Heaven & Hell, page 16
part #7 of The Gallows Series Series
Sarah had to smile. “That’s so cute, thanks.”
“Okay, well…” Dev turned to Sarah. “Maybe we should go home?”
“Are you okay?” his mother asked.
“I feel a bit… sick.” He shook his head. “I probably just need a sleep.”
His mother reached out and touched his face. “You feel warm.”
“I hadn’t noticed,” he said, with a wry smile.
“You take care of him,” she told Sarah, walking them to the door and saying goodnight.
Sarah wasn’t buying it. She touched Dev’s face. He was warm, but he was always warm. “What’s up?”
“It’s kind of hard to explain.” He winced, squeezing her hand slightly.
“Don’t hold out on me,” she said.
He glanced around, his free hand running through his dark hair. “You know how I see things, sometimes?”
“You see things now?” She knew he picked up some sort of psychic impressions and that he got strange feelings about things. This sounded new.
“Only sometimes,” he said, shrugging. His casual gesture didn’t hide the tension in his body. “Like with that succubus. Or not really. It’s not real like that, or demonic I don’t think. But I know it could be real, or it’s going to be.”
She was starting to get a really bad feeling about whatever he’d seen. “What was it?”
“It sounds crazy, but it’s like magic spills out across town, maybe it goes further, I don’t know. The grass turns black and the sky splits so that it’s partly green. There’s all this weird…”
“The Darklands,” Sarah said. “That’s what you’re seeing.”
“So that’s what fairyland looks like?” He shuddered. “Remind me never to visit.”
“The prophecy,” Sarah said, taking her phone out of her pocket. “You’re seeing it come true.”
“I thought you said that was a gates of hell kind of thing?”
“It was interpreted a few different ways. Hell was only one of the options. Believe me, the Darklands are no walk in the park,” she told him, flipping through her phone book to get to Shaun. Her sullen brother was going to be left a lengthy message if he wasn’t picking up. She dialled and held the phone to her ear.
Shaun picked up in three rings. “Put Dev on.”
“Nice to speak to you too.”
“Put him on. We’re long overdue for a talk.”
Sarah rolled her eyes. “It’ll have to wait. Dev saw something. It’s the prophecy. It’s coming true.”
“Yeah, so? That would be why I’m here protecting the Seelie Princess.”
“Dev doesn’t see these things for no reason, sarcastic-pants. The gates are going to open. The Darklands are coming.”
“Since when does Dev… Shit,” Shaun cursed. “I have to go.”
“Okay well…”
“And I want to talk to Dev. Later. I’m not happy about this uncle thing.” He hung up.
Sarah looked at her phone. “He’s so infuriating.”
Dev smiled. “You miss him really.”
***
Flicky flipped through the notebook, knowing she’d kept it for a reason but not quite ready to admit it out loud. The spell she remembered writing down was one she’d copied without thinking. She’d never expected to have a real use for it. It only related to her demon bond problem very loosely; the problem she’d solved by bonding to a vampire. She’d been quick to take that path, ignoring the fact that she was still going to end up bonded to a demon. Ray was in control of the vampire, but there was still a demon in there. Eventually the two would bond, or the demon would absorb Ray’s soul. There was no third option. Not without magic.
Her phone started to vibrate in her pocket and she sighed, removing it from her pocket. Callum had been texting her that morning, asking her to call him. She’d ignored every one of those messages, not willing to call him only to break up with him. She cringed as she stared at the phone, trying to convince herself to pick up the call. It had to happen sometime.
It might as well be while Ray was sleeping. She looked out into the bright summer’s day as the phone stopped ringing. Without hesitating, she called him back. He picked up quickly.
“We need to talk,” Flicky said, setting the tone before he could apologise or make it obvious that he expected her to apologise.
“He’s a vampire.” He took a breath. “Remember that.”
“What are you talking about?”
“I know.” He paused and she waited patiently for him to speak again. “About you and h-h-him.”
The silence as he waited for her to confirm or deny it made her feel awful. She swallowed, unable to speak.
He went on after a sigh. “I knew. When I helped you.” He took a breath. “To save him.”
She heard the self-defeat in his tone and she felt obliged to defend her actions. How could he have known what would happen before she did? “I didn’t mean for this to happen, Callum. It just did.”
“Just… be careful,” he said, hanging up before she could say anything else.
She put the phone back in her pocket. She got how he could suspect, but she didn’t understand how he’d known. He hadn’t even seemed that upset. She supposed she should be glad about that. She’d never wanted to hurt him.
Sighing, she found the right page in the notebook and re-read the spell. When she’d brought her cousin back from the dead she’d condemned Ray to remaining a vampire. This spell could change that. “For a price,” she murmured. There was always a price. Figuring out what she was willing to pay was going to be the hard part.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Dev walked around to the back gate while Sarah went inside. His hands went into his jeans pockets out of habit, fingers searching blindly for a joint and his lighter. He hadn’t smoked in a long time, but every now and then he regressed, and was left disappointed to remember he’d quit the habit. This time he found something. His right hand brought out a key. He frowned at it, turning it over in his hand. It wasn’t for the house. It was an old-style and the metal was tarnished. “What the…”
He put it back into his pocket and headed for the back gate. The bin needed put out. He could figure the key’s purpose out after he got done with the chore. He pulled the bin out of its usual spot by the gate and dragged it through the grass to the path. The uneven ground made for a bumpy ride. One of the wheels was already cracked from the back and forth every week along the natural path.
He deposited it on the street and spent a few seconds gazing across at the pub. The thought of going over and getting a couple of his old favourite alcopops came and went. He wasn’t that bothered. What he did decide to do was walk across to the shop and get more chocolate for Sarah. It wasn’t until he was walking back that he realised the key in his pocket was for the basement door. He shivered as he thought of it. There had been three keys on the spare set Sarah used to give him. One had gotten him into the house when Sarah was out, the other was for the back door, and the third had let him into the basement, to quell his curiosity about the vampire she had imprisoned. The key also unlocked the cell door, according to Sarah. The vampire had done more than quell his curiosity; it had drained it dry.
Dev walked along the path, removing the key from his pocket as he walked up the steps to the house.
The sound of the vacuum was coming from up the stairs; Sarah had gone into cleaning mode already. He put her stack of chocolate bars down on the phone table and he walked towards the basement door. Nerves made him miss the keyhole the first few times. When the key finally slid into the lock he hesitated to turn it. The memory of being trapped inside a body that wasn’t his own made him freeze up. His hand gripped the handle tightly but refused to turn it.
He had the key for a reason. Did he really want to know what that reason was?
The vacuum stopped. Sarah’s footsteps moved out on to the upstairs landing. “Dev?”
He let go of the handle. “I got chocolate,” he called out, watching the door suspiciously. He didn’t want to touch it again. The key stuck out, but he couldn’t even bring himself to grab it.
“You’re my hero,” she called back, starting to come down the stairs.
Dev glanced her way. He saw her breezy smile and tried to calm himself. There was something down there and he knew it.
Sarah frowned at him. “Something’s wrong. What’s…”
He glanced back at the door to the basement.
She moved forward, turning the handle and letting the door swing inwards.
Dev found his voice as he stared into the darkness. “I found the key. I don’t think we should…”
It was too late. She was already charging down the stairs. He flipped the light switch and stood at the top of the stairs. There was something down there and he wasn’t going to like it. He bit at his nails as he moved into the room.
“I thought you’d forgotten about me,” the guy in the prison cell said, his gaze fixed on Dev’s pregnant fiancé.
Sarah’s eyes were wide as she stared into the cell. She turned to Dev, blinking. “Go back upstairs.”
Dev froze where he was on the last step. “What…”
“I mean it, Dev. Go.” The force in her voice was enough to snap his trance.
He moved quickly, stumbling over himself to get out of the room. He left the door open, looking around the living room for some sort of weapon. Sarah had her sword on her, he thought. The stakes were under the bed. He had her razor, he remembered, taking it out of his pocket.
“Well isn’t that cute,” the eerily familiar voice made him turn away from the basement door. The blond man as usual, looked amused. He moved towards Dev as he stared.
“Who the hell are you anyway?” Dev asked.
“I’m the one who’s going to open the gates.”
***
Sarah wracked her brain as she stared at the unfamiliar face that stared out at her from behind the bars of her private prison cell. She could sense nothing. The man behind those bars was human, or he was Darklands Fey. Her hand dropped to her side but she didn’t unsheathe her sword. If he was human she’d only succeed in murdering him if she attacked him with the weapon. If he was a Darklands fairy she wouldn’t be able to harm him with a physical weapon at all. She folded her arms instead, and settled for watching him closely.
“I knew you would come to your senses,” he told her, arms coming through the bars and attempting to touch her.
She stepped back. Her memory had been messed with. She should know who he was, but she didn’t. There was no way in hell she was letting him know that. She knew she should turn away and walk out of the room before he realised she didn’t know who he was. But then how the hell was she supposed to find out?
“You’re delusional,” she told him.
“And you’ve changed,” he said. “You never let Ben starve like this.”
She smiled wryly at the first clue he’d dropped. “I cared about Ben.”
He laughed, and she knew who he was instantly and with certainty. He’d found a human body to possess, but this was undeniably the demon she’d bonded with.
“Laugh all you want,” she told him. “We won’t be bonded for much longer, War.”
He stared at her. “You can’t break this bond.”
“I can and I will.” She was going to have to bite the bullet and tell her parents, but she didn’t care anymore. Whatever disciplinary action the Council had to take, she’d do what it took to protect her child. “I’m not yours, War. Let go.”
“Never,” he said, his gaze steady.
She moved towards the stairs at a measured pace. She was sure running out of the room screaming would amuse him. That was why she held her breath and walked out of the room slowly. His laughter followed her out of the room. She didn’t fool him and she knew she never would.
***
Dev looked around the twisted place the blond man had dragged him off too. The black grass under his feet was full of neon-coloured insects. The smoggy green sky made his chest constrict. He gasped in a breath once the initial shock of the teleport was over. The blond man was no-where to be seen. He was stuck in this place, without magic, without Sarah…
“Shit,” he murmured, checking his pockets for his phone. One lime-green beetle jumped onto his foot and he kicked it off in fright, sending it flying. He shuddered. “Damn bugs.”
His phone had a low battery and no signal. Typical, he thought, slipping it back into his pocket. He wondered idly if clicking his heels together might work. “Probably not,” he muttered. Still, there had to be something he could do.
“Very funny, man,” he shouted out. “The joke’s over.”
Apparently he wasn’t getting to decide when the joke was over. With a weary sigh, he took a few steps forward. The dark mass to his left seemed to be a forest full of black trees and creepy glow-in-the-dark bugs. He groaned as he used his sleeve to flick a pink caterpillar off of his leg. “Gross me out why don’t you?”
He glanced up as movement caught his attention up ahead. The sight of a blonde girl in grey leather and dark jeans made him breathe a sigh of relief. “Sarah…”
The girl approached with jerky movements, her blue eyes blank. He took a step back and bumped into a tree. A flurry of orange spiders dashed over his t-shirt. He shook them off with a grimace. The sooner he was out of this creepy-crawly hell, the better.
The girl he’d assumed to be Sarah was something vacant wearing her face and clothes. When he touched her leather-clad shoulder he could sense the mind of the animal that had shifted form to emulate her. The mimic wasn’t capable of speech, which he was grateful for. It was creepy enough as it was.
“Go away,” he told it, pushing its shoulders. It stared at him. When it moved away it had begun to change shape. He watched a clone of himself stagger off into the strange night. “God, this is worse than being on mushrooms.”
***
Sarah locked the basement door. She had to get Dev to keep the key away from her. Just until the wedding. Then War would have no affect on her and she could get the Council to deal with his undoubtedly illegal possession of a human body. She tossed the key into the phone table drawer.
“Dev?”
He seemed to have disappeared on her. She hoped he hadn’t freaked out too much. She’d felt his panic as he stood at the bottom of the basement stairs. It wasn’t surprising, considering what had happened to him when he’d gone into her basement before.
She noticed the front door was open just a crack and realised he must have gone outside to get some air. Her assumption was proved wrong the minute she stepped outside. The porch was empty, and she couldn’t see Dev’s tall frame when she looked out across the woods. Birds twittered in the trees around her. Sunlight was piercing through the foliage, making for a view that usually would have lifted her spirits. She went back inside and shut the door.
“Dev!” She yelled, heading for the kitchen and half-expecting to hear a crash as her yell made him drop something breakable. The house was silent, apart from her footsteps. She put a hand on her hip as she entered the kitchen. “Where the hell…” Her muttered question was halted by a loud cracking close to her ear. She fell to the ground, wincing as her aching head connected with the hardwood floor. Her eyes wouldn’t open. The pain was too much to fight. She battled to stay conscious but her body wouldn’t obey. The sound of Ben’s voice was the last thing she heard before she passed out. “Did you miss me?”
***
Dev was wandering around aimlessly, pulling at his hair and cursing under his breath. He stopped every so often to flick a bug off of his clothes; he seemed to be a magnet for the damned things. He got his phone back out and tried dialling Sarah, in spite of the lack of signal. The call wouldn’t connect. He tried texting her instead. The message seemed to send, but he got no reply. Groaning, he wandered around, trying to get a signal. He thought the chance was probably higher the lower his battery got. It seemed to be how these situations worked. He sent a text to Shaun, after a second’s hesitation. The guy was some sort of hero to these fairy folk, after all. He tried a call, unimpressed by the lengthy silence as he waited for it to connect.
When Shaun picked up, he almost dropped the phone.
“Dev.”
“Finally!”
“I can’t talk right…”
“Don’t hang up! I’m trapped in fairy land. You have to help me…”
“You’re what?”
Dev sucked in a breath and stood perfectly still, even as a big ugly electric-blue arachnid crawled up his leg. “I’m trapped here. I don’t know how to get home. Some blond guy…”
“Adrian.” Shaun sighed. “Give me five minutes. I’ll come and find you.”
He hung up and Dev kicked his leg. It only made the giant spider clamber up his thigh. He spun around and the damn thing’s leg brushed the skin on his waist. Fighting back a shriek, he punched the spider’s ample midsection, expecting it to fly off. It burst into greenish-black goo instead, its legs still clutching his upper thigh. He dry-heaved at the stench that erupted from it, grossing himself out more as he pulled each fat spindly leg off of his jeans and threw them into the grass.
“Fucking rank,” he muttered, wondering if the disgusting bug remains on his jeans would even wash off. He decided the jeans were toast. He would rather burn them than wear them again, even if the spider goo did wash off.
Shaun appeared eventually. Dev supposed it had only been a few minutes, but it had felt like forever.
“What happened?” Shaun asked, glancing at the liquid patch on his upper thigh.
“It’s spider goo. I didn’t wet myself, somehow,” Dev explained. “Anyway, I need to get back home. I don’t understand how I got here.”
“Adrian brought you?” Shaun asked. “The blond guy?”
“Well, yeah. I thought he was just… a hallucination or something. He’d been hanging around for a couple of days, but no-one else could see him. I thought he was gone but he came back and brought me to this insect infested circle of hell.”
