Reap & Repent (33 page)

Deacon crossed over to the bed and stripped the sheets and coverings from it. He grasped the drapes hanging from its four posters and ripped them free, too. After gathering every strip of cloth he could find in the suite, he knotted them together into a rope and secured it to the balcony. He flung the bulky makeshift length over the edge. If he couldn’t flash out of here, he’d find another way. He wasn’t going to stay in this room for one more minute. He was going to break free before all hell broke loose.

* * *

Nate set up his spell once again on the black marble floor and began reciting his incantations. Ruth and Kylen looked on expectantly. They had to figure out a way to narrow down their search. They couldn’t exactly go from balcony to balcony. For all they knew, the balconies could go on to infinity.

Nate swirled the water with his hand and watched as the surface cleared.

“Well?” Ruth asked, scanning the perimeter.

He sucked in a deep breath before speaking. “He’s made a rope of sheets and bedding. It’s thrown over the side of his balcony. We should be able to see it.”

“Do you see Deacon?”

“Yes, but he’s not going to be there much longer. We need to move, now!”

They scanned left and right but didn’t see the colorful rope hanging from any of the balconies in sight.

“Which way?” Nate asked, as he finished gathering his things and stuffing them back into his pack.

“Nate, take Ruth and go to the right. Flash to the farthest balcony you can see, and I’ll go left and do the same. Repeat until we find him.”

“How can we flash here, Kylen? How can it be consecrated?” Ruth asked.

“Oh, it’s consecrated. Just not to the God you’ve been praying to. Besides, Nate can flash from unconsecrated ground, yes? And I… Let’s just say I’m pretty sure they haven’t pulled my membership just yet or we wouldn’t have made it this far. I would suggest we hurry.”

Kylen pulled his white shirt off over his head and ripped it down the middle. He tied the two ends together and wrapped them around the balcony railings.

“So we can find our way back,” he said, securing them tightly. “If you find Deacon, flash back here. If you don’t find him, but you make it all the way around without seeing him, stay put until we can rendezvous. Then we’ll move on to Plan B.”

“Do we have a Plan B?” Nate asked, snugging his backpack straps up tightly.

“Not yet. Let’s go.”

Kylen disappeared before their eyes. Ruth took Nate’s hand and together they flashed to the farthest balcony she could see. The suite was dark when they landed. There was no door but the red light from below cast an eerie glow a few feet into the interior. They didn’t dare venture in any farther. Ruth cast her eyes to
the right. Nothing. No rope. She looked at Nate and closed her eyes, and they flashed again. They flashed at least a dozen more times when they landed hard on yet another balcony. Ruth’s ankle twisted, and she crumpled into a heap. Nate was bending to help her, when he suddenly did a double take.

“Look, about ten balconies down! There it is,” he said, pointing the way.

“Oh, thank God!” Thunder rolled in the distance. Ruth gave Nate a questioning look but jumped to her feet. “Let’s go!”

They flashed to the balcony where the rope dangled.

* * *

“Deacon!” Ruth yelled, running into the suite. “Deacon!”

Deacon turned to find Ruth standing in the middle of the living area. She was covered in a fine red dust, her hair wild and backlit with red light. Nate stood behind her on the balcony.

What fresh hell is this?
he thought, facing them both.

Of course this would be the next temptation—the promise of escape, of being with Ruth again. Camael must have seen the rope hanging from his balcony.

So close!

He couldn’t see what lay beyond the rope, but he was willing to take his chances and at least try to swing to the next balcony. Maybe he’d be able to flash from another cell. Anything but stay here another minute. Ruth advanced toward him, and he drew the shiv from its sheath, keeping his hand behind his back. How
many more demons was he going to have to kill before Camael stopped sending them?

Obviously they were disposable.

“
Hurry,
we came to help you. Nate’s here and Kylen is still looking for you, but he’ll probably find us soon!” She ran to throw her arms around him. She felt so good. She even smelled like Ruth.

All the right things. But of course, Kara had seemed right, too.

At first.

He didn’t embrace her. He stepped back instead, not wanting to be cornered. The one that looked like Nate lingered on the balcony, eyes affixed to the horizon. “Hurry up, Ruth, let’s get back,” he said, pulling up the rope.

“Deacon, let’s go. We need to hurry. No one knows what we’re up to yet. Let’s keep it that way,” she said, reaching for him.

“I’m not going anywhere with you, Demon.” Deacon sliced the knife around in a wide arc and slashed it across the side of her neck.

“Deacon, NO!” Nate yelled, spanning the distance between them. He tackled Deacon, and the two of them rolled across the floor in a struggle. The knife slid out of Deacon’s hand and skittered under the bed. Nate punched and swung at him until he stopped fighting, and then he pulled back to help Ruth.

“Shit, Deacon, what’s wrong with you? Ruth, Ruth!”

Blood spurted out the side of her neck to the beat of her heart. Her eyes were wide and shiny with tears, and her skin was changing color before their eyes
to a ghostly white. Nate put pressure over the wound and began to summon what energy he could muster, trying to push it into Ruth.

Deacon looked on in horror as he began to realize that they weren’t demons. They weren’t temptations sent for him. They were
real.
They’d come to save him, and he’d maybe killed the one woman in the world he loved.

He reached for her, but Nate growled at him and sent him away.

Deacon refused to watch Ruth bleed out in Hell’s penthouse. He would save her, no matter what it took.

* * *

A noise on the balcony drew his attention.

Kylen?

He had no idea how they’d found him. And what the hell were they doing with the demon Kylen?

“What the fuck happened?” Kylen asked, joining Nate at Ruth’s side.

“That asshole cut her carotid artery. That’s what happened.”

“I thought you were demons. I… They’ve been trying to tempt me.” His voice faltered, and he bent at the waist, grabbing hold of his knees in anguish. “I thought you were another temptation.” He lurched forward, trying to draw closer to her. “Ruth, I’m so sorry. I didn’t know. I didn’t know.”

Kylen placed his hand over Nate’s, and together they generated a bright green glow that lit up Nate’s entire arm and curled around Ruth’s head and neck. Nate continued to add what energy he could summon. Ruth’s eyes rolled back in her head and her body convulsed once, then again. She went rigid before
collapsing in Nate’s arms. Nate pulled his hand back from her neck wound. The bleeding had stopped, but Ruth was unconscious. He carefully laid her down on the bare floor before looking up at Kylen. “Now what, genius?”

“Now, we get the hell out of Hell.” Kylen stood and turned to look at Deacon.

“Are you solid or do we need to worry about you stabbing one of us again?” he asked, staring him in the eyes.

Deacon quickly realized his mistake. This wasn’t the demon Kylen, this was just Kylen.

“I’m sorry. I can’t… I …” He broke off.

Ruth opened her eyes with great effort and looked up at him.

“Deacon,” she said weakly, smiling at him as if she’d just realized he was in the room.

“Let’s get out of here,” Kylen said. “No time for more happy juice until we’re safe. She’ll live if we can get her home and heal her.” He looked at Deacon. “You coming or what? We didn’t make this trip for laughs, asshole.”

“I can’t flash. There’s some barrier. I’ve tried at least a hundred times.”

“Well, you haven’t tried it with Nate here. You’re too…affiliated with Team Light now. Now get out here, and let’s blow this joint,” Kylen said.

Nate bent to scoop Ruth up in his arms.

The four of them stood on the balcony together. Nate held Ruth as Deacon and Kylen each took one of her hands. “We need out of here now, Nate. Not back
to the portal but all the way home. We don’t have time to dicker with the guard or the crossroads demon. We need a straight shot,” Kylen said, staring at Nate.

“I can’t do that,” Nate said, gaping back at him.

“Do you want Ruth to die here tonight?”

“Of course not,” Nate said, confused.

“Nate, you’re the only one of us with an aura of your very own and a downy white soul. You’re the most alive of any of us, so you have the loosest tie to the afterlife.
And
you can flash from anywhere. You’re going to be the one who gets us back, or we don’t get back at all. Now get your mojo on and take us home.”

* * *

Nate looked down at Ruth and could feel her life force ebbing away. He was not going to lose her. Not now. Not here. Closing his eyes, he cleared his mind of everything, erasing the desperate cries from the abyss, the red fog, the rolling thunder crashing ever closer, and picturing them home in Ruth’s house, the four of them. Safe.

There was no room for doubt. No room for error. He closed his eyes and summoned every god and goddess he and his coven had ever prayed to—the old and the new alike—for strength.

A warmth began to overtake him and radiated from him. His entire body tingled and his skin prickled as every hair follicle became a sharp pin stick. Suddenly, he was being pulled up and up and up, sweeping through the long, dark
tunnels. The air grew cooler and lighter as they rushed along, and when he opened his eyes they had miraculously landed in Ruth’s living room once again.

He fell to his knees with Ruth in his arms, her eyes closed once again. She’d lost so much blood. Deacon silently took her from his arms, and Kylen led him into the makeshift setup in her junk room.

After taking a moment to recover, Nate raced to the refrigerator and retrieved the O-negative blood he’d brought from the hospital in case he’d need it for Kylen.

“Warm the blood to her body temp…carefully,” Nate commanded, passing the bag to Deacon.

He held the bag in his hands and pulsed an orange glow through it before handing it back to Nate. Kylen stood waiting as Nate began to administer the transfusion to Ruth.

The three of them surrounded her, laying their hands on her limp body. Without a word, they all summoned what remaining energy they could produce, pushing their bright green light into Ruth.

The last thing Nate did was close the circle of protection around them, and then they all lay like loyal dogs around the floor of her bed, praying she would wake.

Chapter Thirty-Eight

Ruth smelled bacon. And coffee. Pretty much her two favorite things to wake up to these days. Oh, and maybe Deacon. He was pretty okay to wake up to, as well. She rolled over on her side and reached across the bed for him. Instead, her hand slipped off the edge and into thin air. She kicked a foot out in the other direction only to find the same thing. Thin air.

Confused, she opened her eyes, squinting into the sunlight that was streaming in through the window. She was disoriented. This was the junk room. Okaaaay. More confusion.

She sat up too quickly, and her head went swimmy. She was yet again hooked up to an IV. This time an empty blood bag was attached to one side and the IV was attached to the other. This was getting real old.

“Deacon?” she called out. Within seconds, Deacon, Nate and Kylen all appeared by her side. She lay back, staring up at them in confusion.

“Thank God,” Deacon said, leaning down to kiss her forehead.

“Thank Nate.” Kylen gave her foot a squeeze. “He’s the one who got us home.”

* * *

Deacon gave Nate a nod. He had thanked him. Repeatedly. It would never be enough. His unusual combination of humanity and supernatural ability was the only thing that had gotten them
out
of Hell. Not only had he rescued them all from Deacon’s Hell cell, he’d also managed, yet again, to save Ruth. The guy really
was magic. None of them knew what he was capable of, least of all Nate, but all of them owed him big-time.

Deacon knew one thing: Nate was much more than a healer and a babysitter for them. He was special in ways that were going to be put to the test in the coming weeks.

Ruth had been out for days. Deacon and the others had regained their strength quickly, but they’d continued to pour healing energy into Ruth several times a day. Deacon had traveled to Purgatory to demand an audience with Grim, who had finally and officially been installed as the Chief of Powers, but not in time to stop Camael from setting dozens of demons loose on Earth.

Grim and Deacon had managed to close the St. Agnes portal before the dozens became hundreds, but the damage had been done. It would take them all months to hunt down all the demons and dispatch them. In the meantime, there were so many souls at risk.

Deacon even found it in his heart to soften a bit toward Rashnu after he discovered the protective gift he’d tricked Ruth into drinking. Without that potion, she wouldn’t have survived the trip back from Hell. He still wasn’t sure he could trust the bastard, but he owed him now, and he doubted Rashnu would let him forget it.

Nate removed the two IVs and Deacon pushed a jolt of green energy into the wounds on both arms. Ruth’s skin healed over immediately, the slight bruises disappearing. He smiled down at her, and then shot the other men a look. They both nodded and headed back into the kitchen.

Deacon pulled a chair up beside her bed and took her hand in his, rubbing the smooth palm against his stubble-covered jaw, then kissing it. He laid his head on her chest, and she stroked his hair.

“I’m so sorry, Ruth. So sorry.”

“Shh. It’s okay, Deacon. See, I’m fine. That’s the good thing about us reapers—we’re hard to kill.” She laughed. “Maybe we need a secret code next time so we can be sure we are who we say we are.”

“Maybe so—any suggestions?” he asked, kissing each finger on her hand.