Misery Happens (23 page)

Then Lucen freed himself from his pants, and thoughts of Mitch and the fact that I wasn’t normally an exhibitionist died in my mind. I dropped to my knees and took him in my lips. As I did, I could sense Lucen’s cinnamon magic swirling around me, my mind becoming heavy with the onslaught of his power.

The short burst of panic I’d always felt when Dezzi and Claudius had bonded with me never came. I trusted Lucen completely, wanted him utterly and welcomed his power. I was so high on him already and so lost in my lust, I barely noticed a difference when the bond took hold. My nerves sizzled, begging to be blown apart by his touch.

But Lucen tensed and tugged my head away. He picked me up and carried me deeper into a rank but dark cell. “Channel it, Jess.”

“I will. Soon.” I gasped, not thrilled to be wasting my mouth talking, and I clasped my hand around the length of him, craving more contact. “Give me this first.”

Backed against the new wall, Lucen fought the complication of dealing with my utility belt so he could unbutton my pants. “This will be temporary. You’ll need to focus afterward, or I’m going to break the bond.”

I wrapped my arms round his neck, entwining my fingers in his hair. “I know.”

Not only was an addict’s relief fleeting, it was terribly unsatisfying. I came almost as soon as Lucen thrust into me, and I buried my mouth against his shoulder to keep from crying out. All the erotic energy in me was only weakly satisfied. Lucen couldn’t even pull out before I was ready for more.

“Jess?”

Damn it. Why was focusing so difficult? I could do it with Claudius’s bond.
But you don’t like Claudius,
the voice in my head reminded me.
Maybe it makes a difference.

Gritting my teeth, I gave Lucen a light shove because touching him certainly wasn’t making this easier. Then I pressed my hand to my bare abdomen and imagined I could feel the bond connecting us.

It showed up easily in my mind, pale blue and silky ribbons that sang with power just as they had the time I’d practiced with him. Normally, such a bond showed most of the energy flowing toward Lucen with a scant amount heading my way, but Lucen was already helping me out as much as he was able. We weren’t quite at even flow, but it was closer than I’d ever been with anyone else.

I sucked more power in, and the flow faltered in my imagination as more of the ribbons reversed course. My longing grew, but the sweet pain of the unfulfilled lust was muted under the influx of energy. My blood warmed, and I grew lightheaded.

After channeling the immense magic of a pred as strong as Claudius, Lucen’s magic scarcely affected me the way it once would have. It was a good thing and indicative that my ability to contain power had grown as planned. But damn if I didn’t miss the overwhelming high that I used to get.

Get moving,
I told myself. I held my hand out as I’d practiced with Claudius and directed the power out through my fingers. I was careful in my aim and better with my control than I’d once been. The energy passed smoothly through me and struck the dirty floor. Grains of sand and other detritus shuddered with the impact then fell still.

I kept my hand poised for a few more seconds to make sure the channel would hold when I stopped concentrating, then I lowered my arm. My nerves continued to tingle, but that was mostly ignorable. But was it enough?

“Lucen?” I blinked a couple times to refocus my eyes.

He buttoned his pants and exhaled slowly. “You’re draining me of energy, but it’s not too bad.”

“But is it helping?” Realizing I was pantsless myself, I pulled mine up.

“It’s muted. I’m better.” He paused for a moment. “It’s not so much like you’re taking the lust away, but you’re making it easier for me to ignore it.”

I didn’t care what I was doing or why. Those were questions for people with a far greater understanding of magic than me. I only cared that he seemed better able to cope. It didn’t hurt either that I was feeling more energetic in the process. “Then let’s—”

The ground trembled, and I fell into the wall. Lucen lost his balance too, and he tumbled forward, hitting the spot next to me. Outside the cell, I could hear chains rattling and raised voices. The rumbling stopped all at once, and the silence returned.

Warily, I let go of the wall. “Earthquake?”

“In something that’s not of earth?”

I had no answer to that and was spared thinking of one because Mitch appeared in the cell opening. Breathing hard, he looked us both up and down, then politely turned away. “You both all right? What did you do?”

Oops. I hadn’t finished buttoning my pants before the quake, and I quickly fixed that. My cheeks flushed, making me feel like an idiot since Mitch had to be well aware of what we’d done. “I aimed the power I channeled from Lucen at the ground, but that couldn’t have caused it. Could it?”

“You did destroy Purgatory’s bar,” Lucen said.

“Yeah, but…” I bit my lip. “I’ve gotten better at control.” After we left Devon’s apartment that night, I’d practiced with Dezzi and Claudius.

“But we’re not in a normal space.”

Mitch cast a cautious glance over his shoulder and seemed relieved that I’d finished buttoning up, which made two of us. “It might not have been you at all.”

I didn’t like that idea any better than the suggestion that my power was acting weirdly in here.

Head held high, as if emergency sex in a demon prison was totally part of the contingency plan, I strolled out of the cell. “I don’t suppose you found the key yet.”

Mitch retorted with a snort. “Kassin’s picked up a promising reading with his gadget, and we’re ready to follow.”

“Let’s do it.” I checked to make sure my weapons were where I expected them to be, and the three of us rejoined the others.

The two p-squad members’ eyebrows shot up on seeing me. In their magical senses, I appeared as just another lust addict. Tom’s expression was more nuanced, but he didn’t look happy. Since I was bonded with Lucen, I couldn’t sense his emotions at all. That was probably for the best.

“Where are we going?” I asked, continuing to pretend nothing was up.

Tom pointed in the direction opposite of where we’d come from. “It’s strongest this way, and stay alert. There’s no way to tell what exactly is causing these readings.”

“So you could be leading us to the rest of the demons,” Mitch said.

“Theoretically not.” Tom slung the pack over his shoulders. “These charms won’t detect preds. It’s the wrong sort of magic, but there could be other things in here.”

We started walking with Tom in the lead, and I cast a glance back at the doorway. No one else had made it through. What did that suggest about what was going on the other side? Even if we found the key and Mitch or I figured out how to use it, would it matter? Were the Gryphons and magi able to finish what else needed doing to close the Pit?

These questions made me nervous, and to calm myself, I focused on sensing the magic flowing from Lucen to me. For all my former fear of becoming an addict, there was something weirdly endearing about being attached to him this way. Sharing his power was the ultimate act of trust for both of us.

Soon enough, the unsettling thoughts about what I’d left behind escaped my noticed as I became more curious about my never-changing surroundings. A fine layer of sandy dirt covered every surface, turning the world the same dusty brown. Light was provided by torches along the walls, and their flames flickered and danced unnaturally in the stagnant air. The shadows along the floor and in the cells shimmied with them. More than once, a wild shadow out of the corner of my eye made me gasp as I thought I saw a sign of life. But the strange creature the Gryphons had seen earlier didn’t make a reappearance.

Interspersed with the cells and their formidable iron-barred doors were rows upon rows of metal shackles. They hung from heights that varied from shoulder-high to those barely inches off the ground, and a few had been yanked out of the wall with what must have been a frightening show of strength. Of those, some showed rusty patches that, on closer inspection, weren’t rust at all but blood splotches peeking out from under the grit.

Both the cell doors and every cuff of every pair of shackles had a chunk missing, a random spot where the metal seemed to have evaporated in a clean line. The first two times I saw it, I thought the missing pieces were an anomaly or a trick of the light. But after finding the same pattern on everything, we stopped to investigate more closely.

Tom ran a thumb over the mysterious edge. “These weren’t cut physically. This was a magical alteration. This was when they learned how to change their environment.”

“We knew they might,” Lucen pointed out. “But I didn’t expect there to be so many of them.”

I wasn’t sure if he was referring to the cells, the shackles or the missing pieces, but it didn’t matter. So many of each suggested far too many demons. Especially if only two had escaped into the real world so far.

Mitch nudged my arm. “Look.”

H wasn’t pointing at the shackles but straight ahead where the corridor ended in another rough stone wall. An imposing dark wood door hung in the middle.

I shook myself. “That door wasn’t there a second ago.” Hell, I wasn’t entirely sure it was there now. Its color and opacity seemed off, like I was staring at a cheap disguise charm.

“That entire wall wasn’t there a second ago,” Mitch said.

Tom studied it on his detector. “Well, it’s here now, and if my readings are correct, we need to go through it.”

Of course we did.

Lucen and the p-squad members took up position around the door, and I withdrew my blade. Tom did the same after attaching the detector to his belt. On his signal, one of the Gryphons flung the door open. I held my breath and waited.

Chapter Twenty-Two

Nothing happened.

We stood frozen in place, waiting. Any second I expected evil smoke to pour out, or whatever mysterious not-dragon creature the Gryphons had seen, or even a demon itself. With no way to mark the time, the absolute silence dragged on forever. I’d never experienced anything like it. On Earth, there was always some noise.

Finally, when the nothingness continued, we lowered our weapons and relaxed our stances in unison. The p-squad members took the lead, and we entered the next room.

“What the…?” My voice trailed away as I gaped.

The space we stood in resembled a cavern. The low ceilings, dusty walls and sandy floor were gone, replaced by enormous arches of stone that stretched as high as any cathedral ceiling. The rocky walls glistened with water and shone with a rainbow of colors—blues of every hue, pinks, purples and greens. The blue, a particularly stunning shade that reminded me of the sky, predominated, giving the whole area a serene glow. Where the light came from was anyone’s guess. It was possible the rocks themselves were luminescent. Since the cavern wasn’t real anyway, the possibilities were endless.

The air smelled damp. Not musty, but there was something unusual about it. It was a light, almost plantlike scent that was more disturbing than pleasant. With so many signs of wetness around, I expected to hear running or dripping water, but there was none.

“Enough gawking,” Tom said. “Be ready.”

That was easier said than done. I drew my blade, but my gaze was constantly fixating on my surroundings, and not in the watch-your-back kind of way. Nor was I the only one with an attention problem.

We traipsed along a stone floor that appeared slick and wet to the touch, but actually wasn’t. Pools of water, or something resembling it, pockmarked the ground so it was impossible to walk in a straight line. Steam or smoke rose from some of them. In the light it all had a blue hue. We left the pools alone. Though I was curious to test what the liquid was, I had nothing on me I dared lose if they were filled with some nasty curse instead of water.

“It makes sense, right?” Mitch said under his breath. He, Lucen and I were bringing up the rear. In the humid air, his voice sounded thin. “The prison was hot and dry and dusty. They’d have been wishing the whole time they were locked in for a cool, wet place.”

“Could be.” Lucen motioned toward the cave wall. “Check it out.”

My neck swiveled in the direction he indicated, but I saw nothing.

Tom shushed us. “We don’t know what’s in here.”

“Living things,” Lucen said. “I can see them. Watch the darkest parts of the rocks.”

My stomach knotted, and I focused on a dim gap in the stone where wall met ground. I was about to tell Lucen I still couldn’t see anything when I breathed sharply. The shadow hadn’t moved itself, but something in it seemed to have. The darkest and lightest patch shifted.

Once I’d noticed the first hint of movement, I noticed more. “Shit. They’re everywhere.”

“But what are they?” Mitch asked. We all looked eerie in the strange light, but Mitch’s dark skin looked paler too.

“Whatever they are,” Lucen said, “I think it’s wise to assume they’re not friendly.”

Tom’s hand hovered near his gun, but he couldn’t hold the magic detector and a weapon at the same time. “They either got trapped in here by accident with the demons or the demons created them.”

That didn’t exactly narrow it down, but I conserved my snark in case I needed it later. “So far, they’re not bothering us, so let’s keep going.”

The p-squad guy laughed mirthlessly. “Famous last—”

One of the shadows shot out from a crevice and charged right at us. It smacked into the Gryphon’s ankles, tangling them. With a cry that was cut weirdly short, he toppled over backward and into the pool behind him.

“Peter!” The female Gryphon dropped to her knees to give him a hand, but Lucen grabbed her around the waist before she could reach him.

She screamed and struggled, but Lucen was stronger. “Don’t touch what’s in those pools. See that? You can’t help him.”

See what?

I swore. Again, Lucen saw what was happening first. The Gryphon—Peter—had stopped moving. From the looks of it, he’d stopped before he’d even hit the pool. His face was contorted in fear, and his arms were spread like he’d been grappling for balance. He’d been completely paralyzed.

My heart thumped in my throat as I stared helplessly. “Maybe he’s alive? We should pull him out. Do we have a rope?”

“He’s not alive.” Tom’s voice was cold with certainty.

“Jess?” Lucen eased his grip around the other Gryphon, who was trembling and looking both sad and terrified at the same time. “Don’t move.”

“Why?”

“Because there’s a basilisk behind you.”

I swore under my breath. So this was why Tom was positive the other Gryphon was dead. Basilisks weren’t native to the Americas or most of Europe, but I knew enough about magical fauna from my time at the Gryphons’ Academy.

I swallowed. “Um? Ideas? Why are you looking at it? Stop looking at it!”

“They can only kill you with direct eye contact.” Tom set the magical detector on the ground, his motions slow and deliberate, and retrieved the gun from his holster. “Anything else is a myth. As long as you don’t lock its gaze, you’re fine.”

“How are we fine? Its venom is still deadly if it bites us.”

Tom didn’t answer in words. His draw was so fast and smooth, I barely saw it. I heard the shot, and the female Gryphon screamed. Both sounds reverberated off the walls and rattled in my blood. Then Lucen’s shoulders sagged in relief.

Since nothing bit my ankles, I relaxed my muscles as much as I could under the circumstances. The air in here was cool and damp, but I’d never felt so cold with mortal fear before. I’d never felt so helpless. Lucen laid a comforting hand on me, and the warmth of his touch melted some of my terror. Along with it came the unwanted lust induced by the bond, and I had to concentrate to push the power through me and into the ground.

Turning around, I checked out the snake. It wasn’t as big as I expected, no more than two feet long at most. Dark gold and black scales ran down its body, forming a winglike pattern. On its head, more gold scales circled like a crown. Most importantly, blood spilled from between its cloudy eyes. Tom’s shot had been perfect.

“Thank you.” I wet my lips. “I knew you were a badass before, but that was…”

“One hell of a shot,” Lucen finished for me.

Tom smiled grimly. “Don’t thank me yet. We’ve got a lot more of them in here, I’m guessing.” He offered a hand to the other Gryphon. “Agent Gomes? Francisca?”

Francisca—I recalled her name as soon as Tom said it—shuddered and snapped back to herself. Taking Tom’s hand, she stood. Her eyes had swollen with tears, but she blinked them away, and her face became as stony as the walls. “I’m okay. I prefer knowing what we’re dealing with.”

In Portuguese, Francisca whispered what I assumed was a prayer or a farewell to the fallen Gryphon. Not being religious myself, I simply and silently thanked him for his help. Then we trudged on.

As the prison had, the cavern seemed to go on forever, but the beauty of this forever was tainted with terror. Every shadow became dangerous to glance at lest a pair of glowing eyes appear in it. Every dip in the rock beneath our feet had become a possible trap. We moved silently with our weapons out. Even Tom had resorted to only checking the magic detector every so often so he could remain armed. But if the speed of the first basilisk was any indication, we’d be damn lucky to strike another if one decided to attack.

“Up ahead.” Francisca’s voice was barely audible. She didn’t alter the position of her sword but merely nodded to something on our right.

Afraid to glance away from where I was watching one of our flanks, I nonetheless ventured a quick peek. A bright, white light pierced the blue rock several hundred feet ahead, as though a hole had been cut in the cavern’s ceiling. Leading up to it, stones rose in a series of twisting steps. A third of the way, the bottom of the cavern dropped out beneath them, creating a narrow, impossible bridge. Beneath it was more darkness.

“I don’t like it,” Francisca murmured. “Steep and high.”

“Better than snakes,” Mitch said.

My grip on my sword hilt was sweaty, and I adjusted it, imagining trying to balance with it in my hand as we climbed. Imagining what would happen if another basilisk appeared while we did. “Let’s hope we make it there before we worry about falling.”

I didn’t understand though—not the creepy architecture nor the snakes nor the light—and I wanted to stomp my feet in frustration. This place wasn’t making any sense. If the demons were molding it with their own magic, then why the cavern? Why steps that were so deadly? They had to live in here. Wouldn’t they have wanted to create something hospitable? Or did they not have much control over the magic?

So many questions, and this was not the time to ponder them. Yet my mind wandered as we inched closer to the light, despite scolding myself to focus. Just because no more basilisks had attacked…

Basilisks… Venom… Suddenly, the blackness beneath the steps swarmed with them. That wasn’t nothingness at all—it was a viper pit. Thousands of the creatures had gathered to strike as we got near.

I froze as if already paralyzed, certain I could see their sinewy bodies writhing in the dark. The very air seemed to hum with them too, a sinister buzz, the slippery hiss of scales sliding against scales. Beneath the stairs, the pit pulsed with life.

Lucen grabbed my hand. “We can’t go near the steps.”

“No. No, we definitely can’t.”

“The steps are going to collapse anyway,” Francesca added. “They’re too unsturdy.”

“We should go back the way we came.” Mitch too had noticed.

But Tom checked the detector. “We need to keep heading that way. You can’t leave. We need you.” Tom’s voice was high-pitched with fear and sharp with his stressed-out twang.

Something’s not right.
The voice in my head felt distant and foreign, and one of the protective glyphs on my shoulder was heating up. All the protections the Gryphons and satyrs gave me had been active since the demon attack in France, but this one was going particularly nuts. Something nearby must have triggered it.

Something’s not right.
My eyes widened with understanding. It was the panic I heard in Tom’s voice that was causing this reaction. The man who’d so confidently shot that basilisk, the Gryphon who’d been so fervently preparing for this day that I’d often called him a zealot—he didn’t panic. He might be afraid, but he didn’t squeak with terror that we were going to desert him.

And
we
didn’t desert.

Calm,
I demanded of myself.
The stairs will hold, and once you’re up them, the basilisks can’t reach you unless you fall. You will not fall. Something is messing with your head.

As if the something heard my thoughts, which it very well might have, the ground rumbled. I grasped Lucen’s hand, my attempt at controlling my fear starting to falter with the recognition of a pattern in the sound. Footsteps. The noise echoed off the cavern walls, making it difficult to tell which direction the creature was coming from.

“Time to run,” Lucen said.

I wasn’t sure that was such a good idea, but hanging around didn’t seem wise either. We took off as a group, five pairs of feet pounding over the rocks, splashing what I hoped was only water up our legs as we ran. Halfway to the bridge, the inky darkness below twisted and deformed. Smoky black trails with red eyes emerged from the depth, slithering over the stones—the basilisks.

“Wait, stop!” My feet faltered, and my lungs cried out in pain. The snakes were going to block the stairs. There was no way we could fight that many. No way we could avoid locking one’s gaze.

I yelled again, my eyes transfixed by the teeming, slippery mass, but no one seemed to hear me. Desperate, I reached out to grab Tom’s sleeve, and we both went flying. My arm and hip slammed into the ground, and I skidded over rough stone. Francisca screamed. A blinding black fear, surreal and not unlike the writhing basilisk pit, clouded my vision.

I knew then. We hadn’t tripped. Something had smacked into Tom.

My sight cleared, but the cold certainty of impending death settled in my blood. I scrambled to my feet, relieved to see Tom doing the same, but not so relieved to hear a deep laugh behind me. At Tom’s feet, the magic detector, which had been on his belt, lay smashed against the stones. Broken and useless. Without it, we had no chance to find the key.

What good is it now anyway? We might as well be dead.

Not dead, not yet,
answered a new voice in my head, one that definitely wasn’t mine.
You are a feast of fear, and I need to eat.

I spun around, raising my blade. The demon standing before me looked much like a basilisk itself. Though not as tall as the purple one, this demon had a black tail with the same markings as the snakes. Its skin was as deep a gold and clearly scaly, and its eyes were inky. Its smile revealed two fanglike front teeth.

Tom and I hadn’t been the only ones who had been knocked over. Lucen alone was standing. On my left, Francisca kneeled on one knee, her sword held in an attack position. Mitch was crouching on his toes, his hands fumbling behind his back, searching for his sword while his eyes never left the demon’s face.

“Try not to be afraid,” Lucen said, which of course was totally ridiculous advice. The best I could do was try not to let my fear overwhelm me.

“Got any better ideas?” Annoyance crept into my voice.

The demon sensed it and grinned wider.
You’re bonded to that satyr, but not an addict. Interesting. What are you?

I frowned. “Can you hear that?” I asked Lucen and the others.

“I can hear something, a buzzing in my head,” Tom said.

Also interesting. I decided to take this conversation public. If I was obviously distracting the demon, maybe someone else could use the opportunity to attack. “I’m the abomination who was sent in here to ruin your plans.”