special kind of monster in Helde. She will stop at nothing to repay him the debt he is now due!’

‘If we can get to Caliban before—’

‘You are too late!’ Hag said in a loud voice. She shook her head again. ‘No, you will just have to accept that your brother has his new sorceress. She will work to provide him with the army he needs, and together they will wreak havoc in both the Netherworld and the human realm.’

‘Unless we can stop them.’

‘They will go into hiding now. Caliban will need time to restore his strength. They will regroup and plan what to do next.’

Lucien considered this before asking the other question that he needed answered. ‘How was it that I was able to see through my brother’s eyes? To read his thoughts in that way? How can that be, Hag?’ He paused, and when he spoke again it was clear he was thinking out loud. ‘It was like the glamour that we vampires use on humans, but this is not possible on our own kind.’

The old woman sighed. She lifted her head and gave Lucien a cold, hard look. ‘Your brother seems to have a habit of creating new creatures. I told you when you first came here that you were no longer “just another vampire”, and that you have changed in ways that you yourself do not yet understand. You are twice undead, Lucien. You, like Helde, are something that the Netherworld has never seen before, and I’m guessing that you are going to need all of your newfound powers to deal with whatever lies ahead.’

Hrolop, Molok’s senior aide and advisor, approached the demon lord’s obsidian throne, his sense of dread growing with each step. It never paid to bring the Hell-Kraken bad tidings, and Hrolop knew that the news he was about to deliver was not what the demon lord wanted to hear. Molok’s last advisor had been killed in the most terrible way after informing the demon lord of Orfus’s defeat at the hands of the vampire Caliban.

The Great Hall was in almost complete darkness. A single torch burned in its sconce on the wall furthest away from the demon lord, and its measly light did little to illuminate the nether-creature sitting atop the black stone seat. Hrolop stopped at the base of the steps leading up to the throne and bowed his head.

‘Well?’ the demon lord said after a moment.

‘I am afraid to report to my lord that, despite our best efforts, and I mean our
very best
—’

‘Get on with it!’ the Hell-Kraken bellowed. ‘Have you located the vampire or not?’

The aide swallowed and risked a look in the Hell-Kraken’s direction. ‘No, my lord. Caliban has not been found.’

Molok steepled his hands in front of his face, tapping the tips of his huge black talons together as he considered what he had just been told. When he spoke again, his voice had a hard and dangerous edge to it.

‘Do you mean to tell me, Hrolop, that despite the army of spies and informants we have inside the various Netherworld factions, not one of these nether-creatures knows where the vampire is or what he is doing?’ The demon lord was on his feet now.

Hrolop cringed, hunching his shoulders and lowering his head, expecting the worst. He knew that his best option was to stay quiet. Anything he might say now was sure to enrage Molok further. He heard the demon lord take a deep breath and slowly expel it. When he glanced up again, he was relieved to see that the Hell-Kraken had returned to his seat on the throne.

‘I am sorry, my lord.’

The demon lord waved the apology away. ‘Very well, we proceed as planned: we allow the boy to fight in the Games, and hope that news of this will bring the vampire out of hiding.’

Hrolop considered how best to continue.

‘Forgive my stupidity, my lord, but please explain to me again why we have not just killed the child and sent him back to Caliban’s people in little pieces.’

The demon lord eyed his advisor suspiciously, trying to ascertain if the demon was being impertinent or not. ‘Because we have absolutely no idea how the vampire would react to such a course of action. For some reason, Caliban has it in his head that this boy could be the only thing standing between him and complete power. But it’s unclear to me whether simply killing the lycanthrope will please Caliban or send the bloodsucking freak into a fit of rage.’ The Hell-Kraken shook his head. ‘Vampires are volatile creatures at the best of times.’

Hrolop bit his lip and waited for Molok to go on.