Execution (The Divine Book 6) (7 page)

I changed my clothes into a sharper, more expensive looking suit.
 

"You're up," I said as we climbed from the car.

She took my hand, leading me through the crowd to the front of the line. The bouncers wouldn't see her as Divine. To them, she was as human as anyone else in the cue, except that she was important.

"Is Damien here?" she asked. I could hear people on the line bitching about me getting to cut in because I had a "hot chick" with me.

"Alyx. It's been a while. Who's your friend?"

"This is Baylor. One of Espanto's newest acquisitions. He's just here to help me carry."

"Sure. Sure." The bouncer stepped aside. "Damien is backstage. If you'd come a couple of hours later, you would have missed him."

"Thanks, Ronnie," Alyx said, guiding me past the heavies. The other guests were still complaining, and I could hear Ronnie tell them to stuff it as we moved through a foyer and out into the club.

I wanted to ignore the fact that I was in a strip joint. I wanted to pretend I was somewhere a little more clandestine, like a library. It was tough to do when the girls were everywhere. Cleaning tables, carrying trays, tending the bar. They were all dressed in something slinky, and most of it was either topless or transparent. I could feel my face burning, embarrassed for being here.

Then there was the stage. There were three girls up on it, not even a thong to share between them. They were undulating and grinding against one another. I only spared them a two-second glance before I looked away.

Sometimes I really hated dealing with demons.

"How do we get backstage from here?" I asked, having to raise my voice over the din of dance music.
 

"Follow me," Alyx said. I expected her to be amused by my modesty. Instead, she seemed bothered that I was being subjected to the display. Was that progress?

We made our way off the left of the stage to a guarded and locked door. The guard recognized Alyx and slid his access key across the reader before we had even arrived. We went through without slowing.

I thought the floor of the club was bad. Behind it was even worse. There were private booths here, open out into the corridor we walked along, where patrons were receiving special attention from the dancers. I was sure most of it was illegal, and I did my best to ignore the sights, sounds and smells as we cleared that area and reached the offices behind.

"Are you okay?" Alyx asked.

I nodded. "I just hope Hell is nothing like this."

We kept walking until we reached a heavier steel door. Alyx pushed it open, and we descended some steps, heading down into a sub-basement below the place.
 

I could hear voices ahead of us as we entered a dingy, earthy corridor. Alyx came to stop.

"Cabal is in with Damien. Damn it."

"What do you want to do?"

"Did you come up with another way to pay for the trip?"

"Yeah." Elyse wasn't going to like it.

"Then let's get this done." She started forward again.
 

The voices gained in volume as we drew nearer to another door, this one made of stone and covered with demonic runes. One of the voices was a booming bass, the other equally loud and scratchy. The two demons were so busy yelling at one another that they didn't notice immediately when Alyx pulled the door open.

I didn't know which demon was which. They were both around six feet and thick with muscle, dressed in silk shirts and nice pants. They were arguing in the center of a ring of runed stones on a dirt floor. A Hell Rift.

"How many times I got to tell you to keep your hands off?" the deep-voiced one was saying to the other. "Girls start getting hurt in my club, they tell their friends, and before you know it I can't get any decent talent in here."

"She came on to me. What was I supposed to do?"

"You say every girl I bring in comes onto you."

"Well, they-" His eyes flicked over to Alyx, and he stopped talking. The other one noticed a moment later.

"Alyx," he said. "What a pleasant surprise."

"You're a terrible liar, Cabal," Alyx said, identifying the demons for me.
 

"Okay. Truth is you're the last thing I wanted to see in my joint. Your husband is looking for you."

"He isn't my husband," Alyx said.

"Whatever. I don't care about that stuff. I do care that he told me he would burn everything I own if you turned up and I let you walk."

"Like you could stop me?"

Cabal smiled. "Yeah, I didn't tell your husband that, not that he would have listened anyway. Just walk and I'll pretend I never saw you."

"Sorry, I can't. My new master wants to hire you."

His eyebrows raised at that statement. So did mine. How many times did I have to tell her not to call me master?

"Oh," he said, noticing me for the first time. "You aren't talking about this thing, are you? It isn't even strong enough to have an aura."

I didn't like the way he called me "it." I gathered my power, using it to throw him to the wall and pin him there. Damien tried to come to his master's defense, but Alyx stepped in front of him, turning one of her hands into a large claw.

"Have a little respect for the diuscrucis," she said.

His eyes widened, and he looked at me a little closer. "You're him?" he asked.

I let him go. "Yes."

"You have a knack for getting mixed up with interesting individuals," Damien said.

"Better him than Espanto," Alyx said. "That's why I'm not afraid of that asshole. I'm under Landon's protection. He's my true mate."

I could see the jealousy in Damien's eyes. Cabal just laughed. "How come Espanto didn't tell me you ran off with the diuscrucis?"

It was because he wouldn't have remembered how Alyx left. Only that she had.

"I need a ride, and a guide," I said.

"From me?" Cabal asked. "Where to?"

"You're standing in it."

He laughed again, harder. "You want to go to Hell?"

"Want? No. Need? Yes."

"Why would I help you get there?"

"I can pay."

"Oh? What do you have?"

I clenched my teeth while I removed the stone from my pocket and summoned the sword. "You can have this after we get back."

"Before you go," Cabal said, his eyes lighting up. "That thing is legendary."

"No. I might need it while I'm there."

"What if you don't come back?"

"I will."

He considered for a few seconds. "Deal. Damien was about to go out on a run. You can tag along. He'll get you where you need to go, and if you survive he'll bring you back."

"Fair enough. Don't even think about double-crossing me. I'm not an easy one to get rid of."

"Wouldn't dream of it," Cabal said. "I like my head attached to my neck. You want to seal it in blood?"

"Not necessary. I'll take your word."

"You have it. Damien, make sure the diuscrucis here comes back alive. I want that sword."

"Yes, master," Damien said.

"If Espanto comes back here, you haven't seen me," Alyx said.

"Of course not," Cabal replied. "Step aside and we'll get you on your way."

We cleared the circle. Damien vanished from the room while Cabal drew some additional runes on the wall by slicing open his hand with a knife and dipping his finger in the blood.

"What are those for?" I asked.

"I'm binding Alyx to this Rift," he said. "I can't have you deciding to take another path back here and getting away without giving up either her or the sword."

"Nobody said anything about this."

"You don't want to go; you don't have to."

"Give me a break, Cabal. We both know when we come back Espanto is going to be here waiting for us."

He shrugged. "Chance you got to take, diuscrucis. I thought you were a tough guy?"

I glared at him. Alyx squeezed my arm and leaned in to whisper to me. "It'll be okay."

"No, it won't be," I whispered back. "If we come back through that Rift, and Espanto is here, you'll be back under his control. I can't fight both of you alone."

"You can take a different path."

"And leave you with him? Not a chance."

"Won't you come to save me again?"

"Of course I would, but-"

"But what?"

My mind flashed back to the meat locker in China, to the sight of Espanto's brand and Alyx's story about how he used her. It wasn't an uncommon thing amongst demons, and I had become numb to it most of the time. Not with Alyx. I couldn't stand the thought of his hands on her body.

"If I don't do this, then I'm hindering you again," she said.

Damn. Why did my words always get me in trouble?
 

"Well?" Cabal asked.

Alyx pulled away from me before I could respond, using a claw to cut her other hand open. Cabal dipped a finger in it and finished the rune. It burst into flame, and I could feel the demonic energy pass between the circle and Alyx, binding her to it.
 

I suddenly felt guilty for not doing more to stop her.

"Even if you take another Rift, she'll be passed here through the Nether," Cabal said. "There's no way around it, so you can either come with or leave her behind. Either way I get paid."

Damien returned to the room, three more fiends trailing behind him. They arranged themselves around the circle with Cabal. Apparently, the fiend wasn't strong enough to activate the Hell Rift on his own.

"Damien, don't forget to make the pickup. This isn't just a sightseeing tour."

"Of course, Master," Damien replied.

The four fiends knelt, putting their hands on the stones and whispering. A moment later, a ring of fire enveloped the edge of the circle.

"Let's go, diuscrucis," Damien said. "Ladies first."

Alyx looked back at me, her eyes apologetic, before stepping into the Rift and vanishing.
 

A moment later, I did the same.

The trip between Earth and Hell was instant. One second I was in Cabal's subterranean lair, and the next I was much, much further down.

Of course, that wasn't an accurate description of where Hell existed. At all. It felt like an eternity since Josette had explained the physics to me. My version was that each realm was in its own plane, stacked together like a hamburger. Purgatory was the cheese melted on top of the mortal realm while Heaven and Hell were the buns. From what Cabal had said, I guess there was another layer called the Nether. That would be the mayo, or the mustard, depending on how they build burgers wherever you happened to be from.

In any case, we had arrived. I tested my power before I even considered looking around, not wholly convinced that it would translate.

It did.

"Are you okay?" Alyx asked, taking my arm again.

"I am right now. I'm not thrilled about what will happen when we're done here."

"I'm sorry, Landon. There was no other way. You need to do this."

"I wish I didn't."

I finally noticed our surroundings. If the walls of the room hadn't been darker and clear of runes, I wouldn't have known we had gone anywhere.

"I have to say, if this is Hell, I'm a little underwhelmed," I said.

"Please," Damien said. "You see one tiny little crap room, and you think you know anything?"

He smiled, showing a mouth full of sharp teeth that he didn't have topside.

Then he tried to hit me.

I was caught by surprise. Even so, I still managed to shift my feet, grab his punch, and keep going with his momentum, throwing him hard into the wall. He hit it with a grunt, and then turned and came at me again.

By then, I had the spatha out, and I summoned it just in time to leave the blade an inch from his chest.

"What the hell was that?" I asked.

"Just testing you out. You need to be quick to survive as a free soul out here."

I glanced over at Alyx, who hadn't moved a muscle. "You knew this was coming?"

She nodded. "I could smell his aggression. I knew you would be fine."

I let the spatha go back to the lettuce, or the tomato, or wherever it went when it wasn't in use. I pocketed the stone again.
 

"Lead the way," I said to Damien.

He headed for the exit, and we followed. We moved through dark corridors, up a flight of iron stairs, and back out into what was still a club. It resembled the club we had left somewhat, but it seemed as though it had been passed through a strangely distorted filter. It was still vice, but it had changed into something darker and more sinister.

There were girls up on the stage. They were still naked. They were still bumping and grinding. The music they moved to was discordant, off-tempo, like listening to the Beatles in reverse. They clawed and bit at one another, tearing into one another's flesh and drawing blood.

The patrons of the place had their eyes on them, but they didn't all seem to be watching. Most looked disheveled and downtrodden; their eyes glazed over with a look of utter hopelessness. There were a few demons in the club, a fiend and a pair of devils. They weren't like the kind that existed on Earth. They were bigger and more imposing. I noticed them noticing us.