Rhyn's Redemption (13 page)

“To influence Kris,” Rhyn said. “Gabe, we can talk on the way.”

“Rhyn, don’t leave me here,” Toby said again.

“You’ll be fine. Jared, move Hannah in with Toby. If you touch one hair on any of them, I’ll -”

“I understand, half-breed,” Jared said. “I don’t want to be here when Darkyn gets back.”

“We’ll come back before then.”

Rhyn left the cell block to Toby’s protests and walked with Gabe through the antechamber and into the hallway on the other side.  Gabe’s gaze was dark, his air brooding.  Rhyn opened a portal, and they crossed through to Gabe’s cabin in the underworld.

“I left her near a stream,” Gabe said, looking around. “But I don’t know where the demons would’ve taken her.”

“We’re not going after Katie,” Rhyn said again.

“Death will crush us and hopefully, any demons in her domain.”

“If we find her, we can stop her before she takes Katie.  We don’t know what the demons are doing, but we know Death is looking for Katie.”

“She’ll find Katie before us, if she hasn’t already,” Gabe agreed. “But seriously, Rhyn, no one bargains with Death and wins.”

“I’ll deal with that when we find her.  Take us to Death.”

Gabe sighed before striking off into the jungle. His walk turned to a trot and then a run.  Rhyn ran after him, feeling alive as they raced through the enchanted forest towards a fate he wasn’t entirely certain how to handle yet.

They ran until daylight then slowed.  Gabe followed a trail Rhyn couldn’t see that led them to a stream.  The assassin stopped and knelt to splash water on his face.

Rhyn looked around, wishing he could sense his mate.  She was alone in the underworld with a demon, a thought that made him incensed with the urge to find her.

“This stream leads to the Lake of Souls then beyond to Death’s fortress,” Gabe said and stood. “I told her to keep to the stream.  The demon probably picked her up between here and the Lake.”

Rhyn paced.  He still felt the need to find Death, that if he found her, she’d lead him to Katie.  They could wander the underworld for millennia without finding Katie, but Death … Death would know where she was.

“The underworld sucks much of our power out, like Hell,” the death-dealer said. “You should sit down and rest, Rhyn.”

“I don’t have time.”

“You have two days. We can find Death in two days.”

“It won’t matter if Darkyn gets to Katie first.”

“Or if Death changes her mind.”

“Changes her mind?”

“Two days ago, I had a dream where she told me you had four days to pass some sort of test.  I don’t need to tell you what happens if you don’t pass.”

“I can guess that bitch is pretty unforgiving,” Rhyn said. “And I imagine, if I don’t pass, she’ll take Katie.”

Gabriel met his gaze, and Rhyn ceased pacing.  Sensing his urgency, Gabriel stood.

“Let me check on something,” he said, striding away. “There are signs when Death is in her fortress.  I might be able to see the trees in their defensive positions from here.”

Rhyn watched his only friend trot into the jungle.  He resumed pacing, surprised when Gabe reappeared quickly. The death-dealer motioned for them to start walking along the stream.  Rhyn sprung forward, anxious to be moving again.

“What do you plan on doing when you find Death?”  Gabriel asked.

“Whatever it takes.”

“That’s a dangerous mindset to have when you go into a meeting with her.”

“I have no choice. I want my mate back, and I will destroy anyone in my path.”

“You know the Council needs you,” Gabriel said. “Kris can’t keep everyone together.  He needs your … charm.”

“I don’t give a shit, Gabe.”

“You should, Rhyn. If you get Katie back and the world goes to shit, all you’ve done is given her an Immortality of hell on earth.”

“I can do both.  I can protect her and the rest of humanity. I think … no, I know that’s what I’m meant to do.  I never knew that until I found Katie and I started to realize –“

“- you can use your demon powers for good.”

“I wouldn’t call killing things
good,”
Rhyn said. “But I’d only kill things that threatened those who couldn’t protect themselves.”

“You’d do what Andre did.”

“I suppose.”

“And your father.  Almost like you’re making up for your mother killing him and then Andre killing her,” Gabe said. “You’d almost be making things right, assuming you chose this role.”

. “All I care about is finding Katie, kicking Death’s ass and then going home, wherever Katie wants that to be. Whatever happens then - happens.” Rhyn said with a glance over his shoulder

“What if Death has her already, Rhyn?” Gabe asked. “What if you do succeed in forcing Death’s hand and she brings Katie back from the dead?  You’d tear the fabric of the universe and invite the demons to take control.  She’s all that stands between us and them.”

“Gods, Gabe. You’ve spent too much time with Death.  When did you learn to think?”

“Would you do it?  Would you kill Death or risk destroying the worlds for Katie?”

Rhyn froze.  The voice was Gabriel’s, but the assassin’s argument was unlike Gabe, who would know exactly what Rhyn would do after their conversation in Hell. In fact, the whole conversation seemed … off.

“Why?” he asked.

“I want to know what you’re getting us into.”

“You already know that.” He turned.

Gabriel was gone.  No one followed him, let alone spoke to him.  Rhyn looked around uneasily, wondering who – or what – he’d been speaking to.  He started back to the spot where they’d stopped for water.  A few minutes later, Gabriel reappeared.

“Follow the stream. We should reach the fortress in the morning.  It looks like she’s there,” Gabe reported.

Rhyn stared at him, looking for any sign the death-dealer wasn’t his friend.

“What, Rhyn?” Gabe asked.

“I just had a five minute talk with you.  But you weren’t here.”

Gabe frowned.

“Something about this place is fucked up.”

“It wasn’t just my voice? You saw me?” Gabe asked.

“Like I do now.”

A troubled look crossed the death-dealer’s features.

“What is it?” Rhyn asked, suspicion rising.

“Katie said something similar about seeing someone who wasn’t there.  From now on, we don’t separate.”

“Agreed.  Let’s walk.” Rhyn sensed there was more to Gabriel’s thought, but he wasn’t about to stand around talking when Katie was out there somewhere, being stalked by Death.

“What did the other me ask you?”

“If I’d kill Death to get Katie back.”

“And you said?”

“I turned around to look at you, and you were gone,” Rhyn said.

“That’s probably a good thing.  The last thing you want is Death’s spies telling her you’re coming to kill her.”

Gabe sounded more relieved than Rhyn thought the encounter warranted.  He looked closely at his friend, wondering what might be bothering him.

“Let’s get going,” Gabe said, avoiding his gaze.

“Lead on.”

Chapter Nine

Kris glanced up, expecting Kiki to enter his tent; however, it was one of his Immortal messengers who approached. The messenger held out a small thumb drive with what Kris hoped contained a report identifying the two shapeshifter demons.  He left, and Kris plugged the thumb drive into his small PDA.  A single file was on the drive, and he opened it.

It was blank. Puzzled, he pulled the drive free of his PDA and reinserted it.  The single file within was still empty.  Kris tossed it on a table.

“You’re a difficult creature to find.”

He lowered the PDA at the voice. The temperature of his tent seemed to drop by ten degrees. Rather than feel privileged by her visit, he felt his sense of foreboding grew stronger. The petite woman who materialized out of the shadows wasn’t what he expected.  Her flawless features were unremarkable, her large eyes turning colors faster than his. She wore white and smiled, more like a nursemaid than the woman whose job was to collect souls.

“It’s a pleasure, my lady,” he said, at once thrilled and uneasy that she’d finally acknowledged the leader of the Council That Was Seven.

“You’re getting ready to raid my underworld,” Death said, her glance falling to the rucksack beside his feet.

“Raid is a bit of an overstatement.”

“Trespass?”

He wasn’t sure what to say.  Andre had never spoken well of Death, but the woman in his tent seemed harmless. It was enough that she came to see him.

“It’s not a good idea,” she chided him. “Though lately, I’m surrounded by fools with bad ideas.”

“Is that why you’re here?” he asked. “To talk about my potential trespass?”

“As troubling as I find the latest trend of people entering my domain uninvited, I feel able to handle it. What I came to discuss with you was a dream you had.”

Kris drew a sharp breath, unaware that the deity could enter his dreams.

“The one where you died,” she added.

“I haven’t had that dream,” he said.

“Maybe you don’t remember it.”

“I would remember a dream where I died.”

“Humor me, Kris. Let’s pretend you had a dream where you died,” Death said. “It was a noble death for a good cause.”

The eerily familiar words – the same he’d spoken to Rhyn before sending him on the suicide mission – sapped Kris’s enthusiasm at Death’s visit.

“You will go down as legend among your people,” she continued. “That would please you, wouldn’t it?  Your legacy has been of concern to you.”

“No one wants a bad one,” he said carefully. “My reputation is important.”

“Which is why you hope to keep the Council together.”

“I hope to keep the Council together because it will do the most good.”

“Of course. It has nothing to do with living in Andre’s shadow your whole life and now having the chance to prove yourself,” she said with a faint smile. “Only you can’t do what Andre did, what Rhyn can do.”

“I’ve done it so far.” He bristled at the mention of Rhyn in the same sentence as Andre.  One half-brother had been noble, courageous, honorable, willing to sacrifice himself for their cause.  Rhyn was the opposite.

“Andre has only been dead-dead for what? A few weeks? And the Council has broken up at least once.”

“What are you saying?” Kris crossed his arms, looking hard at the deity. 

“I think I said it.”

“You want me to let the Council break apart.”

“That’s not quite what I’m saying.  I know you understand that great sacrifice is sometimes warranted for a greater good.  And what you might be learning is that the greater good also sometimes requires doing what might be called evil,” she said.

“Evil cannot be done in the name of good.”

“You buy assassinations from my death-dealers.  Maybe your definition of evil is different than mine.”

“I don’t have time for philosophy,” he said, growing irritated with her word play. “Are you here for any other purpose than to discuss my definition of good and evil?”

“I guess not.  Except … “ She trailed off, gazing around the tent.

“Except what?” he asked after a long pause.

“Several weeks ago, you bought two assignations from Gabriel.  Do you remember?”

Kris blinked, trying to figure out what the deity wanted. He thought for a moment, remembering. He’d paid in advance for two assignations after he began to suspect there was a traitor in his organization.  The second had been for Katie, in case she couldn’t be reasoned with. She was a risk for revealing the Immortal society to the human world or alerting the demons as to where Kris’s strongholds were.

“You remember,” Death said, reading his features. “You paid for two deaths.  Gabe came to collect, and those two lives … disappeared.  They’re in my underworld right now, running from me.”

“One was for Katie. But who was the second?  Rhyn killed Jade when he attacked me.  He was the traitor operating beneath my nose.”

“What a broken heart will make a person do.”

“So he wasn’t the second,” Kris said, ignoring her mocking reference to his former lover, Jade.

“Rhyn’s daughter was the second.”

“Rhyn’s … “ Kris’s thoughts flew from Katie to another woman, Lilith, who long ago had been pregnant with his own son.  She – and the child – had died at Rhyn’s hands, which was the catalyst for Andre sending Rhyn to Hell.

Death’s words made the air in the room feel heavy.  Kris sat down at the table.

“Think about that when you enter my domain,” Death said.

“I settled an old debt and didn’t even know it.”

“That’s one way of looking at things,” she said. “Kris, what if I said you could have anything in the world from me?  A favor.  A wish granted. Whatever you want to call it. What would you ask for?”

Her bizarre changes of subject made him understand why Andre hadn’t liked dealing with her.  Was there hidden meaning in her words? Or was she a bored deity there to mess with him?

“I don’t have time for this,” he said and rose.

“Answer me, Kris.  What is your deepest desire?”

“To be more powerful, so I can wipe out my enemies and force my brothers to stay in the Council.”

“I can’t help you there.”