Exalted (10 page)

“I know her voice. I went to—”

“Wait, where was she? What was going on?”

“She was at the bottom of the pyramid, on the lowest level,
where The Three stay. She was...moaning. Crying. I—”

Meredith covered her mouth as a sob leaped out. Carlin
crossed herself, the first time Andrew had ever seen her do it. He felt sick as
Nathan continued.

“I went to investigate, and I saw him coming down the hall.
It didn't look like him. He was disguised as a younger person or…he had
possessed someone's body. But it was Methuselah. I know him. I felt an...awful
feeling. Like I would die if I stayed down there. I had nowhere to hide, so I
ran.”

“He was torturing her, like for sure?” Meredith asked,
voice cracking.

Nathan stiffened. “I think so.”

“Why would he do that?” Carlin demanded. “Is the bastard
jealous?! Is he a sadist?! I want to kill him!”

“Carlin.” Nathan’s eyes widened.

“Did Edan betray us to you,” Andrew.

Nathan's eyes fell to the ground. “I was desperate. I
trusted The Three. I never thought they'd hurt her.”

“What now?” Carlin asked shrilly, pointing at Nathan. “I
don’t trust him.”

They all looked at each other, wide eyed, and Nathan opened
his mouth.

“Unless his plan is to deliver us to The Adversary, he
should be trustworthy,” Andrew cut in. “I saw Nathan with us on our way to
Hell.”

“You saw
what
?”
Nathan’s eyes bulged.

“It is not his business,” Carlin snapped.

“If I’m going it is. Drew, tell me.”

Andrew shook his head. “If you’re really with us, you’ll
find out."

Nathan’s face was grim, and Andrew strongly wanted to hit
him. It was true that Nathan had been at the compound since childhood, but so
had Andrew, and he'd never have trusted The Three with Julia's life. What was
it that made the other Shepherd so…sheepish?

“Boys! Come, come!” Carlin slashed the air with her hand.
“We need to rescue Julia! Nathan—” she gave him the evil eye— “what should we
do? You got us into this, you can get us out!”

Chapter Fourteen

Julia’s eyelids flickered, and she awoke to an awful pain
in her legs. It only took a heartbeat for her to remember what had happened.

Methuselah had pummeled her, punishing her for daring to
reach for the power he was giving her. He'd wounded her legs, somehow; there
were no visible injuries, but the pain had made her pass out.

Something else had happened, though, and it felt like a dream.
She'd seen herself and Cayne locked in an embrace, each lit like a candle,
energy crackling around them, building and building until they exploded like
Celestial star.

She moaned—even the memory of the vision hurt—and there he
was, standing over her. Dark red hair, blue eyes, and the cruel, foreboding,
beautiful male form.

“I shared my vision
with you. Inadvertently of course, as you have shared your thoughts with me.”

Where before, Julia had always felt afraid, now she felt
defiant. Angry.
“It's not going to
happen.”
The thought was automatic, not intended to be shared with
Methuselah, but he heard it anyway. His face remained expressionless, except
for his eyebrows, which drew together just a little.

"I've observed
humanity for fifty thousand years. For much of that time, you understood your
place in the world. Only in the last few centuries have you forgotten it."

"If you think I
have any idea what you're talking about—"

"I am a
god!"
He seethed, his voice nearly shattering her mind. But Julia
clutched her hands into fists and ground out, "You're not as strong as you
think!"

She willed the pain in her legs away and stood, defiant,
thinking loudly about how weak Methuselah was, how pathetic. His lip curled,
and blind rage filled her, along with a surprising urge to show him who was
boss. She shocked herself by stepping around her fear and doing the
unthinkable: She shot blue fire at him.

He waved, and the flame disintegrated into nothing.

“Bow to me!”
he
commanded, and Julia had to grab the bench to keep herself standing. His voice
was like Nathan's times a thousand, and it hurt her to resist. "Bow!"
he commanded, this time outside her head.

She bit her lips, drawing blood, chewed on her tongue until
her eyes watered, just so he wouldn't make her bow.

"I will crush you," Methuselah snarled. Blue fire
streamed out of his extended finger like water from a hose, but this time,
Julia copied his hand trick. The first stream of pure, blue fire bounced
against the floor, but the second caught her in the chest, and she cried out as
her body flared with pain. Methuselah was to her in two steps. He wrapped his
hands around her throat, his normally impassive face twitching with fury.

For once, his fury ignited her own. She aimed a stream of
blue fire at his face and was rewarded with a hiss of pain and the smell of
burning flesh. She blasted him again, but he caught her wrist and snapped it,
sending a painful bolt through her.

“You are mortal,” he growled, this time aloud, and in an
aged, gravelly voice. “You are a mortal, with mortal susceptibilities. You’d do
best to remember that.” He took her head between his palms. “It is time I rid
you of your rebellious mind.”

For just a fraction of an instant, her unconscious nodded
along with him. It was easy to do that—too easy. But the sick truth of his
words permeated this time; Julia slapped him, hard. She ducked from his grasp
and backed away, arms out. He threw blue fire at her, which she dodged
impossibly fast, but in a flash he was beside her again, his hand a vice on her
shoulder.

She grabbed his freakishly hot arm and jerked it away,
smirking when she panted, “I’m as strong as you now.”

“Not at all,”
he said evenly.

He twisted his arm to grab hers, and her knees buckled as
he ignited everything inside her. All the power he'd put in her was boiling,
and Julia could feel some essential part of herself being pushed out like steam
from a kettle. Methuselah's blue eyes glittered, and Julia knew she was going
to die. She thought about Cayne, wanted to cry because she wouldn't see him
again.

But suddenly it was gone, the pain, even the pressure of
Methuselah's hand. Julia doubled over on the floor and puked, spewing puddles
of steaming bile on the floor.

Methuselah cried in pain, and Julia turned to him, seeing
an arrow sticking out of his back, and another in the center of his stomach.

She looked behind her, gaping at...
Edan?!

He looked better than the last time she’d seen him; wearing
black jeans and a black t-shirt, he had a bow in his hand as crimson as Cayne’s
dagger. He nocked another crimson arrow and hit Methuselah in the side.
Methuselah screamed, and Edan nocked another arrow. “The Adversary didn’t take
this
from me, fucker!”

“Demon! When I—”

Methuselah was cut off when an arrow flew literally into
his mouth. It burst half-way out the back of his neck in a spray of blood, and
the bastard collapsed, gargling.

Edan walked toward him swiftly, arrow ready, until he
reached Methuselah's side. His kicked him hard in the face, splattering blood
everywhere. “You know what your problem is?” Edan asked, kicking him again.
“You’ve spent too much time on Earth. You might be the big fish, but your pond
is small.”

Methuselah hacked, trying to say something, and Julia felt
a surge of wild hope. “Kill him!”

“I can’t. And he won’t be down for long.” Edan extended his
hand. “Let’s go.”

“I can kill him!”

“No you can’t.”

Her mind moved past that; the truth was, she didn't want to
kill anyone. She glanced up and down Edan. “Why the hell should I trust
you
?
You gave us up to Nathan! You're a
Demon
!”

As if on cue, Methuselah rose to his knees. “I swear by—”

Eden shot him in the head, right between his eyes, and
Julia thought she might be sick again. “No time to argue." He grabbed
Julia’s hand and jerked her out of the room. Just as the door slammed shut
behind them, she heard a roar from Methuselah. It echoed inside her, causing
her to stumble, and Edan had to half-carry her as they ran.

“What do we do?” she panted.

Edan didn't get a chance to answer. From farther up the
small, square hall, Julia saw a bobbing white light, and for some reason, she
was certain it was Methuselah. This time, instead of motivating her to run
faster, the fear made her legs lock. Edan struggled to pull her, and at the
moment he yanked her forward, Julia recognized a face in the white light:
Nathan.

“Nooooo!”

She raised her arms, shielding herself automatically. Damn
him! He would not get her again! Fire bloomed at her fingertips, but just
before she blew him to pieces, Meredith shrieked, “No,
JULIA
! Wait,
wait!”

“He is helping us!” Carlin shouted.

Her friends appeared behind him, and Edan waved at them.
"Turn around! Run the other way!"

“Edan?!”

“What are you doing with
him
?” Nathan demanded.

Before Julia could answer, the hallway blazed with white
light, and she fell over, writhing in pain. He was inside her again, but beyond
furious now, and ten times as strong. She clutched her head as arms grabbed
her, pulling her to her feet.

“Consider this my apology,” Edan said, and suddenly the
pain was gone. He pointed at the dirt floor and twirled his fingers, and the
floor opened to a spiral staircase. “I’d think you’d at least appreciate that
you’re better off with me than the cranky old god that will probably annihilate
all of us.”

“I’m with Edan, bastard that he is,” Carlin said, and she
disappeared down the stairs.

“Me too, I guess.” Drew was gone, followed by Meredith and
Nathan.

“After you,” Edan bowed.

At that second, Methuselah rounded a curve in the hall,
literally alight with blue fire, and Edan pushed Julia in. She heard an angry
cry, and when she blinked again, they were all standing shoulder-to-shoulder
along a dark, cracked asphalt road, topped by a black sky with rolling, gray
clouds—and she knew, somehow for certain, that they were on their way to Hell.

Chapter Fifteen

Everyone started talking at once.

“Where are we,” Meredith demanded.

“What's your game?” Nathan demanded of Edan—though, for
once, his voice was overpowered by Meredith's screeching.

Julia heard Drew say, “I'm assuming Cayne is here,” only
because he was standing right next to her.

She couldn't say anything at all; such was her shock at
finding herself amidst her friends again. Ten minutes before, she was sure
Methuselah was going to kill her, even if it meant ruining his precious plan.
Now she was with her friends whom she had worried she'd never see again.

She scanned the stormy-looking sky for signs of Methuselah.
She expected to see some kind of portal to his lair, but she found none. No
signs of The Adversary, Demons, or fire, either, but she still didn't feel at
ease on the windy, isolated road that cut through what looked like miles and
miles of wheat fields.

People were still talking over each other when Edan held up
his hands. “Hey.” He walked out in front of them about ten steps before he
turned to face them, wind whipping his gorgeous, caramel-colored hair. Everyone
fell silent, and he laughed. “Okay, thank you.”

“Thank you for what?” she said.

He grinned a Cheshire cat grin, just like old times, and
his eyes scanned the group. “You have to take your first step down the road to
Hell of your own free will. Now that we've all done that, the fun begins."

Julia wondered what that meant. Then everything faded to
black.

The first thing she noticed was the freaky moon. It was
orange-red and as big as a school bus in a sky that looked utterly black. It
shone through the crisscross of tree branches in what looked to be a forest.
She swung her gaze left and right and confirmed that yeah, she was in a forest,
surrounded by massive trees, with massive, twisting branches. A cold breeze
whipped between the thick trunks, lashing her arms and legs.

Julia frowned, glancing down at herself—and then she let
out a tiny shriek. She was wearing…well, for some reason she was wearing only a
polka-dotted bikini. The ground under her bare feet felt damp and cold, and her
hair blowing over her shoulders was the only thing protecting her from the
biting wind.

She raced over to one of the huge tree trunks, pressing her
bare body against it. She skimmed the forest for signs of life, feeling dizzy
with the knowledge that she was actually in Hell.

And then—holy shit—there was Edan, suddenly right there in
front of her.

Julia nearly passed out from shock. “Edan?!”

Except—oh, shit—how could she be sure it was really Edan? She'd
just seen him on that road with all her friends. Why were they here now?

Edan pushed his glorious mop of caramel-colored waves out
of his eyes and gave her a lopsided smile. “Tell me how you feel about
Zürcher Geschnetzeltes.”

Julia’s pulse
actually pounded harder with relief. Remembering the Swiss dish Cayne had loved
to force on her, she gave a wild little laugh. “I don’t like it at all. Oh my
God, Edan. Just…oh my God.” Julia sank down to her knees on the roots of the
tree.

Emotion balled up
inside her like a burst of that powerful white light. It expanded in her
throat, so although she felt like bawling, she couldn’t make a sound. She just
sat there, panting in her bikini, while Edan stood a few feet away from her,
watching with his lean arms folded across his chest.