Chapter 23
“So, any clue how to get back home? It’s not like there’s a neon exit sign out of this place?” Jasper—now sporting jeans and boots, minus a shirt due to the damage Savannah had done to the poor item of clothing during their first love making session—stalked around, searching for a way out. Despite enjoying his time in this realm thoroughly without the two quack gods running amok, he yearned to return Savannah home. She deserved that much and more.
Her giggle stopped him in his tracks. It washed over him like a summer’s breeze, leaving him light and happy. “Will you stop already? We can’t just waltz out of here. There’s no entrance. No exit, either.” She raised up on her tiptoes to plant a kiss on his cheek.
“But Mantus dragged me here through some sort of tunnel through Hell itself. There has to be a door of sorts.” His fingers raked through his unruly hair. He really needed a haircut before he started to resemble a 1980s rock band lead singer. “There has—”
Her hand popped up against his lips. “It doesn’t work that way.”
“Well, how the hell does it work, then?” He could never be angry at Savannah but her attitude about them being trapped in an alternate dimension was odd. She had no more concern about their predicament than if she was choosing between chocolate or mocha chocolate crunch ice cream. It baffled him. He knew she wanted to get home… Didn’t she?
“Watch and learn, love.”
Her hand reached behind him and pulled out his guardian dagger that he had recently re-secured in its holster at the base of his spine. Without a word or grimace, she carved a symbol into the inside of her lower arm—a funny squiggly that resembled a faucet or a hangman’s noose followed by an intricate majestic bird, a hawk or eagle. Crimson blood welled in the cuts. Her lips began to move silently at first, then a bare whisper. It almost sounded like ancient Egyptian.
No, not Egyptian. Etruscan!
The blood rose from her skin, circled above their heads then flew over to Billy’s body. Once there, it formed a ring around him that grew to the size of a cathedral entrance and began to glow a hot-white light. Savannah grabbed Jasper’s hand and pulled him over to it. He dragged his feet, uncertain about the magical energy. He had a knack for being able to discern good from bad energies, but this… This was mixed.
She turned up her head to gaze at him. Those beautiful eyes questioned his hesitation. A smile lit her face. A smile so innocent and angelic that all doubt fled. “Trust me,” she pleaded. “I won’t allow anything to harm you.”
His lips opened to ask something, but the thought dissipated as quickly as it had risen. He allowed her to pull him through the ring of light. At first it stung like a million bees at once, then everything grew so bright, he squeezed his eyes closed against the onslaught. When he opened them again, all was dark. They were back on the highway through Hell itself.
And they weren’t alone.
***
“Why, welcome, travelers. Long journey?”
The man—no, that was no man—casually eyed them like they were a seven-course meal, and he was ravenous. Perfectly coiffed jet-black hair, flawless pale complexion, dressed like a high fashion model in Milan, and with eyes so deeply crimson they appeared as onyx orbs.
Lucifer.
He was one distraction Jasper didn’t need right now. And he didn’t want Savannah anywhere within the Devil’s grasp. Poor girl had enough to deal with considering her diabolical mother was also… had been… an Etruscan goddess. He had yet to clarify with Savannah exactly what had happened with Manea. Was she gone-gone or just tucked away in a padded cell for the time being?
“Dude.” He stepped in front of Savannah, knowing his presence wouldn’t actually keep her from harm. If the Devil had the inclination, he could snap his fingers and they’d both explode.
Tsking, Lucifer’s face fell into a child’s pout. “Come now, Jasper. We know each other well enough. But it is in poor taste to utilize such slang in reference to me. A simple ‘Hello, buddy’ would suffice.”
“Ah, you’re Lucifer, aren’t you?” Surprisingly, Savannah seemed more intrigued than frightened. She stepped around Jasper with her hand outstretched to the damned devil. She flashed a smile at Jasper. “It’s okay. He doesn’t scare me. I have a feeling he doesn’t have the sense to be scared of me when he should be.”
What?
Had the woman lost her mind? This was the King of Hell, Heaven’s Most Wanted and Loathed Fallen Angel, the top bad guy of all bad guys. Why in hell’s bells would he be afraid of her?
Lucifer strolled closer, taking Savannah’s hand and raising it to his lips. “Delighted, my dear,” he purred. “Absolutely delighted.” His eyes tauntingly flicked up to Jasper. “You have excellent taste, my man.”
Savannah giggled like a schoolgirl.
That broke Jasper’s restraint. “Get the bloody hell away from her!” Grabbing her by the arm, he intended to throw her behind him, but she didn’t move… at all. Either his guardian angel strength was zapped, or she was embodying some serious goddess energy.
Lucifer hooted, his laughter bouncing off the black granite walls of the cavern. “Dear, dear Jasper. You have no idea what you have there… what you are about to unleash onto the world. You would have been better off to leave her cocooned in her mother’s world, locked away from the good humans.” His sickening smile gutted Jasper—somehow, Lucifer was right. His eyes shot over to Savannah, who merely smiled impishly up at him. “You should consider the benefit of leaving her here with me to manage. Besides, there is another woman you care for deeply that desperately needs you right about now. But no, you left her… alone… to deal with my fallen brother and his diabolically handsome minion who just so happens to have the key to unravel her thread by tiny thread.”
A hole the size of the English Channel opened in his gut. Jasper knew exactly who Lucifer was talking about. Greylyn. His best friend and guardian angel protégée. To make up for sacrificing so many in a failed attempt to end her life before it had even started, he had sworn himself to her service as they’d fought demons side by side for centuries. It was his secret… his shame to bear. His one oath for eternity was to protect her, especially from the minion Lucifer spoke of. That monster would be Greylyn’s undoing. He would never allow that.
But he also couldn’t leave Savannah in the clutches of the King of Hell himself.
“Lucifer, we can surely come to terms of an agreement where she”—he motioned to Savannah—“and I can leave this place… safely. You know you need me on the outside to control the Greylyn situation in case things go haywire. Besides, you owe me.” Technically, the deal had been invalidated a long time ago, but he hoped to lure the Devil into passivity, even if just for a moment.
Beautiful, but also strangely wicked, laughter erupted from Savannah. “You made a deal with the Devil? You? The almighty guardian angel? You wallowed in the mud enough to get your hands dirty and now you don’t want to face the music? How pathetic!”
Cold shock washed over Jasper’s body. He stared at the woman he loved… the woman who had rocked his world for hours on end. But there was something strange in her eyes now. Something he had not noticed in that other realm—a wild flame threatening to engulf him and everything in striking distance. And her hair! Her long, normally perfectly white hair now showed dark ebony roots that appeared to continue growing every passing second.
“Honey…” He tentatively stepped closer to her, his hand out as if to ward off the bad vibes rolling off her in waves now. “Savi?”
Her beautiful face grotesquely morphed into a sneer—a familiar sneer. Her gorgeous cornflower blue eyes now held a shimmer like someone had poured molten silver into her eye sockets.
“Manea?” His voice croaked, struggling to speak the heinous name.
A strong hand slapped him hard on the back, nearly toppling him over. “Do not quit your day job, Jasper. A master sleuth, you are not. Took you long enough.”
He was going to vomit on Lucifer’s designer shoes, Jasper just knew it. All the air rushed out of his lungs at once. He had not been physically punched in the gut, but it sure as hell felt like it. How had he not seen it sooner?
Lucifer patted him on the upper back as he hyperventilated. “There, there. It will all turn out just fine. You shall see.”
Jasper reared up and roared—his anguish echoing down the long solid granite rock tunnel. “How’s it going to be all right, you prick?” He swung around with the intention of slugging the Devil, but his fist flew through empty air. Out of the corner of his eye, he witnessed the bastard materialize next to Savannah. “Get away from her,” he growled.
“Seems we are at an impasse. You see, this lovely lady”—he placed his arm around Savannah’s shoulders—“sacrificed her mortality to save your sorry ass.” Lucifer’s other hand reached down and with one finger he tilted her chin upward to look into her face. “Is that not right, my dear?”
She nodded but said nothing, only turned to stare at Jasper with no emotion displayed on her face.
“In doing so, I suspect, the spell she was genetically-coded with—being a demigoddess and all—merged her spirit with what remained of her mother. You failed to notice the change because you were too caught up in fucking her to care.”
Oh, dear God in Heaven! How could he have been so blind?
At first, she had been his sweet, delicious Savannah, but there had been a change over the course of their time in the other realm. It hadn’t affected their lovemaking, only made it fiery and more passionate. Just as they prepared to leave the bizarre realm, she’d grown cold.
What have I done? I was supposed to save her from this fate. Instead, I led her right into it!
Jasper hadn’t felt this ashamed and helpless since he had betrayed his vows as a guardian angel to protect human life. He had committed the ultimate sin, all with the intent of stopping a catastrophe. He had failed Savannah just as badly as he had failed Greylyn all those years ago. Now, it appeared both would pay the price for his failure.
“I know what you are thinking, Jasper. Must I remind you that the road to Hell is paved with the best of intentions? Your heart was in the right place, but your follow-through needs some work.” Lucifer and Savannah doubled over in fits of laughter. “Dear boy,” he stuttered, trying to regain his typical calm composure. “I pity you. But”—he strolled over to stand directly in front of Jasper—“I do have a solution. A bargain.” His eyebrows arched so high they were lost under his hair. “A deal.”
A well of ice-cold water raced through his veins to Jasper’s heart. “No,” he ground out through clenched teeth. “I will never make a deal with you.”
“You mean, you will never make another deal with me?” Lucifer coyly grinned. “That is a shame. I thought with this woman carrying your child and all, you would be more reasonable, but I see I was sadly mistaken.”
Jasper froze, then glanced over Lucifer’s shoulder at Savannah. A self-satisfied smile marred her face. She glanced down at her belly and began to softly rub it in slow circles. When she looked back at him, her lips moved but no sound came out. Still, he heard her loud and clear.
“Surprise… Daddy.”
Everything stopped, frozen in place. There were no sounds, except the hammering of his heart as the truth hit home.
A child. His child. Hell, up until this exact moment, he had thought fathering a child to be impossible for guardians. Regardless of whether or not the child was conceived when Savannah was herself or when she had merged with her evil goddess mother, the child was no doubt his.
“What do you want?” Tears blurred Jasper’s vision as he stretched out his hand to Lucifer, who shook it heartily.
“Nothing too crazy. Nothing you will miss. I will simply keep the little mommy under my watchful care…”
“NO! Over my dead body!” Jasper lunged for the Devil, only to be frozen in place. “You will not get your grubby paws on her!”
Lucifer laughed in his face. “No, no. You misunderstand. Not that your dead body is not a worthy prize. But she can return to the realm of the living if she wishes. She may choose to stay here with me.” He looked around the black granite corridor with boulders scattered all around and steam coming up from crevices in the floor. “Actually, not here. Someplace much nicer. You honestly do not believe I live like this, do you?”
He strolled around Jasper’s immobile body. He even flicked some of the guardian’s hair out of his eyes and tucked a strand behind his ear. “Savannah is no longer… well, Savannah. And never will be again.” He paused to let the words sink in. “There is still a tiny spark of goodness within her. A part that was Savannah the human. But there is too much of Manea controlling her every thought, emotion, and action. She is dangerous to others, to herself, and to that baby. And who knows if the child even has any humanity within him.” He waltzed over to where Savannah stood, her hands rubbing her still-very-flat belly. “I cannot get a reading on the child just yet, therefore I cannot diagnose whether she will have a demigod or a guardian angel hybrid or something else entirely. Regardless, I doubt a traditional labor and delivery in a hospital would be safe… for anyone. However,”—he drawled out the word—“I happen to have excellent medical facilities and medical experts at my disposal. The best in the world, in fact.”
Suddenly, Jasper’s body could move again. He clenched and unclenched his fists, his brain racing with no coherent plan forming to save Savannah and their child. “How will I know she and the child are safe? And what do you want in return?”
Savannah broke out of her haze and stomped over to Jasper. “It’s my child. And I will stay here”—she beamed at Lucifer—“with him. He can provide for my needs and comforts. What can you give me? What could you ever give me but heartache and misery?” She didn’t wait for an answer. Instead, she strolled over to a boulder to sit down, her palms continuously running over her stomach.
“It seems the lady has spoken.”
What Jasper wouldn’t do to smash the politician’s smile off the Devil’s face, but he couldn’t risk him retaliating against his child. “What guarantees do I have that you won’t hurt her or the baby?”
“That all depends on you, dear boy.” Lucifer softly hit him on the bicep as if giving him encouragement. “I know. It is your first rodeo as a daddy. The first time is always the hardest. The worry. The fear. But trust me, it gets better. I have had”—he began to count on his fingers and then ran out—“I lost count of how many children. It is never easy, but you have something special that no one else in this world has ever had in the history of bearing children.”
All of Jasper’s energy had fled. He wanted to slump down onto the hard floor and curl up in a ball to cry until he couldn’t cry anymore. “What. Is. That?”
Another fist to the upper arm, harder this time, and Lucifer answered with glee, “You have me! I am an expert at this father thing. I will gladly show you the ropes, so you do not fail. Or if you decide you want nothing to do with the wee one, I will gladly take over as stepdaddy.”
“Hell. No!”
Biting his lip, Lucifer stared at Jasper for what seemed like an eternity. “How about this? You do your damn job. You know, the one you were supposed to do years ago to stop the fucking prophecy.”
Jasper immediately yelled, “Again, hell no! I won’t kill Greylyn. We both know that dead or alive, the prophecy remains. It will find a way.”
“Of course. That was not what I was saying, anyway.” He flicked an invisible piece of lint off his designer shirt. “Yes, let the guardian live to fulfill her destiny. Help her find the truth. But I want to manipulate the outcome just a wee bit. Honestly, I think you would be happy to collaborate with me on this one.” He paused, waiting on Jasper to argue. When he didn’t, he continued, “You scratch my back on this, and I will ensure your baby-mama and child are one hundred percent healthy and cared for. Once the child is born, if you wish, you can return to claim your progeny. If his mother is not completely insane by that point, you can take her, too.”
“Oh, I will be back… for both of them. You can count on it.” Jasper stuck out his hand.
He’d regret this decision. Hell, he already did. But it wasn’t like he hadn’t made a deal with the Devil before. Hopefully, this one would be his last.