Hell's Revenge (11 page)

Steam began pouring from Lucifer’s ears and Auric winced when the devil let out a roar that shook the building and caused cracks to zigzag through the brick.

“Now do you believe me?” Auric asked dryly.

“I’ll rip their intestines out and feed ‘em to them. I’ll flay their skin and roll them in salt. I’ll—“

“Save you punishment for later. First, we need to find her. Find out if she’d d-d-” Auric couldn’t bring himself to say it.

“She’s not dead,” growled Lucifer. “I can still sense her spark, even if it’s faint.”

“Any idea where she is?” David asked as Auric searched within himself for a sign of his own that Muriel lived. All he found was a gaping hole where she belonged.

“She’s in Hades.”

Auric snorted. “Be a little more specific would you? In case you hadn’t noticed, Hell is pretty fucking vast.”

“That’s just it. Whatever is cloaking her is doing a pretty fine fucking job. All I know is she’s somewhere in Hell, and not in any of the civilized parts.

Auric frowned at Lucifer. “Wait a second. You’re Satan. How can you not know every inch of Hell?”

Lucifer shrugged. “The pit is always growing. It has to or we’d run out of room in no time given the way the population on earth keeps growing and with the numbers of people getting recycled in the abyss getting smaller all the time.” He trailed off.

“So, she’s in one of the newer sections then?”

“I don’t know if I’d call it new. More like undiscovered and wild, really, really wild.

It’s not a place you want to go hunting in lightly.” Auric’s heart tightened into even more fear for her. “I don’t have a choice. If Muriel’s been captured, I need to go find her.”

“Considering who I am, I really wish you’d cut out the altruistic stuff, it hurts my head, but at the same time, as her father, I have to say, much as it galls me, thank you.” The men looked at each other and glanced away, both uncomfortable.

David cleared the silence. “Okay, so we arm ourselves and go after her. Dangerous or not, we obviously can’t sit back and wait for the perpetrator’s next move.”

“You can’t just go running off into Hade’s wild. You’d die the first day out.”

“We’re not sitting here on our asses waiting to see their next move,” Auric growled.

“Never said you should, but if you want to survive you need to take Teivel with you.

He’s the best tracker I’ve got and he just might keep your sorry asses alive. Not that I care or anything, but Muriel is likely to throw a tantrum when she gets back if she finds out I let you get hurt.”

Pride made Auric want to say he could do it on his own, but only an idiot would turn down help when the woman he loved faced danger. “Fine. David and I will need to gather some supplies. We’ll meet you at the palace in an hour.” With a swirl of brimstone smoke, Lucifer disappeared and not wanting to waste time, Auric drew a portal to the loft and stepped through with David.

Alone, David grabbed his arm. “Is Muriel going to be okay? My fucking kitty is freaking in my head. It’s acting like she died or something.” David’s admission surprised him. He’d known David cared for her, but if his cat had bound itself to her in the fabled mating bond, then David probably had just as much at stake as he did. Auric wanted to reassure his friend, but he suffered the same doubt. “I pray we find her in time, but one way or another, whoever took her is about to get their head torn off and shoved up their ass for daring to lay a hand on her.” David returned Auric’s cold smile with a frigid one of his own. “The bastard chose the wrong dudes to fuck with.”

Wrong lovers indeed. Hold on Muri, we’re coming for you.

* * * *

“You?” Auric snarled.

The vampire gave him a wry grin. “We meet again.”

Auric ignored him and glared at Lucifer. “You’re sending us with the womanizing freak?”

Lucifer shrugged. “Teivel’s the best.”

Auric growled. David put a hand on his arm. “Like it or not, we need him.” Auric wanted to refuse the vampire’s aid, but his pride and prejudice weren’t worth Muriel’s life. “Fine. But he attempts to feed off me, David or Muri and I’m staking his ass.

“Oh, please, like I’d stoop to eating your sanctimonious ass. Although, your blond kitty there would probably make a good meal.”

Auric was now the one to hold David back as he gnashed his teeth, his panther close to the surface.

“Enough!” Lucifer’s voice boomed and they all fell silent.

“Excellent. I see I’m not too late.”

Three pairs of masculine eyes whirled to see Gaia’s petite form come striding into Lucifer’s war room looking fetching in a summer frock and a straw bonnet.

“Who let you in?” Lucifer sputtered.

She adopted an innocent mien. “Since when is your wife not allowed in her own home?”

“Wife?” Lucifer’s eyes bugged out of his face and the way his face turned red made Auric wonder if he needed worry about the old devil suffering a heart attack.

“Now, Luke, I realize you were drunk when we said our vows, but still, surely you remember our wedding night. We did, after all, conceive Muriel that night.” Auric took pity on his father in law. “What are you doing here, Gaia?” Suddenly, Mother Earth didn’t look so cocky. “Well, I feel kind of responsible for Muriel disappearing seeing as how it happened right after our little talk.” Auric barreled towards her, along with a transformed David and a bellowing Satan, but none of them could beat the vampire. Teivel reached her first and held her by the throat in midair, her feet kicking.

“Where is she?” the vamp asked coldly. “What have you done to her?” Auric approved of his methods; however, Gaia needed air to speak. A pity.

Apparently, Teivel came to the same conclusion. He loosened his grip and dropped her in a heap.

Gaia sat on the floor rubbing her throat, her eyes watching them all warily. “I don’t know where she is.” Teivel stared down at her and Auric assumed he could speak eloquently with his gaze because she scuttled back with wide eyes. “I didn’t do anything.

I just brought her to me for a talk.”

“So you kidnapped her?” Auric barked.

“But I let her go,” Gaia protested. “She called a portal to Hell, only it went to the wilds and then she disappeared.”

An invisible force picked Gaia up and slammed her against the stone wall. Lucifer stalked forward and gone was the joking and cynical man Auric had gotten to know. His eyes glowed with the flames of the pit, his face a thundercloud. Auric felt a tremble of awe at the power emanating from the usually affable Lucifer. Finally, they all got to see the true King of Hades and Auric found himself glad he wasn’t the one facing his wrath.

“You conniving little bitch. How dare you return after all this time and dick us around? Muriel was right. We should have killed you.”

“I swear. I had nothing to do with her current disappearance.” Unfortunately, she appeared to tell the truth.

“Woman, you had better not be lying. Wife or not, I won’t hesitate to punish you if you’ve done anything to harm our daughter and grandchild.”

“Luke, I swear. I didn’t mean her harm. I don’t know how her portal out of my garden messed up. That was the work of another.”

Lucifer stared at her a moment longer and then let the power that held her pinned like a bug on the wall lapse.

He turned his back on her and thus missed the hand she stretched out to him and then snatched back. She straightened herself and strode over to the wall of maps. She perused them for a moment before stabbing her finger at a blank section. “Here. This is where the portal opened and dumped her.”

Lucifer frowned at her. “How can you know that?”

“I’m Mother Earth, I know lots of things.”

“That’s not an answer. Even I can’t pinpoint locations in the wild.” Gaia smirked. “Still relying on brute force I see. If you’d learn to control yourself, you’d be able to fine tune your abilities.”

“Oh, you’re one to talk about control. What about all those tsunamis and tropical storms you’ve been brewing the last few years?”

Auric snorted. “If you two are done, can we get back to Muriel here? Now that we have a location, we’ll just open a portal and go after her.” Teivel clucked his tongue. “Greenie. If it were that easy do you think they’d be called the wilds?”

Frustration made Auric redden. “Fine then, what do you suggest we do?”

“Oh, we’ll take a portal there, but I guarantee she’s long gone. The best we can hope for is a clue as to her next destination.” Teivel turned to Lucifer. “My Lord, if you could open a portal with the lady’s coordinates.”

Lucifer nodded, but before he could open it, Gaia grabbed his hand. At his startled look, she replied, “I’ll help you pinpoint the location.” A moment later, the portal, an inky maelstrom of darkness, appeared. Teivel, with a nod to Lucifer, dove through followed by David still in kitty form.

Auric grabbed David’s pack and slung it over his shoulder along with his own.

Before he could step through, he found himself grabbed by Gaia.

“Find her,” she whispered. “Or all will be lost.”

“Kill them all,” Lucifer spat. “Painfully.”

Auric gave them a nod and strode through the portal.

Hold on, Muri. I’m coming for you and our daughter.

David’s tail swished as he peered around cautiously at the jungle the portal had dumped them in. In his panther form, he could see and hear more clearly, not exactly an enjoyable thing in this place. If the name Hell weren’t already taken, it would have aptly described this nightmare. Where the jungles of earth were lush green places full of life, in Hades, their form was the antithesis.

Twisted and gnarled trees sprouted all over the place, their moldy foliage a mixture of reds and browns with black pulsing growths. The bushes and underbrush sported thorns that glistened wetly and, as he learned when he moved too close, they could move like a living entity. David could have sworn the bushes and trees watched them hungrily.

The one thing absent in this Satan forsaken place was insect life. Usually in a jungle-like place, the buzz of mosquitoes would drive a person nuts, but here, their absence seemed as conspicuous as did the lack of spider webs.

Teivel, whose smell didn’t so much remind David of a dead thing but of the cold, something he never knew had scent, took a machete out and hacked a few creeping vines which caused the rest to retract with a hiss.

David saw Auric step through the portal a moment before it closed and he padded over to his friend and butted his head against him. In this place of madness, he needed to reaffirm their solidarity. Auric rubbed his head before crouching in front of him.

“I’m here, buddy. Any sign of Muri?”

Chagrined, he’d not looked for a sign yet, too caught up in his examination of his surroundings, David sniffed the air and sifted the scents. He almost went cross-eyed as too many potent odors hit him at once. He took a moment to sort them. Foliage, brimstone, different foliage, some kind of animal with a musty scent, demon … a familiar demon.

David followed that trace scent and soon found another, a sweet soft scent he knew so well. He walked forward to a flattened area of the bristly grass.
Blood.

Teivel knelt a moment later by his side and touched his hands to the brown stain.

“She was here. Someone struck her down with this rock.” Teivel held up a striated stone that bore more reddish stains and a few strands of hair.

David chuffed and looked at Teivel wondering if he could scent the demon on the weapon.

Teivel frowned at him a moment and then held the stone close to his nose. The vampire inhaled deep and then growled. “Azazel. That old bastard.”

“I should have fucking listened to Muriel,” Auric growled. Teivel gave him a questioning look. “She has this theory that bad guys should always be killed on the spot instead of saving it for later.”

Teivel grinned. “I am liking this girl more and more.” David and Auric both growled which made the vamp laugh. “Down boys. Don’t tell me you’re afraid of a little competition?”

“We don’t fear you. Muriel loves us.”

“If you say so,” the vampire taunted. He strode towards the jungle, hacking at the brave branches and vines that inched towards him. He looked back at them. “Are you coming?”

“Where?” Auric asked hefting the packs higher on his shoulders and keeping a hand on the hilt of his sword.

“I forget, your type doesn’t have the same sense of smell,” mocked the vampire. “For a race that considers itself better than others, you’re not so well endowed. They took her this way.”

David would have laughed at the look on Auric’s face were the situation not so grave. David caught the scent the vamp followed and padded after him.

With a grumble about know it all vampires and stupid jungles that should be mowed down, Auric joined them.

The vamp slashed and hacked a path through the living forest and the further they went, the more David prayed they’d find Muriel quickly and leave this forsaken place.

The tees towered over them blocking out the reddish glare that lit the planes of Hell, creating ominous shadows. They’d walked on for a little while when David noticed a difference.

The jungle around them appeared too still. David didn’t trust it and took his cue from the vampire who moved with quiet steps and whose head kept turning, as if searching the numerous dark pockets bracketing them. Signs of arachnids appeared, not that David found himself reassured at this sign of normal bug life given size of the webs he saw spun between the trees which could have caught an elephant. Somehow, he doubted he’d want to meet the spinners of the webs in person. A futile hope.

They only got a warning shout from Teivel before the attack. Things dropped from the canopy of the trees. Actually, more like abominations, David noted with a shudder—a cross between spiders and, appalling enough, humans, or their heads at least. One landed on David’s back and he bucked sending the creature flying, only to watch in horror as it scuttled back at him, its humanoid features with black pupilless eyes and pointy teeth freaking him out. The thing’s mouth opened wider and let out a screech that made his ears ring. But only for a second before he pounced on it and sank his fangs into its neck, ripping the offending head free. One down, dozens to go.