Chapter 21
Cara
My head is killing me.
It’s the first thought I have when I come to and find myself slung over someone’s back.
Panicking, I wiggle until they put me down, and suddenly everything comes into focus.
Ted… the house of mirrors… and then darkness.
I don’t know how long I’ve been gone from the carnival, but it’s getting dark now.
I must have been unconscious for a while.
Where am I?
I look around and find there’s four of us in total, myself and three guys.
As hard as I try to focus on their faces in the hope of sparking recognition, I can’t.
Not with the pain reverberating through my head.
We’re all in these weird glowing handcuffs, tied together with rough ropes and led by that asshole Ted and his friends.
I don’t really understand what’s going on, and the more I try to, the harder my skull pounds.
So much for a fun, chill day at the carnival.
I should never have gone off with Ted, even as an act.
Clearly, I have shitty taste in men. First Brad and now this guy?
The jury is still out on Lucian. He might be normal if he could just figure out what the fuck he wants, but still, he never beat me or tried to kidnap me, so he’s already winning.
The man who was carrying me looks familiar, but the more I try to force my memory, the worse I feel.
As soon as I stop trying, it hits me.
Isn’t he the owner of the sanctuary? Shit, I think he is.
I glance around at the others handcuffed together, wondering if I might recognize them too, but they don’t look familiar. One of them, an older man with a strange-looking scar on his neck, glares at me like I alone am personally responsible for our current predicament.
I’m just as screwed and confused as you are, buddy.
I step, or more like stumble, a little closer to the only person I vaguely recognize aside from shithead Ted and whisper, “Hey, Cooper, right? You might not remember me, but we met at Happy Hounds Animal Sanctuary. I came in to ask you about caring for a dog.”
Not sure I could have been any more long-winded, but here we are.
“I remember. Cara, right? Call me Coop. How’s the little rascal doing?”
“Not so little, actually.” I smile, thinking about my massive goof at home, but it falls when I glance down at the cuffs on my wrist. “And probably homeless if I can’t get out of this. Any idea why they’ve captured us or where they’re taking us?”
He throws me a weird look, like he can’t tell if I’m joking or not. “They haven’t told you?”
“No, I’ve kind of been down for the count,” I remind him, rubbing at my throbbing temple. “I think I overheard someone talking nonsense about angels and demons and other realms while I was in and out of consciousness. Psychotic break, maybe?”
“Well, actually…”
“No! Not you too.”
“Sorry!” He grimaces but remains silent as one of our captors walks past us. The moment he’s distracted, Coop says, “I know it sounds a little crazy, but I need you to have an open mind here. You’ll need it for what’s to come.”
I laugh, thinking he’s just putting on a bit of a show, but the look on his face tells me he’s being genuine.
Shit. Fuck.
Whatever’s happening right now isn’t a dream.
This is real.
“Fine. Tell me.”
“Those guys…” He motions toward the bad men at the front of the line, the ones holding the chains that tie us together and leading us to God knows where.
“They’re not from here. They come from a different realm.
I guess the best way to describe it is that it’s kind of like the underworld—or hell.
Except instead of the devil running it, the demon king does.
Demons live in the Obsidian City, and there are hellhounds who act as protection for the city and connected gateways. ”
“Oh, is that all?” I say a little maniacally as I stare at him, waiting for any of it to make sense. When he doesn’t continue, I say, “You’re not joking, are you?”
“I’m afraid not.”
So basically, my taste in men is really bad. How the hell did I not notice I was entering the house of mirrors with someone from another fucking realm?
I shake my head, hoping it’ll jumble the pieces enough for any of it to make sense, but all it does is ratchet up the pain. “Say all of that’s true—why would these demons or hellhounds or whatever the fuck they are take me? Or you? We’re just humans.”
He rubs the back of his neck, looking bashful, and I know in that instant that things are even more fucked than I’d realized.
Hesitantly, I ask, “You’re not human, are you?”
“No.” He chuckles lightly, and I hate that it only makes him more endearing. “I’m a hellhound. The others are too. A long time ago, we all escaped from the Obsidian City. Looks like the past is catching up to us.”
He’s a hellhound. The others are hellhounds.
I repeat the words in my mind, hoping the more I say them, the more I’ll believe it. I look at the others, then at Coop. He just looks like a man. No three heads, no poisonous saliva dripping from his extended canines.
“This is a lot,” I say, more to myself than him. I breathe, but it doesn’t feel like I’m getting enough air, and suddenly I’m too hot despite the chilly night air.
“Honestly, you’re doing great, all things considered,” he offers with a smile. I’m about to hyperventilate when he sniffs the air around me. “You’re not taking a class on Mythology are you, with a professor named Lucian?”
His question has me whipping my head toward him. “Yeah… how did you know that?”
Oh God. Is Lucian from another realm, too? Have I been sleeping with a demon? No, no. I’d have noticed if he were some other creature.
Except that’s a lie, and I know it. It’s entirely possible I wouldn’t notice. I don’t want to believe it, but maybe that’s why he’s so cagey sometimes.
Coop’s grin grows even more, and I’m pretty sure if we weren’t in the woods being dragged around by some asshole hellhounds, he’d start laughing. “No reason, just a hunch. You’re surprisingly calm about all this.”
What he doesn’t realize is that, right now, I think that just makes me nuts. “So if you’re here because they want to bring you back, then why am I here?”
The guard walks past us again, returning to the back of the line. All I know about hellhounds is the myths we discussed in class. With our glowing handcuffs and length of rope holding us all together, I’m beginning to wonder how dangerous these creatures are.
When the coast is clear, Cooper whispers, “You’re here because you have angel blood in your veins.”
My feet stop moving, and I’m rooted to the spot as my brain absorbs his words.
I only move again because one of the captors up ahead starts yelling, and I realize I really don’t want to piss these foreign creatures off.
Hellhounds? Demons? Angel blood? “There’s no fucking way,” I mumble.
This has to be a dream, except that despite how many times I pinch myself, I never wake up.
If Coop notices I’m having an existential crisis, he doesn’t comment on it. “It’s minimal, likely a very distant ancestor, but it’s still there. And hellhounds are trained from birth to hunt down and kill any angel who passes through into our realm.”
“Kill?” I gulp. “But I haven’t crossed any realms. I’m just a student.”
He shrugs. “That doesn’t matter to them. Your blood represents everything they’re taught to hate.”
“So they’re just going to drag me across this mystical realm border and kill me because they can? Because of some random blood in my system I didn’t even know existed until right this moment?”
A single nod is all Coop gives me.
Great. Just fucking great.