Hell's Gates (Urban Fantasy) (18 page)

A fallen’s mark.

They’d been dark as night the last time I saw them, but today… they seemed lighter somehow. The shadows weren’t as deep, the details fuzzy instead of razor sharp. “Sam,” I whispered in awe, stroking the outer edge. “Your wings.”

He tensed but said nothing.

I ran my fingers over them, tracing each marking the way I’d always wanted. Maybe the people he’d helped weren’t the only ones being cleansed.

Maybe.

I
had
to face the truth no matter how much I hated it. Bry was looking worse. I cradled him in my lap, trying to feed him, and I knew he responded by reflex, not awareness. His eyes were red and bloodshot, a glassy sheen as if he were stoned. He stared off into space, not even recognizing me. He wasn’t quite talking yet, but he usually at least acknowledged me if only to point at his juice when he wanted more. Now he was like a zombie. Considering the demonic magic coursing through his little body, I feared he would soon become one.

I swallowed hard, fighting back the tears that threatened to overwhelm me once again. I’d already broken down in the last twenty-four hours. I wasn’t going to do it again.

Sam and Jezze stood nearby, watching me coax my son to eat. I glanced at them and then back at Bryony. “The bar was supposed to reopen to, but—“

“I’ll handle it.” Jezze was quick to offer.

“You sure?” I hated leaning on her but it would take one worry off my mind.

“Of course.” Jezebeth’s expression was kind with an edge of pity. I’d always hated being pitied. “It’s not like I haven’t done it before.”

“Okay.” I took a deep breath, centering myself. I didn’t want to leave Bry’s side right now. “I rescheduled the liquor and dry goods orders since we missed deliveries when we were shut down.” My ex—Justin—was my liquor supplier and had tried to give me shit. I’d reminded him I would happily scorch his ass from this Earth. He saw things my way then. “They should be there before we open. And don’t forget—“

“Caith,” she came over and bent down, giving me a quick hug, “I’ve done all this before.” She left me and gathered her things. “Don’t worry. Focus on Bry. I’ll get the bar taken care of. Besides, I’ll have Berg there to boss around. I’m good.”

“Thanks.” There was a part of me that didn’t want to worry about the bar with all of the other issues going on, but I couldn’t afford to keep it closed. Plus, there was still a good chance the tweens who came in would know something helpful.

Once Jezze left, it was Sam’s turn to scour the city for lost souls in need of cleansing. Before he left, he took my hand, giving it a soft squeeze in silent comfort. Comfort I needed right then. I tugged him close and gave him a soft kiss, and for one silly moment I almost felt like I was part of a regular couple. I was the little lady wishing my man good luck as he headed off to work. Telling him to have a safe drive and a good day.

I mentally snorted. Right. Like that shit would ever fucking happen. Besides, Sam flew. He didn’t drive. But as much as I hated the idea of being anything like a 1950s housewife, I was still stuck in the house playing mom.

I had too much energy to burn, and no dems to unleash it on. So, I channeled it into cleaning the house. Not that Momma R’s place needed much cleaning. I was actually pretty sure the furniture was spelled to be dust resistant. But I cleaned what I could, which mostly involved rearranging everything on her shelves and reorganizing the library. (Who shelved things alphabetically? As if I could find anything that way.)

I kept Bry close, bringing along his toys and blankets. He didn’t do much but sit in the middle of the floor, silently watching. I just couldn’t be separated from him.

Which was a damned good thing. I’d brought him back into the kitchen with me, letting him sit on the floor nearby and within sight. That was when a hot, sulfurous breeze blew through the house, whirling around me in a sudden wave of scent and warmth. I spun, anxious to grab my son and bolt. I didn’t care if I was running like a scared child. I’d do anything to save Bry.

Was I gonna have to save him from himself?

Another circle like the one that’d scorched the wall burned into the kitchen floor, aged linoleum curling with the fiery heat. Bryony waved his hands, a smile on his lips, and pure terror pumped in my veins. Dear Hell, was he the one conjuring the portal?

“Bry,” I gave him my best mom voice. “I don’t know if you’re the one doing that, but make it stop.” He giggled and I swallowed the bile that threatened to rise. “Momma said
stop
.”

The circle flared blindingly bright for a split second and then faded away, leaving the burned linoleum behind. My son looked up at me, wide brown eyes blinking slowly, and just for a moment, I thought he recognized me. A spark of life filled those orbs but then it was gone again in the next breath.

I crouched in front of him, running my hand through his wispy hair. “I wish I knew what was wrong with you. Whatever this is, it’s affecting you differently than everyone else.”

I hadn’t heard of any other tweens who were infected suddenly having ritual circles pop into existence near them. I wasn’t sure if this was from the demon responsible for the drug or if Bry was somehow doing it without realizing. As if it was some manifestation of new demonic powers from the drug.

Or… was someone opening the gates to try and kidnap him?

It didn’t matter. An explanation wouldn’t erase the fear churning deep in my core. I had to find a way to stop this, to stop it all.

I dwelled on the whirling questions while I scrubbed the ash out of the kitchen floor and it turned out there was something that could get past Momma R’s dirt-resistant spells. Pine-Sol wasn’t working much better, either.

When I finally got most of the black marks scrubbed away, loud noises from outside caught my ear. I shot to my feet, snatching my swords from the hook on the wall. Momma R had gotten tired of me digging through her closet and finally gave me a space for them beside the front and back doors. With everything going on, I wanted to be prepared to face anything that needed killing or a beating. I wasn’t sure which I was more in the mood for. Except, when I looked outside, what I saw wasn’t making a whole lotta sense.

Momma R lived at the edges of town, far from the main road, but there were still a lot of tweens in the area. They tended to stick together and form small communities. Some places had their own Italian districts or Chinatown. We had areas for tweens.

It wasn’t unusual to see a few trolls, elves, and goblins in the area. They steered clear of Momma R and she didn’t use any bits of them in her spells. It worked. There were even a few brownies that had little homes nearby and Bry had regular playdates with the kids.

Before he’d gotten sick, anyway.

But this… I’d never seen so many tweens out in broad daylight at one time, more than one not even bothering to use their glamour to hide their natural forms.

Some walked by the house, stomping over Momma R’s white picket fence, others pulling any trees in their way right out of the ground. They moved slowly, methodically, their eyes unfocused as if they were in a daze.

As if they were sleepwalking. And it wasn’t just one or two. Several filled Momma R’s front lawn, meandering by, and I heard several cars honk and drivers shout from the street. With the way these guys were acting, I imagined others were walking in the road too.

Dozens walked by, some getting so close to the house they bounced off Momma R’s wards, and the magical protection flared blue when one of the tweeners bumped into the boundary.

Where the fuck were they all going?

“Momma!” I yelled upstairs, striding back to the kitchen and snatching up my kid. “Something’s going on. Can you watch Bry?”

Momma R came downstairs, carrying a book she’d been studying. She was still working on perfecting the potion she and Jezze had developed, hoping to make it easier to prepare and more potent.

When she reached me, she followed my gaze out into the yard and beyond, watching the parade of tweens going past her house. “Go.” She took Bry from my arms. “Whatever it is, you need to be there. I’ll take care of Bry.”

I slipped the straps of my weapons on and then moved to the pile beside the front door. Daggers disappeared into their sheaths and I tucked my expandable baton in my belt. It’d been perfect for non-lethal fighting and I didn’t want to kill any drugged out tweens if I didn’t have to. Normally, these were my friends, not enemies.

I tucked the last blade away, a ten-inch piece of perfection. “Watch out for any ritual circles. Another one tried to form in the kitchen. I don’t know if it’s him or someone else, but…” I stared at my sweet boy, his attention on the far wall. “But watch him.”

Don’t lose him.

Don’t let anything happen to him.

“I’ll make sure he stays safe.” She nodded. “Go. Take care of business.”

I headed outside, following the parade of stoned tweens. I took off at a jog, passing most with ease since they were ambling like zombies. While I ran, I tugged out my phone and called Jezze, explaining the situation to her.

“Yeah, here too. We had regulars when we opened, but they just got up and left. Drinks still on the table and they wandered out.”

“Leave Berg in charge of the bar and get out here. Meet me… wherever the fuck they’re heading. Make sure you’ve got more on hand than just your magic.” Jezze liked to rely on her glowing orbs, but I wasn’t sure how close this fight would get. “I don’t think this is gonna end pretty.”

“Got it.”

I didn’t say goodbye and just ended the call. We both had jobs to do.

I thought about calling Sam, but I didn’t know if he carried a phone or if the number I had still worked. Lately, he had a habit of showing up whenever I needed him. I was pretty sure it had to be some kind of angelic sense that let him know when I was in danger. Or it was the mate connection that was only half completed.

Hopefully he’d be alerted to the strange behavior of the tweens and would head out to investigate as well.

Along the way, I paused and checked a few of the tweens, seeing if they’d respond to me. I shook them, snapped my fingers in their faces, and called their mommas old dirty whores. I should have gotten something from that insult from a troll, at least.

Except there was no reaction. They just kept walking in a daze, gaze distant. It was a lot like dealing with zombies—normal zombies, not the green-eyed sentient ones like last year—except they didn’t seem to have the bloodlust.

I hoped that wouldn’t be the next stage. Orlando’s tween population suddenly becoming zombies? They’d decimate the humans in a day. Possibly less.

The theme parks would be like all-you-can eat buffets.

Their meandering path took me across streets, the tweens not caring where they walked. Cars kept driving by, honking their horns and cursing at the group. I steered as many as I could out of the street and onto the sidewalk. They didn’t put up any fight, though when I tried to turn them around completely to go back the way they’d come, they immediately spun and continued with the rest of the tweens.

There was no conscious choice in the matter. It was like watching humans caught by a siren, though I didn’t hear one singing nearby.

I caught up with Jezze a few blocks from the bar, walking backward in front of a satyr and trying to get through to him. “Where are you going?” She waved her hands in front of his face. “Is someone calling to you? Do you see a bright light? Is the Big Guy as hot as I think he is?”

I would have laughed at Jezze’s joke if the situation weren’t so serious. She was
convinced
the big guy had to be the hottest man-shaped being ever created and she wanted to bone.

I told her she was going to Hell.

She gave me a high five because that meant we’d really be together forever.

She shook her head and looked at me with a shrug. “I got nothing.”

“Me neither.” I looked up and down the street. It almost seemed like every tween in the city was on the move. “Let’s see where they’re headed. If they’re being summoned, then I know whose ass needs kicking.”

The never-ending parade turned and headed out of the city, slow and steady before entering the woods. My nerves sparked to life, hairs on the back of my neck rising, and my wolf padded forward with a low growl. It didn’t like this. It didn’t like this at all. Outside Orlando’s city limits, just about anything could pop out at us. Or up at us. Perhaps from one of the ritual circles opening in the ground all around us.

I reached behind me and unsheathed one of my swords, the metal singing as it slipped free. This blade was one of my oldest, my first, the one that’d tasted the most blood over the centuries. Today, it was hungry for more.

Dozens of circles flared to life and I watched in horror as a gate opened a few feet from me—a tween wandering right into the twirling light. There was a bright flash of flame and an eruption of smoke. When the darkness cleared, the tween was gone, sucked into the fire while still alive.

“Are they heading to Hell?” I looked around, the same scene playing out over and over again. I moved closer to one of the circles that still blazed, studying the symbols. I recognized them, runes that surrounded the portals that’d tried to snatch Bry. These led to the same place.

“Caith, watch out!” Jezze grabbed me and yanked me back just as the circle exploded into bright flames. Not flames—hellfire.

“Motherfucker.”

I grabbed the nearest tween, pulling him away just before he stepped into the circle. I couldn’t be totally sure where it’d lead him, but it couldn’t be anywhere nice. The hellfire would cook him alive, killing him and capturing his soul in Hell. If that wasn’t what killed him, he’d still end up in another dimension with no way back.

Jezze used her spells to pull a few more from the brink, wrapping green energy around them like a magical lasso and hauling them away. But there were too many. The ones I managed to turn around just kept coming back again and again, heading to their demise like moths to a flame.

“Fuck.” I tugged my titanium baton and flicked it, extending it to its full length. “Fuck, fuck, fuck!”

I pummeled them, men and women I called friends. I aimed for their temples, pulling back my strength so that when I hit them, they were only knocked out, not dead. They’d wake up with horrible headaches but that was better than bathing in hellfire in Hell.

Sam showed up right on time, either following the swarm of tweens or because his angel senses were tingling. Either way, we’d needed his help. We rounded up as many tweens as we could, Jezze tossing a few sleeping spells over groups to knock them out. They fell to the ground in snoring lumps while others just kept walking right over their sleeping forms.