Chapter 21
21
All Gates Lead to H ell
E va drank the demon blood.
She actually opened her mouth and swallowed a mouthful of blood that had come from Ash’s veins after he made a sizable cut in his arm right in front of her. And then, of course, she immediately sprayed it everywhere and gagged so hard she almost threw up her breakfast.
At least she didn’t have to worry about diseases—apparently, demons were immune to everything. Yay.
They’d repeated the process. Three more times.
Only her guilt about Ash having to cut himself again when the wound started healing motivated her to keep it down the final time. It was the most disgusting thing she’d ever done.
Strangely, however, the moment she swallowed back the last wave of nausea, a strange sense of satisfaction filled her. Deep inside, the whispers went silent as something shifted on a fundamental level. That questioning, longing, and emptiness went silent, as if it had finally found the answers it sought in a mouthful of iron-tasting hemoglobin straight from a demon’s vein.
Which made no sense whatsoever.
When she shook off the effects and straightened her spine, she felt taller. More powerful. In control and connected to herself for the first time in as long as she could remember.
Damn , she thought, rubbing her temples to clear the bizarre thoughts, apparently demon blood is potent stuff . She supposed she could handle a mild high as long as she didn’t turn into a vampire.
After sufficiently recovering, she grabbed her backpack, coaxed Thelonious back into his carrier—apparently, cats were more demonic than anyone realized, because they could travel through hellgates with no problems—and then followed everyone into Bel’s bedroom, where an intricate design was drawn on the floor.
“Ready?” Bel asked, and they nodded. “Doors are locked?” More nods. “Dishes done?” Nods. “Windows clo—”
Meph shoved him hard. Bel stumbled into the circle and disappeared.
“Oh my god,” Eva breathed, staring at the empty space. “He’s gone.”
“Gates are cool like that.” Meph grinned and stepped into the sigil. He, too, disappeared.
“Oh my god,” she said again. It didn’t seem any less miraculous the second time around.
Raum went next, carrying Thelonious in the carrier, and then she was alone with Asmodeus. Since it was her first time, they would travel together. She hoped it would be her last time too; she wasn’t keen on a repeat of the blood-drinking experience.
Just thinking the word “blood” had her stomach churning. Drinking blood was not sexy. This experience had cured her of any illusions she may have had about that. No sparkly vampires for me, thanks.
“Ready?” Ash asked, and she nodded.
He held out his hand.
She hesitated, staring at his open palm and intuitively sensing this signified something more than just stepping into the sigil with him. This was one of those point-of-no-return moments.
Fuck it , she thought, it’s too late to go back now . She remembered her earlier conviction that ignorance wasn’t bliss and she wouldn’t return to how she’d been before learning all this even if she could.
And then she put her hand in his.
They stepped into the gate together, and the world turned into a vortex, her stomach dropping out the bottom of her.
Blackness . Swirling, swooshing blackness surrounded her as they plummeted through the abyss. And then time froze, and everything went red. Red and black.
The air felt too cold and too hot at the same time. It smelled like a mixture of hot tar and burning plastic. A lightning storm thundered across the red sky. Blackened, thorny vines crept across the ground. Dead, gnarled trees speckled the landscape. In the distance, she could see mountains, rocky and barren. She felt cold, yet her skin was sweating, her blood boiling.
And then, like a hook behind her navel was yanked with sudden force, she was shooting through the void again, this time up instead of down. She never loosened her tight grip on Ash’s hand, and it was only his steady presence that kept her from screaming.
A moment later, they landed hard.
Finally letting go of Ash, she went flying back and would have fallen had his arms not locked around her, pulling her against his chest.
Looking up, she shook her head to dislodge the mass of curls in her eyes and saw the face of the man holding her. His hair was windswept, draped around his shoulders like the softest silk, his dark blue eyes full of concern and so beautiful she lost her breath. His lips, his cheekbones, his brooding dark brows... He was a living, breathing work of art.
“You okay?” he asked.
“What was that place?” Images of the horrible, red-and-black wasteland sent shivers through her.
“Hell.”
Dear god . She certainly hadn’t imagined Hell would be a picnic, but that... She understood their motivation to escape in a whole new way.
“All gates lead to Hell,” Ash explained, helping her regain her balance. “Even using them on Earth, you have to make a stop there along the way.”
“Oh.”
“You were scared.” He frowned. “I should have warned you first.”
“It’s okay—”
“Eva!”
It was her mom’s voice. She jerked around, Ash releasing her, just in time to see Jacqui come bursting into the big barn studio.
Eva raced out of the sigil and threw her arms around her mom, glad to be home.
“Come in, come in,” Jacqueline Gregory said, waving them into the house through a glass patio door.
She was the spitting image of her daughter, though her skin was several shades darker, her eyes brown instead of Eva’s pale gray, and instead of Eva’s wild curls, her hair had been tamed into thin dreadlocks, currently twisted in a knot on top of her head.
“How was your trip? Is that weird to say? I’m not sure how this works exactly.” She wrung her hands. “Have you eaten? I could whip something up. Oh, leave your bags by the door, and you can let Thelonious out. We’ll sort out the sleeping arrangements later. Come in and make yourselves at home.”
“Don’t touch anything,” Ash hissed at Meph as he looked around the house.
There was art everywhere—paintings on the walls, sculptures on the shelves made of metal, stone, and clay. You name it, Meph could break it. Ash had seen it happen.
They stepped into the living room, and all four of them stood transfixed by the view for a moment. It had been a long time since any of them had the opportunity to experience nature, and Jacqui’s house was right in the middle of it. A tall, A-frame window opened onto an ocean view—choppy waves tossed on a rocky shore covered with dark moss and seaweed—and the house was sheltered by tall cedars on either side.
Meph, of course, went right ahead and touched everything anyway. He dropped his bag at the door per Jacqui’s instruction, wandered straight into the expansive living room, and picked up and examined all the art on the shelves.
“Meph—” Ash hissed, just waiting for disaster to strike.
Jacqui appeared behind him with Eva in tow.
“Meph, damn it, put that back—”
“Oh, no, that’s all right.” Jacqui smiled. “Go ahead and touch anything you like. Art is meant to be experienced with the senses.”
Meph spun around with a delicate clay sculpture of a dragon in hand. “This is cool.” He grinned and held it aloft.
Raum, Ash and Bel all winced.
“Thank you,” Jacqui said brightly.
“Meph,” Bel growled, “if you don’t put that down right now, I will fu—” He glanced at Eva’s mom. “I will...” He trailed off, apparently unable to complete a threat without the word “fuck” in it.
“Be angry,” Raum finished for him.
Meph returned the dragon to the shelf, and they breathed a collective sigh of relief.
“Right,” Eva cut in. “Guys, meet my mom, Jacqui. Mom, this is Ash, Bel, Meph, and Raum.”
Poor Jacqui seemed a little shell-shocked. “Wow— Sorry if I’m a little— I can honestly say I never expected to have visitors of your— Well, what you are—”
“Demons?” Meph said, that stupid-ass grin never leaving his face.
“It’s not offensive to call you that?” Jacqui asked, still wringing her hands. “I don’t want to say the wrong thing.”
Raum shrugged, stroking the little gray cat that had jumped back into his arms. “We are what we are.”
“Being offended is for humans,” Meph agreed.
For some reason, Jacqui appeared charmed by the idiot. “You know, that’s probably true.” Then she looked at Ash, and her expression turned calculating. “So this is the mysterious man who has captivated my daughter.”
He shrugged weakly.
Her eyes narrowed. “Hmm.”
“He probably looks boring and ugly to you,” Meph piped up, “but that’s only because he’s cursed.”
It took all Ash’s self-control not to punch him in the face. “Meph—”
“He’s actually a handsome devil.” Meph chuckled at his own joke. “Before he was cursed, he was actually the Prince of Lu—”
“Shut up,” Raum hissed in a low voice. “You don’t tell your girlfriend’s mom you were the Prince of Lust.”
Jacqui was still studying Asmodeus intently. He’d been interrogated by Lucifer himself and never felt this fucking uncomfortable. “He doesn’t look boring or ugly to me,” she said. “Actually, he’s quite striking. Definitely not invisible.”
Everyone stared at her.
“But that’s impossible,” Belial said. “His curse makes it so that any potential sexual partner is completely uninterested—”
“Bel, stop,” Ash groaned. God, he was worse than Meph.
“Well, that explains it right there,” Jacqui said. “I would have to be the world’s worst mother to look at my daughter’s boyfriend as a potential sexual partner.”
Ash put a hand over his face and wished to disappear.
“Oh my god,” Eva said. “I can’t believe we’re having this conversation.”
“Eva, darling, he’s very handsome, and I can’t wait to hear you play music together, but you can rest assured I have no designs on him. I am, after all, a married woman—”
“Mom! Seriously!”
She smiled at Ash when he lifted his head. “It’s nice to meet you. Thank you for keeping my daughter safe.”
He mumbled a response, but it didn’t sound like words.
“He’s shy,” Meph stated, still grinning. “After three thousand years of being invisible, he lost all his people skills.”
“Pretty sure he has better people skills than you, jackass,” Bel shot back. “Do you ever shut up?”
Meph sneered at Belial.
Jacqui smiled at Meph and quickly changed the subject. “I love your tattoos. I’m fascinated by the concept of using the body as a canvas. If I were a braver woman, I might have explored it myself.”
Meph blinked. “Uh... thanks.” It appeared that for the first time ever, he’d been shocked into silence.
“Can I ask you what inspired you to cover your whole body?”
Eva pressed her fingers to her forehead. “Mom—”
“Bel told me it’s an outlet for my self-destructive tendencies,” Meph said, having no filter on what was or wasn’t appropriate to say. “He said I channel my need to harm myself into getting tattoos instead of doing stupid shit that will one day get me killed.”
“That’s not quite how I said it,” Bel grumbled.
“I’m pretty sure that’s exactly what you said.”
“I think that’s beautiful,” Jacqui said. “We all carry a certain amount of darkness inside us. Art in any form is a safe way of expressing and releasing it. There’s no need to feel shame about it.”
Meph nodded. “It helps me. When my skin is full, I think I’ll peel it off and start over again.”
Jacqui’s mouth dropped open.
“Meph, shut the fuck up,” Raum hissed.
He glanced around. “What?”
There was an awkward silence.
Then, Jacqui clapped her hands. “Who’s hungry?”
Dan Gregory stood in the wreckage of his daughter’s apartment and surveyed with cold disinterest the demon writhing in pain within the sigil at his feet. He felt no sympathy, considering he’d had to sweep aside shards of glass and debris to clear space to draw the design. He’d picked up only three energetic trails here—his daughter, Asmodeus, and this fucking demon.
Mishetsumephtai, Hell’s notorious Hunter, thrashed wildly as Dan twisted the end of his sword in the creature’s back. The binding sigil prevented him from turning into mist, and without it, it would’ve been impossible for Dan to catch this powerful demon on his own. Even then, he’d gotten lucky. He’d set the trap, and it had been pure chance that Mishetsumephtai had walked into it.
“Where is she?” Dan growled, twisting the sword again.
The gray-skinned demon’s leathery wings were draped limply over him, his claws digging into the hardwood from the agony. It was no regular weapon that Dan had stabbed into his back. He was quite certain the Hunter would have barely blinked had it been. No, Dan was armed with the only type of weapon really capable of killing a demon.
Unfortunately, he couldn’t kill this one. Mishetsumephtai was on sanctioned duty from Hell, sent to locate four rogue demons. It was against the rules to destroy a demon on an authorized Earth mission, as long as that demon continued to follow the rules during its foray.
Asmodeus, Belial, Mephistopheles, and Raum, however, were fair game.
They were not sanctioned to be on Earth. They were not following the rules. And though it seemed Hell was trying to retrieve them without destroying them—at least for now—they knew very well what Heaven’s response would be were they to get their hands on the rogues.
Dan didn’t give a shit about the rules anymore, really. He had retired years ago when he’d met his wife and hadn’t planned on getting involved again.
That was until Eva had gotten dragged into this somehow.
He fought the urge to shout with frustration. How had she gotten involved? He’d done everything, taken every precaution, to keep her safe from this world, and yet she’d ended up with a Prince of Hell in her apartment. And their energies were commingled, particularly in the bedroom, which was enough to send Dan into a full-blown rage if he thought too hard about it.
“Where is she!” he shouted at Mishetsumephtai, digging the consecrated sword into his spine a little deeper.
“I’ll never tell you,” the crazy demon hissed, laughing between cries of pain as Empyrean light cascaded over his writhing form.
“Why are you loyal to Asmodeus?” Dan spat. “He betrayed you. He escaped from Hell.”
“I have no loyalty to anyone other than my mistress, and I would kill her in a second if I could.”
Dan rolled his eyes. Demons. It was amazing they managed to get anything done when they were so busy stabbing each other in the backs.
“Asmodeus broke the rules,” Dan said. “He must be punished. You of all people should respect that.”
The Hunter’s unbending adherence to the laws followed by demons and angels on Earth was well known, and considering he was usually here collecting rogues and rule breakers, he was one of the few demons Heaven held in relative esteem.
Turning his head, Mishetsumephtai grinned, showcasing a mouth full of pointed teeth. “I am learning how to be a rebel.”
Great. So much for “unbending adherence.” Biting back his frustrated growl, Dan yanked his sword out of the demon’s back. “Why are you protecting him?”
Mishetsumephtai rolled away, crumpled wings folding under his enormous ash-gray body. “I want what he has.” He blinked his eerie yellow eyes slowly as if the confession was as much a revelation to him as it was to Dan.
“What does he have?”
“Freedom. A human pet.”
Dan roared at hearing his daughter being referred to as a “pet” and stabbed the goddamned demon yet again.
“I’ll let you destroy me before I give up Asmodeus and end his fun,” the Hunter hissed through the agony.
“You’re here to take him back to Hell!” Dan shouted, unable to believe he could be facing off yet another defector. What was going on down there? Was the underworld facing some kind of uprising? “ You are here to end his fun!”
“I’ve been watching him.” The demon’s spine arched as another wave of white light cascaded over him. “He doesn’t know. He thinks he’s safe from me, but I know exactly where he is.”
Dan jerked the sword. “Tell me!”
“I’ll never tell.” He laughed maniacally and said in a singsong voice, “I’ll never tell, I’ll never tell!”
Dan’s cell phone began to vibrate in his pocket.
Growling in frustration, he struck the demon upside the head with the flat side of his sword. He collapsed unconscious.
Dan yanked the phone out, hoping it would be Eva. He’d called her over and over last night without her answering, and they’d been playing phone tag ever since.
But it was Jacqui’s number on the screen.
He grimaced. He had no clue how he was going to explain any of this to his wife, but when the time came, he knew it was going to be ugly. His heart ached at the thought of losing her, but it was an all too likely outcome. And he would deserve it, too.
He couldn’t ignore her calls any longer, though he wanted to. She deserved better. “Hey, honey.”
“Dan! I’ve been calling you all morning!”
“I know.” He winced. He should have picked up sooner, but he’d been futilely trying to delay the inevitable.
“Where are you?”
“I’m, um...” He looked around Eva’s apartment. “It’s a long story. Hon, have you heard from Eva?”
“Yes! That’s why I’ve been calling you all morning.”
“You have?”
“Yes! She’s here now.”
He blinked. “She’s... with you?” But her energy was all over the apartment, and it was recent. There was no way she would have had time to fly home between then and now. “But how?”
“She brought her four demon friends, and they traveled through a hellgate.”
Dan stopped breathing.
His heart stopped beating.
Actually, he was pretty sure the Earth stopped turning and everything froze in stasis for a moment, allowing him a second to come to terms with what he’d just heard.
It didn’t help.
“She what ?”
“Yes, so whatever you’re doing, come home now and meet Eva’s friends. I think you’ll love them. Belial is a darling. He helped me make lunch, and he’s an amazing chef! And Meph has incredible body art from head to toe. I’ve never seen anything like it. Raum is a tougher nut to crack. I’ve been trying to get him to open up, but no luck so far. And of course there’s Eva’s new boyfriend. He’s not at all what I expected. I’ve been keeping my eye on him, and let me tell you, I’m not sure he’s all that bad—”
“Jacqui, I’m coming home right now. Take Eva and lock yourselves in my office in the studio. There are wards above the door to keep out intruders, but you need to activate them. You will need to prick the tip of your finger and press a droplet of blood into the center of the—”
“I knew it! I knew you knew about all this! What were you doing with that big spell book in your office?”
Dan fought down a surge of panic. He’d been in such a rush to make sure Eva was safe last night that he’d accidentally left the grimoire in his office.
He’d wanted more time to figure out how he was going to explain everything to Jacqui, but it looked like that was no longer an option.
He’d never wished more than he did right then that he was more of a skilled teleporter because he’d have already shown up back home. As it was, he needed time and silence to concentrate.
“Listen to me,” he said, trying to keep his tone even when he really felt like screaming. “I will explain everything. I promise. But right now, I need you to get away from the demons. Take Eva and get into my office. Activate the ward.”
“There’s no cause for concern, Dan. Eva told me why they escaped Hell, and I think I understand. They’re definitely a little roguish, but I don’t see evil in them. I think they’re just looking for a second chance.”
“Jacqui, they’re demons . They trick people. That’s what they do. You’re not safe.”
“How do you know about all this? Why didn’t you tell me?”
“There isn’t time to explain. Just take Eva and—”
“You know what? I’m going to need more than that. Eva has been honest with me, and so have her demons, and it seems you have not. I’m finding myself less inclined to listen to someone who has obviously been lying about something important for... how long, Dan? How long have you known about this and not told me?”
Dan winced. If he told her the answer to that, she would flip out. No, that was going to be one of the last things he explained. “Jacqui, honey, I need you to trust me.”
“Sorry, but I have to go.” Her voice was flat. She never shouted, but she didn’t have to. He could tell by that tone alone she was pissed. “Belial is washing the dishes by himself, and I’d like to help. I’ll see you when you get home. Love you.”
She hung up on him.
He called her back. She ignored it.
“Damn it!”
A sense of being watched had his gaze returning to the demon trapped on the floor. Mishetsumephtai was regaining consciousness, blinking groggily. “You’ve broken a lot of rules yourself, haven’t you, Watcher?”
Dan stared at him. There was no surprise in those yellow eyes. How much did he know? Did he suspect what Dan’s relationship to Eva was?
If so, then, against the rules or not, Hell’s Hunter had to die.
He scowled at the bloody, trapped demon. “I’ll deal with you later.” Once he made sure Eva was safe, he would find out what Mishetsumephtai knew and deal with him accordingly.
He needed a plan, and he needed to be smart about it. One Dan against four greater demons was not great odds. His best bet, he decided, was to lay traps like he’d done for the Hunter. They would have to be extremely powerful to hold Belial, and they would have to be well hidden to avoid detection by demons that had thousands of years of practice avoiding them.
He struck Mishetsumephtai with the blunt side of his sword again because he needed the quiet to concentrate. When the demon crumpled, Dan closed his eyes and focused, gathering his power.
A moment later, he vanished into thin air amidst swirling winds.
As he disappeared, the last remaining gust teased the chalk line at the edge of the sigil containing the unconscious demon, smudging it slightly.