Misguided Angel (7 page)

When the team disbanded, Schuyler told Jack what Ghedi had said. Jack agreed there was no way they were going to abandon the girl, no matter what Ghedi was worried about. As a sworn Venator, Jack was charged with not only serving the Coven but protecting the innocent--whether vampire or human. He suggested they waste no time on a footrace. The fastest way to find the girl was to locate her spirit in the glom.

"It is better if you do it--she might not hide from you," he said, explaining that a gentle female presence would be more successful at coaxing a young girl from her hiding place.

Schuyler closed her eyes and reached out into the darkness. She concentrated on the image from the photograph.

MariElena, where are you?

When Schuyler opened her eyes, she was standing in the twilight world of the glom. She could sense Jack's presence as wel as the spirits of the company searching for the girl. The glom world was silvery and dim, veiled as if by a dense gray fog.

MariElena, I am a friend. Show yourself. You are safe with me. Tell me where you are. Your family is looking for you.

There was no answer.

Schuyler waited, but it was as if she were cal ing down into a bottomless wel . She could sense her consciousness expanding beyond the universe, but there was nothing to push back against it--the sign that she had located the right spirit. She opened her eyes.

"Nothing?" Jack asked.

"Not a thing." Schuyler frowned. "It's like she's not here . . . not even in the glom. Not like she's hiding. More like . . . she never existed." She swal owed her frustration. Ghedi's warning had unsettled her. What was the gatekeeper so afraid of?

More than anything, Schuyler wanted to bring MariElena safely home. She felt a kinship with the young girl. Wasn't she herself just fifteen when her life changed? She understood how MariElena might fal in love with a stranger, how one might be tempted by curiosity and adventure, how terrible to have that curiosity of the world shattered so horribly.

I am here! Help me! Help me!

"Oh God," Schuyler said. "I just heard her."

Help me. Help. Kill. Help. Die. Help. Fire. Help. Hell. Help.
The girl's thoughts were an incoherent, frightened plea, a monologue of confused desperation.

Schuyler reached out to Jack, who steadied her.
You are safe, you are safe, you are safe now. Show me where you are. We will find you and bring
you to safety
, she sent, projecting a soothing calmness to the shattered soul.

Help me. Help me. Help me. Kill. Die. Help. Fire. Help. Hell. Help.

Schuyler jerked awake. She opened her eyes.

"You found her?" Jack asked. He was stil holding her tightly.

"Yes. I know where she is." Schuyler picked up the walkie-talkie and described what she saw to the rest of the searchers. A dark cavern by a dry riverbed, a gaping hole in the ground, overhung with moss.

There was a startled cry from Ghedi on the receiving end.

"What's wrong?" she asked. "Where is she?"

"The cavern by the dry river. It's cal ed Hel smouth," he said, his voice rising in panic. "A few miles outside of Florence. I'l meet you there."

Schuyler understood Ghedi's reaction immediately. Maybe this was why the priest had been so pessimistic about MariElena's chances.

"They've taken her to the gate," she told Jack. "Come on, we don't have much time."

ELEVEN

Hellsmouth

Ghedi gave them precise directions, and Jack and Schuyler set off immediately, their
Velox
speed taking them to their destination in a flash of butterfly wings.

If they were taking her to the gate, then they weren't smugglers, Schuyler thought. And if they weren't smugglers, then what were they? What did they want with the girl? Was this what the priest was worried about? What Ghedi had not wanted to tel them until they were "safe"?

They found the dried riverbed, a scarlet, sandy ribbon of patched, scorched earth that led to a dark underground cavern. Just as Schuyler had described, the cavern was covered in moss and half sunken into the earth.

Jack kicked away at the shrubbery blocking the entrance and led the way down. He picked up a stick and lit it with the blue flame.

"Show yourselves!" he cal ed, his voice echoing against the stone wal s.

The cave was dark and smel ed of mold. Was this the entrance to the Gate of Promise? Schuyler could feel a foul, putrid menace in the air as they inched their way down, taking careful steps into the murky blackness.

"Hel smouth. Interesting name, isn't it? The Red Bloods seem to have a knack for naming things without knowing their true significance. But obviously they sensed something here," she said.

"No one is immune to the feeling of power," he replied, his torch sending long rays of light down a seemingly endless tunnel.

Schuyler slipped a little on the wet moss, grabbing on to Jack's arm for balance. She looked around the dark enclosure. Down there, she was surprised to find that the heavy feeling of doom had abated somewhat, replaced by a lonesome melancholy. She walked forward in the darkness, and the feeling grew stronger.

They stopped and looked around the shadowy space, Jack's torch il uminating a rather standard-looking cavern, with moss green rocks and a sandy floor. The cave was littered with the usual teenage detritus: crushed cigarette butts and empty beer bottles.

Something isn't right
, Jack sent.

You feel it too?
Schuyler asked.
What is it?

Then she knew.
It's not here, is it? This isn't the Gate of Promise.

No, this is a mere vapor, a distraction. A cunning illusion.

Hel smouth was nothing but a haunted house, something to scare away the local populace, a distraction from the real menace.

"What do we know about Blue Bloods?" Jack mused.

"That they don't like to make anything easy?" Schuyler said. "That they keep their secrets. They brought peace and art and light to the world. They are a highly civilized people. They built temples and monuments, cities of gold that rise to the heavens," she said, thinking of Paris and how beautiful it was.

"Exactly. Think of the gates we've already found--the Gate of Vengeance under a statue--a sculpture, an icon. The second underneath one of the most beautiful Gothic cathedrals in North America. A vampire would not build a gate in a hole in the ground, a crude cavern in the sand." Jack shook his head.

"No. You're absolutely right. Whoever put this here did so to conceal the gate's true location." Schuyler said. "But if this isn't the gate--then why are the Petruvians guarding it?"

TWELVE

The Symbol

Schuyler paced the rocky floor. How much did they know about the Petruvian Order after al? That first night, Ghedi had asked them to trust him--he had named Lawrence Van Alen as a friend, yet he had never met the man. How much of his story was true? After their month of imprisonment as guests of the Countess, Schuyler chided herself for not being more careful.

"Do you think we might've been wrong about Ghedi?" she asked Jack.

He shook his head. "It is better to trust and face betrayal than to remain skeptical of everything and everybody. Your open heart is a gift. It led you to me, for instance.

"But in this case I don't believe Ghedi played us. The Croatan have no use for Red Bloods. I doubt he has ever set foot in here. If, as I'm guessing, the Petruvian Order was founded by the original gatekeeper, Halcyon would have fol owed a certain standard for dealing with humans. It's common practice, the Conspiracy has done it for hundreds of years. They tel the Red Bloods only as much as they need to know."

They took one more sweep around the dark cavern, and Schuyler noticed something they hadn't seen before, a symbol etched on one of the wal s. It was a triglyph, a symbol in three parts. The first consisted of two interlocking circles, the Blue Bloods' symbol for union; the second was of an animal they couldn't identify. The third symbol was one Schuyler had never seen before: a sword piercing a star.

"It's the archangel's sigil," Jack explained. "The star connotes the angel who bore it. Lucifer. The Morningstar." The Fal en Angel.

Schuyler traced the outline of the triglyph with her fingertips. "Have you ever seen this before?"

"I feel like I have . . . somewhere . . . in the past. I can't remember," he said, studying it as he kept his torch focused on the symbol. "It may be a ward, to keep the spel of doom around this place."

"Somehow I don't think that's it." Schuyler couldn't take her eyes off the triglyph. The symbol had a hypnotic, lul ing effect, which was only broken by the sound of footsteps. "That's Ghedi. Let's not tel him about this until we find out what he knows."

Jack nodded and pointed his torch toward the cave entrance to help guide the way. The priest was breathing heavily when he reached them. "Did you find her?" he asked, looking around nervously.

"No. We should go. If she's not here, we have to let her family know," Jack replied.

Ghedi looked relieved, and they began their upward climb.

"Wait." Schuyler stopped. She'd heard something familiar--a smal silent whimpering in the distance, the sound of muted anguish from one who is suffering. "There." She ran into the deepest recess of the cave, toward a smal crouched figure, bound and shackled in the dark.

"MariElena," Schuyler whispered. She crouched down and put a hand on the girl's brow. Hot. Burning. Hopeful y it was a fever from exposure, and nothing else.

The girl stirred and whimpered again.

The priest crossed himself and knelt down next to her.

"Do you know where you are?" Schuyler asked in Italian.

"In the cavern," MariElena replied without opening her eyes. "Near the dried-up creek."

Jack took off his jacket and put it around the young girl's shoulders. "Do you know why you are here?" he asked.

"They brought me here," she answered dul y.

"Who were they?" Schuyler asked. "What did they do to you?"

In answer, MariElena shuddered involuntarily as if having a seizure.

Schuyler held the girl in her arms and continued to soothe her. "It's al right, it's al right," she whispered. "You're going to be okay. You're safe now."

But the girl only shook her head and shut her lips tight.

"There now," Ghedi said, placing a cool handkerchief on her feverish brow.

Schuyler prodded her with the glom, took the chance to look into the girl's memories. The boyfriend had driven her out of town and into the mountains.

He had taken her straight into the forest. Then there was nothing. Mist and vapor. The girl had woken to find herself bound in the cave.

Jack cut off the bonds and helped the girl to her feet. Schuyler took her right shoulder. The girl staggered and swayed between them, then fel to a faint.

"Here, let me help," Ghedi said, rushing to MariElena's side.

Things happened too quickly after that, because the next thing Schuyler knew, the priest was holding a ivory-handled knife against the girl's throat.

"What are you doing?" Schuyler cried, reaching toward the priest and the girl, as Jack came at them from behind.

"What I am meant to do," Ghedi said, holding the girl, who was now as limp as a rag dol in his arms, the glittering blade pressed at her jugular.

MariElena's thin blouse fluttered against her neck, and as it did, Schuyler caught a glimpse of the triglyph again. This time it was branded on the girl's chest. The interlocking circles. The animal. Lucifer's sigil. It glowed in the dark like a beacon.

Schuyler was focusing on sending a powerful compulsion to stop the priest when she was hit by an unexpected blow that sent her crashing against the stone wal s. It did not come from Ghedi, who looked momentarily confused. It came from someone or something else.

"Schuyler!" Jack's anguished cry echoed through the cavern.

I'm okay
, she wanted to send, but found she could not. She could not move, she could not speak, she was paralyzed in every sense. She struggled to find a way out of her bondage--but this spel was not as easy as Iggy's. There were traces of dark magic in it, forbidden workings that made her bindings as solid as rock.

Unlike the ragtag company of farmers searching for a missing daughter, this was an ambush by a vampire with a vampire's speed and strength.

"Come quietly or your girl wil make a pretty bonfire," the vampire told Jack, holding out Venator rope and motioning for Jack to tie his wrists with it. In his other hand he held a torch burning with the Black Fire.

No!
Schuyler sent, finding her voice in the twilight even though she was stil completely immobilized.

Why are you doing this? Do you work for the Countess?

I don't work for anybody. I'm not in any Coven. This is all for me.

So it had come to this, Schuyler realized. Mimi had placed a bounty on Jack's life, and the vampire was out to col ect.

Please! No! We have money--we can pay you. Let me pay you for his life. Please!
Schuyler sent.

Sorry, missy. But I'm pretty sure you won't be able to pay as much as Mimi Force.

The bounty hunter shuffled up toward Schuyler, and she could see his feral, drawn face hovering over hers.

"I wil come freely. Let her go," Jack declared in a calm, clear voice as he surrendered. The vampire tightened the knots, drawing blood from Jack's wrists. Once Jack was secured, the vampire whispered a few words over the flame, which died down until the torch resembled nothing but a gray chunk of coal. He quickly tucked it into his back pocket.

Ghedi looked uneasily at the renegade vampire, but once he understood that the vampire had no quarrel with him, his face became set as he prepared himself for the ugly task ahead.

MariElena would die.

Jack would be taken.

There was nothing Schuyler could do but scream.

THIRTEEN