Toby huddled against the black stone wall of his cell in Hell. He wished he’d thought to bring his backpack with his 3DS and magazines until he remembered why it was better he left it: Rhyn needed the other dosage of Immunity blood if the half-demon wanted to make it to the seventh day after Katie’s death.
“Are you ok?” Ully called from the cell across the narrow hallway.
“I don’t like it here,” Toby said. “It’s really boring.”
“Yeah, I wish I had my portable lab set with me,” Ully agreed. “Or maybe, just my anti-demon skunk spray.”
“It didn’t work very well.”
“It was a work in progress. But I’d like to piss off someone like Darkyn right now.”
“He’d kill you, Ully.”
“He’ll kill me anyway.”
Toby frowned, worried as much about his human charge as his Immortal friends. Even if he wasn’t with Katie, he could sense her. She was in some kind of danger, which meant he was the worst guardian angel in the history of guardian angels.
“I’m such a failure,” he said with a sigh.
“You’re just a baby,” Ully said with a chuckle.
“No, I’m not just a baby! I’m almost full grown. I should’ve done a better job.”
“It’s not your fault, Toby.”
Toby was silent, knowing a normal Immortal could never understand. He didn’t yet have the full power of a real guardian angel, but he should’ve been able to do more than … nothing. Angels were placed with human mothers so they could understand the creatures they were meant to take care of. Human mothers raised them as their own, yet none of his human mothers had gone to the extent Katie did to try to protect him. Her circumstances were unique among all the humans he’d met, even if she wasn’t the greatest mother he’d had. She still tried.
“Maybe I can go work for Death,” he said glumly. “Isn’t that where angels who fail go?”
“That’s what I hear,” Ully said. “You’d rather kill humans than protect them?”
“Not really.”
“I brought you a friend,” a third voice said.
Toby looked up as the familiar demon named Jared passed his cell, trailed by two demons carrying a body with another familiar face.
“Gabriel!” he exclaimed, bounding to his cell door. “Gabriel!”
His long time friend, the assassin, was bloodied and unconscious. The demons tossed Gabriel’s body into a dark cell two down from Ully’s before they left.
“Hello, my Immortal Twinkies,” Jared said, his slender form pausing in the hallway between them. A slow smile slid across his face, revealing pointed teeth.
“I remember you,” Toby said. “You’re Rhyn’s friend.”
“Friend, no. Formerly indebted to him for my life, yes.”
“What’re you doing here in Hell?”
“There’s a saying, better to serve in Hell than get your head split open somewhere else.”
“That doesn’t sound right,” Toby said.
“He’s messing with you,” Ully said.
“Maybe you can help us leave!” Toby said, his excitement growing.
“I’ll get right on that,” Jared said and rolled his eyes. “Or I could stay right here and watch Darkyn pull you limb from limb. That’s my idea of a good time.”
“He can’t leave, Toby,” Ully added. “He’s stuck here unless Darkyn lets him go. I heard the demons talking about it when I was in the lab. Jared is a glorified prisoner.”
“That’s not entirely accurate,” the demon said with some irritation. “I’m allowed to roam the fortress.”
“When you’re escorted, you can. I have more freedom than you when I’m not in this cell.”
“I’ll be happy when Darkyn orders your death. I plan on eating every part of you, down to your bones,” Jared snapped and bared his teeth.
“Ully has skunk blood, and I’m an angel. You’d gag to death first,” Toby said and giggled at the look that crossed the demon’s face. “I can almost pull a portal, with someone’s help. I could get all of us out of here.”
“You’re too little,” Jared said. “Immortals can’t portal out of here anyway. Only demons can.”
“I’m not a normal Immortal,” Toby cried. “I’m an angel! I can do whatever I have to save my human.”
“That is true,” Ully said. “But I think you have the same limits as other Immortals?”
“Maybe,” Toby muttered.
Though scowling, Jared was listening. He hadn’t left them, and Toby’s hopes rose again. Rhyn had liked this demon for some reason, and because of that, Toby trusted the flawed half-demon as much as he did Gabriel.
“You’re not strong enough to take us all with you,” Jared said at last. “And I won’t be left behind.”
“I can take me and Ully and you and Gabe,” Toby replied. “It’ll be hard, but I can do it, with Ully’s help.”
“That’s four. You’d be pushing it with five.”
“Five?” Toby asked. “Why would I need to take five of us?”
Ully sighed. “Because Darkyn replaced Gabe and someone else with shapeshifting demons.”
“There’s another Immortal down here?”
“Not Immortal, human,” Jared answered. “You couldn’t take us all, and I’m certain I’d be the one who’s left behind. Humans take priority to you angels. No, sweetmeats, I won’t help you escape.” With that, the demon left.
“Ully, who is it?” Toby asked. He gripped the bars of his cell and pressed his face against them, trying to see into the neighboring cells.
“Fuck!” Gabriel’s furious curse made Toby jump.
Toby looked his direction the best he could through the bars of his cell and saw the walls around the dark cell shake.
“Gabe!” he called. “Are you okay?”
“Toby? What’re you doing in Hell?”
“Darkyn found me.”
The death-dealer issued another string of curses.
“Where’s Mama?”
“Stuck in the Immortal underworld.”
“Gabe, she can’t stay there! Death will find her!”
“Katie’s alive?” Ully asked. “That’s why Darkyn had me clone you, so he could get to her.”
“Clone?” Gabriel echoed.
“Shapeshifter demon.”
“And he’s with her now.”
“She’s safe, I think. Darkyn wants her as a hostage, just in case,” Ully whispered.
“Gabe, what’re you saying?” Toby asked, listening with increasing panic. “Mama’s been caught by a demon? Why?”
“I don’t know, but we need to get out of here,” Gabriel answered.
“A human in the Immortal world doesn’t stand much of a chance,” Ully said.
“You think I don’t know that?” Gabe snarled. “I defied Death to rescue her. Played right into Darkyn’s hands. I’m a fucking fool!”
“You couldn’t have known,” Ully said. “But if she stays with the demon, who knows what Darkyn’s plan is. And if she runs …”
“She’s dead-dead,” Gabe finished.
“Gabe, get us out of here! I have to help her!” Toby shouted. “Where’s Rhyn? He’ll save us!”
“Calm down, Toby,” the death-dealer said. “Right now, there’s nothing we can do. Let me think in peace.”
Toby’s heart somersaulted in his breast, and he tried hard to reach the depths of the powers that would be his when he was just a little older. He couldn’t. He was trapped, useless, unable to help the woman he was assigned to guard. Tears of frustration blurred his vision. Ully smiled gently at him from across the hall.
“We’ll think of something, Toby,” the mad scientist said. “Okay? Don’t panic. We’ll figure something out.”
***
The phantom stayed with Katie throughout the night and into the first light of morning. Katie didn’t sleep, not with the creepy phantom and no sign of Gabriel. She huddled in the hollow of the tree by the lake, praying for Gabe to reappear.
Find Rhyn now. The same voice that got her into this mess and told her to drown herself had given her this reminder twice. Katie sensed she wasn’t safe where she was, but she didn’t want to travel without Gabriel.
Midmorning warmed the world around her, and she rose finally. The phantom disappeared. Katie turned towards the lake and drew a deep breath. She would find her way back to Rhyn.
“This way,” Gabriel’s voice startled her.
She turned to see him motion her towards the jungle surrounding the lake. His clothing was torn, and blood stained his skin. He appeared to have been running; his boots were covered in mud that had splashed to his thighs, and his face was flushed.
“Gabe!” she exclaimed. “Are you okay?”
“I’ll survive,” he replied. “C’mon. We’re not out of danger yet.”
“I did as you said and kept to the stream. I saw him again.”
“Who?”
“Andre.”
“Andre’s dead-dead.”
She sighed and followed him, almost too exhausted to argue. The odd sense of someone following – a sign she now knew was the phantom trailing them - returned. Andre’s specter appeared to her right, keeping pace silently with her.
“You don’t see him?” she tried one last time.
“No.”
The specter pointed back towards the lake. Katie slowed and watched Gabriel continue onward. She’d liked Andre above any of the Council members, but his insistence that she go in the direction opposite of which she was headed puzzled her. If he was dead-dead, what creature wanted her to go elsewhere and why? If he wasn’t dead-dead, why didn’t he speak to her?
“Gabe, where do Immortals go when they die?” she asked.
“Same place as mortals.”
“Then what’s the difference between mortals and Immortals?”
“Mortals can be killed by anyone. Immortals can only be killed by other Immortals or demons. It’s part of the Immortal Code.”
“How many rules are in the Immortal Code?”
“More than I can count.”
“Hundreds? Thousands?” she prodded.
“More.”
“Then how do you know if you’re breaking them?”
“Immortals have an eternity to learn the rules,” he pointed out.
“Do demons have Immortal Codes?”
“Why do you ask?” he asked and turned suddenly.
“Just curious.”
Gabe studied her then allowed a small smile to cross his features. It was a hollow smile, and she wondered if Death was on his mind again.
“Yes, they do,” he said and turned to begin walking away. “There are ten.”
“And the Immortals have thousands,” she said. She swiped at a branch that snaked in front of her. “Do demons have to pretend to respect a human’s free will like Immortals do?”
“No. Mortals are like … candy to demons. Demons don’t need them, but they taste good.”
Katie almost laughed at the oddity of his words. He didn’t seem to be joking, but she couldn’t see his face to tell one way or another.
“And some rules are too old even for the Ancients to know,” she repeated his words from earlier.
“That’s correct.”
They subsided into silence, and the gravity of her situation hedged in on her again. She liked talking to Gabe. He took her mind off her own issues and the creepy forest. And the phantom keeping pace with them. Katie looked over at Andre again. The phantom seemed content, neither interfering nor trying to communicate with her.
“So … is it possible for a dead-dead Immortal to come back to life?” she asked.
Andre shook his head even before Gabriel spoke.
“Not that I know of,” the assassin said. “Though I guess if Death doesn’t find their soul like she can’t find yours, they can just … linger.”
“That’d be interesting. But you said she does know where we are.”
Gabe’s step faltered, and he tripped for the first time since he’d led them into the forest. Katie’s gaze went from Andre to the death-dealer.
“I wonder what she’s planning,” Gabe said.
“If she’d tell anyone, it’d be you.”
“She’d never give me the time of the day. She barely even makes time for Darkyn.”
“Why would she? Darkyn isn’t a deity, right?”
“He is not, but he is a warrior worthy of her attention in battle. The Immortals always say, at least they understand Darkyn. No one can predict Death. No one even sees her, unless they die-dead.”
“It must be a lonely existence for her,” she said, puzzled as to why he’d speak more highly of Darkyn than he had of Death.
“Loneliness is not something a deity can feel. Only humans and Immortals.”
“I’m sure she felt something for you, Gabriel. A woman doesn’t take a man to her bed for thousands of years and not feel something for him.”
“Interesting idea.”
Katie frowned. In the course of a day, Gabe had gone from emotional to unaffected when discussing Death. He was distracted, and she felt like she was talking to someone completely different. Blaming herself for taking his mind off of their survival, she fell silent and followed him.
Briars and branches caught her pant legs, and she found herself slowing to push more and more of the jungle’s flora out of the way. Gabe, too, began to struggle with the bramble, and she noticed the jungle no longer laid their path before him. Instead of clearing away to allow them passage, it stayed where it was, obstructing them.
“Gabe, are you sure this is the right way?” she asked finally, tired of wrestling with branches.
“I’m more likely to know than you, mortal.” There was frustration in his voice as well, and he was sweating hard ahead of her.
“Where are we going anyway?”
“Death’s palace.”
“Are you serious?” she demanded. “Why? Won’t she – “
“She has a portal in her palace. It’s the only way out.”
“But I thought -”
“It should be this way. Unless Death is fucking with me.”
Or you’re lost. The familiar voice – Death’s voice – made Katie stop. She watched Gabe hack down another slithering branch. The Andre phantom stood nearby. He pointed in a different direction once more.
“Maybe it’s that way?” Katie asked, pointing in the same direction.
Gabe cast an irritated look over his shoulder but looked where she indicated. He lowered the sword he was using to hack through the brush and started in that direction. Katie watched as the forest cleared a path for him, the way it had before.
“I’m starting to worry about you, Gabe,” she said. “I thought you knew your way around here.”
“It’s Death,” he said. “She can do whatever she wants in her domain.” He breezed past her.
Katie drew a deep breath before following. Gabe was more than distracted. Something was wrong, but she had no idea of knowing what. At least he’d told her their destination.
She followed quietly for the rest of the day. The phantom and the strange exchange with Gabe troubled her. She didn’t know her way around the Immortal underworld; she could only hope they were headed in the right direction again. Straight to Death. If what Gabe said was true, he was taking her to the only way out of the underworld. And yet, she feared what that would mean. Was she supposed to reason with Death? Plead for her life? Sneak into Death’s palace, when Death already knew where they were and where they went?
Fatigue kept most of the thoughts from gaining traction, and they melted away like much of her dreams did. Gabe stopped at sunset, as darkness settled into the jungle. Katie watched him set up a small fire.
“Aren’t you going to scout around first like you do every night?” she asked. “Or are we safe?”
His movements paused then continued. “We’re safe.”
The Andre phantom stood behind Gabriel, pointing again for her to leave.
“You’re certain?” she asked.
“I know the Immortal world better than you, mortal.”
“You didn’t sense the demons earlier. I had to tell you.”
Gabriel glanced at her and straightened. He handed her more food and water cubes then motioned for her to seat herself by the fire.
“You need rest,” he said. “I’ll be back.”
Katie rolled her eyes at the gummy cubes before popping several into her mouth. The Andre phantom settled on the opposite side of the fire from her, mirroring her cross-legged position.
“You gonna say anything?” she challenged.
It didn’t, though it did motion to her belt. She looked down at the knife Gabriel had given her. Uncertain, she offered it to the phantom, who shook its head. He motioned to the knife then looked around them.
“You think I’m in danger?” she asked.
It nodded.
“Andre, are you really dead? Or a ghost?”
A faint smile, the first sign of human emotion, crossed its face. It pointed to her other hand – the one holding food cubes - then to the trees.
“Oh, no. Gabe said not to,” she said, frowning.
“Gabe said not to what?” the death-dealer asked as he stepped back into the small camp.
“Nothing.”
“Who were you talking to?”
“Andre.”
The assassin shook his head and crouched near her, warming his hands by the fire.
“Gabe, how much farther do we have?” she asked again with a sigh.
“Not far. I saw the palace when I climbed a tree. Maybe a day or so.”
“I really miss Rhyn right now,” she murmured. “He’d have a way of keeping my mind off of things. I think the demon side of him makes him a better Immortal than people like Kris.”
“Demons are superior to Immortals,” Gabe agreed. “Maybe the half-breed’s demon blood hasn’t weakened him as much as it could.”
Katie looked at him, expecting him to be joking. He didn’t seem to be. She finally allowed herself to admit something about the man helping to save her life: He was acting really strange. Katie stretched out by the fire, exhausted. Gabe leaned across her to grab the bag with his weapons’ polishing supplies. A necklace with two emeralds – identical to the one he’d given her to wear – dangled above her.
“I thought you only had one of those,” she said and pointed to his neck as he straightened.
He froze again and looked at her hard then shrugged.
“Whose souls are on that one?” she asked.
“My family’s.”
“Interesting. Can I have it?”
Gabriel gave her a harried look, one that said his patience was at an end. He withdrew a dagger and sliced it free of his neck then tossed it to her. She caught it. He rifled through his bag and prepared a dagger to sharpen.
“You’re not going to threaten me about losing this one?” she asked after a pause.
“Don’t lose it,” he said.
She studied him, not understanding why the necklace with his family’s souls was worth killing her for one day and not a concern the next. The one he’d given her was tucked safely against her skin.
“I think you should get some sleep,” he added. “We might have to fight our way into the palace tomorrow.”
Katie almost protested his abrupt dismissal then rolled so her back was to the fire. Something was really off about Gabe. She fingered the gems on the new necklace. Although they were the same shape, they were lighter, like comparing plastic beads to glass ones. The leather-like necklace itself contained the stiffness of something new, rather than the well-worn suppleness of the one around her neck.
It felt fake. Her sense of danger grew more heightened at the thought that something had happened between the time Gabe originally gave her his necklace and now.
Ully. She recalled how a demon in Kris’s castle had taken on Ully’s appearance, down to his goofy grin. The guise had been almost perfect, except for Ully’s hands, which had been bony with sharpened nails rather than Ully’s human hands. She was about to roll over and check Gabriel’s hands when she recalled he always wore gloves.
“Gabe?” she said.
He sighed in frustration.
“Do you think my son will have Rhyn’s powers?”
“He might have some of them. I don’t know what your human blood will do, dilute or enhance his abilities.”
She squeezed her eyes closed at his response. The real Gabriel had been the one to tell her that the child she carried was a girl.
“I guess we have to wait and see,” she forced herself to say and added silently, I hope you’re safe, Gabriel, wherever you are.
Part of her desperately tried to make excuses for Gabe. Maybe he was fatigued or Death had done something to him. She debated what to do. She knew where Gabe was allegedly taking her, but she couldn’t outrun or fight a demon or an assassin or anything else chasing her through the underworld. She’d need help.
She squinted into the jungle, trying to see Andre again. This time, he wasn’t there.